<p>The fundamental aspects behind corner phenomena in wire-cut electrical discharge machining are investigated. Understanding corner cutting in WEDM is very crucial for achieving a precise corner profile. The influence of variation in cutting speed on wire lag, spark gap, sparking frequency, gap voltage, and current has been studied, and regression analysis has also been carried out. A mathematical model based on cutting speed variation at the corner has been developed to predict the wire path at different angles during corner cutting by considering the wire bending phenomena due to gap force. Based on this model, a computer program has been designed to estimate the variation of sparking frequency, gap voltage, and current during corner cutting. To validate the proposed model, experimentation has been carried out. A strong correlation is observed between the experimental data and the predicted data. Finally, based on the proposed model, the corner geometry has been predicted and compared with the actual profile data obtained from a contour measuring instrument. It was observed that the predicted profile matches extremely well with the actual job profile. Thus, it is evident that this model is quite accurate and can be successfully utilized for high accuracy profile generation in WEDM.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>