17-letter words containing a, s, t, r, w
- northwest passage — a ship route along the Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- observation tower — lookout, observation point
- of its own accord — If something happens of its own accord, it seems to happen by itself, without anyone making it happen.
- one-time password — (security) (OTP) A security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. OTP generates passwords using either the MD4 or MD5 hashing algorithms. The equivalent term "S/Key", developed by Bellcore, is a trademark of Telcordia Technologies, so the name OTP is used increasingly. See RFC 1760 - "The S/KEY One-Time Password System" and RFC 1938 - "A One-Time Password System".
- out of harm's way — If someone or something is out of harm's way, they are in a safe place away from danger or from the possibility of being damaged.
- pacific northwest — the region of North America lying north of the Columbia River and west of the Rockies
- private ownership — the fact of being owned by a private individual or organization, rather than by the state or a public body
- quality newspaper — a more serious newspaper which gives detailed accounts of world events, as well as reports on business, culture, and society
- radioactive waste — the radioactive by-products from the operation of a nuclear reactor or from the reprocessing of depleted nuclear fuel.
- saint john's wort — any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Hypericum, having yellow flowers and transparently dotted leaves.
- sanitation worker — a person employed to collect, haul away, and dispose of garbage.
- scattered showers — showers that are scattered across an area, or that occur at intervals throughout the day
- seaweed marquetry — marquetry having the form of symmetrical, foliate scrolls, as on English cabinetwork of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
- september weather — weather characteristic of the month of September, esp in being unpredictable as summer is ending and autumn is beginning
- shower attachment — a device fixed to taps to make a shower
- slap on the wrist — a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
- social networking — the development of social and professional contacts; the sharing of information and services among people with a common interest.
- social notworking — the practice of spending time unproductively on social networking websites, esp when one should be working
- software engineer — a person who writes computer programs
- software platform — a major piece of software, as an operating system, an operating environment, or a database, under which various smaller application programs can be designed to run.
- south west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- south-west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- spaghetti western — a low-budget western movie shot in Italy or Spain, usually with Italian actors and an American star.
- store and forward — to store (information) in a computer for later forward transmission through a telecommunication network
- straw in the wind — If you say that an incident or piece of news is a straw in the wind, you mean that it gives an indication of what might happen in the future.
- strawberry blonde — woman: with reddish fair hair
- strawberry tomato — the small, edible, tomato-like fruit of the plant Physalis pruinosa, of the nightshade family.
- sun-2 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc., based on the Motorola 68000. Followed by the Sun-3 Workstation.
- sun-3 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the 1980s, based on the Motorola 68020. Successor to the Sun-2 Workstation, followed by the Sun-4 Workstation. The Sun-3 had a custom MMU. A couple of mutant models used an entirely different architecture.
- sun-4 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the late 1980s[?], based on SPARC processors. The Sun-4 followed the Sun-3 Workstation. Later SPARC-based workstations were called "SPARCstations".
- swainson's thrush — a North American thrush, Catharus ustulatus, having olive upper parts and wintering south to Argentina.
- swash plate motor — a collar or face plate on a shaft that is inclined at an oblique angle to the axis of rotation and converts reciprocating motion to rotation
- sweet mock orange — the syringa, Philadelphus coronarius.
- teaching software — computer software for use in providing online education
- tennessee warbler — a North American wood warbler, Vermivora peregrina, having a gray head, a greenish back, and white underparts.
- test the water(s) — to explore a possible course of action; approach initially
- the lower animals — relatively simple or primitive animals and not mammals or vertebrates
- the lower mammals — relatively simple or primitive mammals
- the new jerusalem — the de facto capital of Israel (recognition of this has been withheld by the United Nations), situated in the Judaean hills: became capital of the Hebrew kingdom after its capture by David around 1000 bc; destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 bc; taken by the Romans in 63 bc; devastated in 70 ad and 135 ad during the Jewish rebellions against Rome; fell to the Arabs in 637 and to the Seljuk Turks in 1071; ruled by Crusaders from 1099 to 1187 and by the Egyptians and Turks until conquered by the British (1917); centre of the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, when the Arabs took the old city and the Jews held the new city; unified after the Six Day War (1967) under the Israelis; the holy city of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Pop: 693 200 (2003 est)
- the winter season — the season of the year that covers the winter months
- thirty years' war — the war, often regarded as a series of wars (1618–48), in central Europe, initially involving a conflict between German Protestants and Catholics and later including political rivalries with France, Sweden, and Denmark opposing the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.
- three-strikes law — a law that mandates a life sentence to a felon convicted for the third time.
- throat sweetbread — sweetbread (def 2).
- tiger swallowtail — a yellow swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, of eastern North America, having the forewings striped with black.
- to show your face — If you show your face somewhere, you go there and see people, although you are not welcome, are rather unwilling to go, or have not been there for some time.
- to test the water — If you test the water or test the waters, you try to find out what reaction an action or idea will get before you do it or tell it to people.
- twelve patriarchs — any of the sons of Jacob ((the twelve patriarchs),) from whom the tribes of Israel were descended.
- waist measurement — a measure of the circumference of the narrowest part of a person's waist
- wall street crash — the dramatic collapse of share prices on the New York Stock Exchange in October 1929, an important factor in the early stages of the Depression