• Conformable 3D Wazwaz-Benjamin-Bona-Mahony (3D-WBBM) equation is studied. • A variety of nonlinear dynamical solitary wave structures are extracted. • Bell shaped, shock, singular and multiple soliton are reported. • Generalized exponential rational function method (GERFM) is considered. • The physical characterization of results graphically in 3D, 2D are figured out. In this article, we elucidate the dynamical behavior of exact solitary waves to the conformable 3D Wazwaz-Benjamin- Bona-Mahony (3D-WBBM) equation emerging in shallow water waves. A variety of nonlinear dynamical solitary wave structures are extracted in different shapes like hyperbolic, trigonometric, and exponential function solutions including some special known solitary wave solution like bell shaped, shock, singular and multiple soliton by an analytical mathematical tool namely the generalized exponential rational function method (GERFM). Besides, we also secure singular periodic wave solutions with unknown parameters. All the secured solutions are verified by substituting back to the original equation through soft computation Mathematica. The outcomes show that the governing model theoretically possesses extremely rich structures of exact solitary wave solutions. The physical characterization of some reported results are figured out graphically in 3D, 2D and their corresponding contour profiles by selecting appropriate values of parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]