How do I delete a word under the cursor?

Explanation

The diw command deletes the inner word under the cursor. This is one of Vim's text object commands, where d is the delete operator and iw is the "inner word" text object.

How it works

• d triggers the delete operator
• iw selects the inner word (the word under the cursor, excluding surrounding whitespace)

Example

Given the text:

The quick brown fox

With the cursor on quick, pressing diw results in:

The  brown fox

The word is removed but the surrounding spaces remain. Compare with daw ("a word"), which also removes one adjacent space.

Tips

• Use ciw to delete the word and enter insert mode in one step
• Use yiw to yank (copy) the word without deleting
• Works with any operator: gUiw to uppercase, guiw to lowercase