A wordmark (also called a logotype) is a logo built entirely from the business's name, styled through custom or heavily customized typography, with no separate icon or symbol attached.
Wordmarks work best for businesses with a short, distinctive name worth building recognition around directly — the typography itself becomes the visual identity, carrying tone through letterforms, spacing and weight rather than through imagery.
The trade-off is flexibility: without an icon, a wordmark has fewer options for a compact "mark-only" application, like a small app icon or a favicon, unless a simplified monogram is developed alongside it.