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Most line editors like readline (used by bash, gdb...), libedit (used by BSD shells or (optionally) dash), zle (used by zsh) when in vi mode, tcsh, behave like vi in that regard and when in emacs mode behave like the tty line discipline (not emacs).

An exception is libedit and tcsh in emacs mode that do behave like emacs where ^W deletes to the mark (initially at the beginning of the buffer).

In the tcsh school (tcsh, libedit, zsh), word motions are based on whitespace-delimited words so are consistent with ^W in that regard.

Some line editors like readline (used by bash, gdb...), zle (used by zsh), pdksh's when in vi mode, behave like vi in that regard and when in emacs mode behave like the tty line discipline (not emacs).

libedit (used by BSD shells or (optionally) dash), tcsh, AT&T ksh, in emacs mode, behave like emacs where ^W deletes to the mark (initially at the beginning of the buffer).

In the tcsh school (tcsh, libedit, zsh), word motions are based on whitespace-delimited words so are consistent with the tty line discipline's ^W in that regard.

As to what the Meta key is, see there.

An exception is libedit and tcsh in emacs mode where ^W deletes to the beginning of the buffer.

An exception is libedit and tcsh in emacs mode that do behave like emacs where ^W deletes to the mark (initially at the beginning of the buffer).