Amine/quaternary ammonium lignin for adsorption of tungsten was synthesized by amination and quaternization from lignin. The adsorbent was characterized by SEM-EDS and FTIR. The effects of pH, initial concentration of tungsten, adsorption time and dosage of adsorbent on the adsorption effect were investigated. The adsorption mechanism was revealed by SEM-EDS and FTIR and XPS. The results showed that amine/quaternary ammonium lignin was loose and rough and contained a large number of phenolic hydroxyl and amine and quaternary ammonium functional groups. Using the optimum conditions, which included the pH of 4.0 and initial tungsten concentration of 800 mg·L and adsorption time of 960 min, the saturated adsorption capacity of 1 g·L amine/quaternary ammonium lignin for tungsten reached 421.68 mg·g. The adsorption followed Langmuir model and quasi-second-order kinetic model, indicating that the adsorption was monolayer homogeneous chemisorption. When the total concentration of tungsten was 0.005 mol·L and the value of pH was smaller than 4.7, HWO was the existing form of tungsten and was adsorbed by electrostatic attraction of hydrogen bond and coordination with amino and ion exchange with Cl.