Why Is It Called 'Wiki'? — The Origin of the Term

Today, “wiki” is a generic term for any collaborative website. But it started as a single word borrowed from the Hawaiian language — “wiki wiki,” meaning “very fast” — chosen because the software made editing web pages so quick and easy that anyone could do it.

The Story

In 1994, programmer Ward Cunningham was thinking about how to make collaboration on the web more fluid. Email was too slow. Traditional web pages required too much technical knowledge to edit. He wanted something quick — a way for people to edit and link information together as easily as thinking.

He built a software application at the Portland Pattern Repository (a site for sharing software design patterns) that allowed anyone to edit any page through a web browser. It was revolutionary. When it came time to name the project, Cunningham remembered a Hawaiian phrase he had encountered: “wiki wiki,” meaning “very fast” or “quick.”

The double “wiki” in Hawaiian is an intensifier — “wiki” alone means “quick,” but “wiki wiki” means “very quick.” Cunningham thought it perfectly captured the experience of using his software. He named the first wiki “WikiWikiWeb” (sometimes called “Ward’s Wiki”), and the term “wiki” was born.

The first wiki was launched on March 25, 1995, on Cunningham’s company website, Cunningham & Cunningham (c2.com). It was the first website where visitors could edit content directly in their browser — a radical idea at a time when most web users couldn’t create their own pages.

How It Evolved

WikiWikiWeb was a hit among software developers and pattern enthusiasts. The concept spread quickly, and other wiki engines popped up. In 2001, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger launched Wikipedia — a wiki for building an encyclopedia — and the term “wiki” entered the mainstream vocabulary.

Wikipedia’s enormous success transformed “wiki” from a specific software name into a generic term for any collaborative website. Today, people say “I’ll look it up on the wiki” regardless of whether it’s Wikipedia, a corporate Confluence space, or a personal Obsidian vault. The term has been adopted into English as a noun (“check the wiki”), a verb (“I’ll wiki that”), and even an adjective (“wiki culture”).

The original WikiWikiWeb ran unchanged for decades, a monument to the early web, until it was eventually moved to a read-only archive in 2015. Modern wikis like Confluence, Notion, and Obsidian have evolved far beyond Cunningham’s vision, adding rich formatting, databases, and real-time collaboration, but the core idea remains the same: making information sharing quick and easy.

Did You Know?

The Hawaiian word “wiki” appears in other compound words like “wikiwiki” (very fast), “wikiwiki ʻana” (speed), and “wikiwiki lele” (jet). The choice of a Hawaiian word was intentional — Cunningham wanted a name that was culturally neutral and wouldn’t conflict with existing trademarks. There is also a “Wiki Wiki” bus line that operates at Honolulu International Airport, providing quick shuttle service between terminals.

FAQ

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