In XFree86 3.3.6, M-d in an Xaw text widget (e.g., the edit widget of "xedit") deletes a word forward as it should. But this key binding no longer works in xedit or any other Xaw text widget in XFree86 4.0-0.8. Other Meta key bindings, e.g., M-DEL, M-b, M-f, work just fine.
I found the problem. In these lines in lib/Xaw/TextTr.c: "~s m<Key>D:" "kill-word(alnum)\n" ... "~s m<Key>H:" "backward-kill-word(alnum)\n" The upper case 'D' and 'H' should be replaced with lower-case 'd' and 'h'.
Fixed in 4.0-0.21