Walter William Skeat, FBA (21 November 1835 – 6 October 1912) was a British philologist and Anglican deacon.

The pre-eminent British philologist of his time, he was instrumental in developing the English language as a higher education subject in the United Kingdom.

Skeat is best known for his work in Middle English, and for his standard editions of Chaucer and William Langland's Piers Plowman.

[11] In pure philology, Skeat's principal achievement was his An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (4 parts, 1879–1882; rev., and enlarged, 1910).

[7] While preparing the dictionary, he wrote hundreds of short articles on word origins for the London-based journal Notes and Queries.

Yet his lectures were eagerly followed by the fit though few; they were always interesting when least utilitarian, when he forgot examinations and syllabuses, and poured forth from the quaint storehouse of his motley memory things new and old.

Like Henry Sweet, Skeat regarded Geoffrey Chaucer and other medieval English authors as part of his national heritage and objected to German scholars publishing works on them.