Various alumina/tungsten carbide based nanocomposites have been fabricated by spark plasma sintering and their wear properties have been investigated by performing ball-on-disk type wear test at room temperature under ambient environment. Our results reveal that the main facture behavior of the Al2O3/tungsten carbide composites sliding against Al2O3 balls is the plastic deformation. Crack formation and grain pull-out in the wear processes are responsible for lowering the wear rate. The Vickers hardness and toughness values are directly related to wear behavior of the composites that grounds Al2O3/WC to show lower wear rate on smoothly worn surface. •Various alumina/tungsten carbide based nanocomposites have been fabricated by spark plasma sintering.•Crack formation and grain pull-out in the wear processes are responsible for lowering the wear rate.•This study demonstrates a pathway to prepared anti-wear Al2O3/WC composite materials.