AbstractThis article sets out to review English for specific purposes (ESP) as a discipline and its conceptual and scholarly connections with the world Englishes (WE) approach English worldwide. This is done partly through a detailed literature review of articles on ESP in the Asian and European regions, taken from the journal English for Specific Purposes, identifying which countries and topics are most frequently represented in this leading publication. The later sections of the article go on to explore the disciplinary interface between ESP and world Englishes, with reference to the potential contributions of both disciplines to research on areas of shared interest, including English‐medium instruction (EMI) worldwide.