Monodisperse water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions are widely used in the numerous fields including foods, cosmetics, pharmaceutics and synthesis of polymeric microspheres and microcapsules and so on. The main methods and fundamental principles for preparing monodisperse W/O emulsions were summarized in this paper. Moreover, applications of monodisperse W/O in the synthesis of monodisperse thermo-sensitive and biodegradable polymeric microspheres and microcapsules were also introduced briefly. This paper is anticipated to provide some guidance for the fabrication of monodisperse W/O emulsions.