The invention relates to a method for pretreating coking wastewater by catalytic wet air oxidation. According to the method, the coking wastewater is treated by catalytic wet air oxidation with activate carbon or activate carbon load oxide and noble metal as catalysts under the conditions that the intermediate temperature is 100-180DEG C and the intermediate oxygen differential pressure is 0.1-1.5MPa. The biodegradability of the wastewater treated by adopting the technology is remarkably improved and the biochemical treatment dilution water and the biochemical burden are reduced. The intermediate temperature and the intermediate pressure are adopted in the invention, so that the temperature and the pressure for treating the coking wastewater by adopting the traditional catalytic wet air oxidation method are remarkably reduced and further the requirement of the method on the equipment is reduced and the method is beneficial to industrial application.