Well-crystallized barium tungstate (BaWO₄) powders with different morphologies were successfully synthesized via a simple microwave-assisted method. Single-crystalline BaWO₄ octahedral microparticles, which have to via a complicated microemulsion-mediated hydrothermal procedure in traditional method, have been obtained at 373 K for 20 min under microwave irradiation which no any additive agent solutions have been used. Flower-like BaWO₄ crystals and nanosized spherical BaWO₄ particals have been obtained under microwave irradiation via PVP and PEG-1000, respectively. Our experiments showed that temperature and time of microwave irradiation and the concentration of surfactants played important roles in the formation of  BaWO₄ with different morphology. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD),scanning electron microscope (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).