15-letter words containing a, r, o, w
- swallow-tanager — a tropical American bird, Tersina viridis, related to the true tanagers but with longer, swallowlike wings.
- sweep the board — (in gambling) to win all the cards or money
- swiss army code — (programming, humour) Code for an application that is suffering from feature creep. Swiss Army Code does many things, but does none of them well.
- sword swallower — performer who puts swords in throat
- sword-swallower — a performer who simulates the swallowing of swords
- take one's word — a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.
- talcum (powder) — a powder for the body and face made of powdered, purified talc, usually perfumed
- tall meadow rue — a meadow rue, Thalictrum polygamum.
- thankworthiness — the state or quality of being thankworthy or deserving thanks
- the lower karoo — one of the two divisions of the Karoo
- the lower ranks — people who have a low rank in a military organization
- the other woman — married man's female lover
- the outward man — the body as opposed to the soul
- the rule of law — the principle that no one is above the law and that everyone must follow the law
- the war-wounded — those people who have been injured or wounded by war
- the way forward — how to progress, what to do next
- the working man — working class people collectively
- the wrong track — the incorrect line of investigation, inquiry, etc
- thorndike's law — the principle that all learnt behaviour is regulated by rewards and punishments, proposed by Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), US psychologist
- throw overboard — to reject or abandon
- to carry weight — If a person or their opinion carries weight, they are respected and are able to influence people.
- to draw a blank — If you draw a blank when you are looking for someone or something, you do not succeed in finding them.
- tobacco budworm — the larva of a noctuid moth, Heliothis virescens, that damages the buds and young leaves of tobacco.
- tomato hornworm — the larva of a hawk moth, Manduca quinquemaculata, having a black, hornlike structure at the rear, that feeds on the leaves of tomato, potato, and other plants of the nightshade family.
- towers of hanoi — (games) A classic computer science problem, invented by Edouard Lucas in 1883, often used as an example of recursion. "In the great temple at Benares, says he, beneath the dome which marks the centre of the world, rests a brass plate in which are fixed three diamond needles, each a cubit high and as thick as the body of a bee. On one of these needles, at the creation, God placed sixty-four discs of pure gold, the largest disc resting on the brass plate, and the others getting smaller and smaller up to the top one. This is the Tower of Bramah. Day and night unceasingly the priests transfer the discs from one diamond needle to another according to the fixed and immutable laws of Bramah, which require that the priest on duty must not move more than one disc at a time and that he must place this disc on a needle so that there is no smaller disc below it. When the sixty-four discs shall have been thus transferred from the needle on which at the creation God placed them to one of the other needles, tower, temple, and Brahmins alike will crumble into dust, and with a thunderclap the world will vanish." The recursive solution is: Solve for n-1 discs recursively, then move the remaining largest disc to the free needle. Note that there is also a non-recursive solution: On odd-numbered moves, move the smallest sized disk clockwise. On even-numbered moves, make the single other move which is possible.
- transfer window — the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other teams into their own
- troubled waters — a confused or chaotic state of affairs: The situation was terrible, but like many politicians he was attracted by troubled waters.
- tweet you later — (on the Twitter website) goodbye; see you later
- twist one's arm — to combine, as two or more strands or threads, by winding together; intertwine.
- two-star petrol — leaded petrol that has a low octane number; inferior leaded petrol
- unseaworthiness — constructed, outfitted, manned, and in all respects fitted for a voyage at sea.
- upperclasswoman — An upperclasswoman is a junior or senior student in a high school, college, or university.
- upward mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- upwardly mobile — See under vertical mobility (def 1).
- völkerwanderung — the migration of peoples, esp of Germanic and Slavic peoples into S and W Europe from 2nd to 11th centuries
- w.h. richardson — Henry Handel (Henrietta Richardson Robertson) 1870–1946, Australian novelist.
- waddesdon manor — a mansion near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire: built (1880–89) in the French style for the Rothschild family: noted for its furnishings and collections of porcelain and paintings
- wager of battle — (in medieval Britain) a pledge to do battle for a cause, esp to decide guilt or innocence by single combat
- walk (all) over — to defeat overwhelmingly
- walloon brabant — a province of central Belgium, formed in 1995 from the S part of Brabant province: densely populated and intensively farmed, with large industrial centres. Pop: 360 717 (2004 est). Area: 1091 sq km (421 sq miles)
- warrant officer — (in the U.S. Armed Forces) an officer of one of four grades ranking above enlisted personnel and below commissioned officers.
- water authority — an official body which is responsible for providing water
- water pennywort — any of numerous perennial herbs of the genus Hydrocotyle, of the parsley family, having rounded leaves and living in water or marshy places.
- water pollution — the pollution of the sea and rivers
- waterfall model — (programming) A software life-cycle or product life-cycle model, described by W. W. Royce in 1970, in which development is supposed to proceed linearly through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation), integration and maintenance. The Waterfall Model is considered old-fashioned or simplistic by proponents of object-oriented design which often uses the spiral model instead. Earlier phases are sometimes called "upstream" and later ones "downstream". Compare: iterative model.
- waterford glass — fine cut or gilded glass made in Waterford, Ireland, having a slight blue cast due to the presence of cobalt.
- weapons carrier — a light truck for transporting weapons or munitions in the field.
- weather balloon — sounding balloon.
- weather station — an installation equipped and used for meteorological observation.
- weather through — to pass or go safely through a storm, peril, difficulty, etc.