A method for fault location to single-terminal traveling wave includes steps as follows. Step (a): recording a waveform of a traveling wave signal of disturbance by a traveling wave device when a line disturbance occurs. Step (b): performing a phase mode transformation on the waveform recorded by the step (a), so as to obtain components of line mode and zero mode of a fault initial traveling wave, and performing a wavelet transform to decompose the components of the line mode to obtain singularities in the waveform of the traveling wave. Step (c): calculating a wavefront slope k of the components of the line mode of the fault initial traveling wave. Step (d): computing a preliminary fault distance D according to the slope k computed in the step (c). Step (e): confirming a fault point according to the preliminary fault distance and wavelet singularities of the components of the line mode. Step (f): end.