15-letter words containing a, w, o, r, l
- sam browne belt — a sword belt having a supporting strap over the right shoulder, formerly worn by officers in the U.S. Army, now sometimes worn as part of the uniform by police officers, guards, and army officers in other nations.
- seasonal worker — a worker who is employed for a particular period of the year, such as harvest, or Christmas
- senior wrangler — (at Cambridge University) a candidate who has obtained first-class honours in Part II of the mathematics tripos and got the highest marks
- short-eared owl — a streaked, buffy brown, cosmopolitan owl, Asio flammeus, having very short tufts of feathers on each side of the head.
- shoulder weapon — a firearm that is fired while being held in the hands with the butt of the weapon braced against the shoulder.
- southeastwardly — toward the southeast
- southwestwardly — toward the southwest
- stalactite work — (in Islamic architecture) intricate decorative corbeling in the form of brackets, squinches, and portions of pointed vaults.
- starfish flower — carrion flower (def 2).
- streamline flow — the flow of a fluid past an object such that the velocity at any fixed point in the fluid is constant or varies in a regular manner.
- sunflower state — Kansas (used as a nickname).
- swallow-tanager — a tropical American bird, Tersina viridis, related to the true tanagers but with longer, swallowlike wings.
- sword swallower — performer who puts swords in throat
- sword-swallower — a performer who simulates the swallowing of swords
- talcum (powder) — a powder for the body and face made of powdered, purified talc, usually perfumed
- tall meadow rue — a meadow rue, Thalictrum polygamum.
- 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 rule of law — the principle that no one is above the law and that everyone must follow the law
- thorndike's law — the principle that all learnt behaviour is regulated by rewards and punishments, proposed by Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), US psychologist
- to draw a blank — If you draw a blank when you are looking for someone or something, you do not succeed in finding them.
- 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
- two-star petrol — leaded petrol that has a low octane number; inferior leaded petrol
- 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
- 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)
- 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.
- weather balloon — sounding balloon.
- wee small hours — the hours just after midnight
- welfare officer — a person who gives people help and advice
- well trajectory — The well trajectory is the direction in which the well is drilled.
- well-elaborated — worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness: elaborate preparations; elaborate care. Synonyms: perfected, painstaking. Antonyms: simple.
- well-formulated — to express in precise form; state definitely or systematically: He finds it extremely difficult to formulate his new theory.
- wentworth scale — a scale for specifying the sizes (diameters) of sedimentary particles, ranging from clay particles (less than 1⁄256 mm) to boulders (over 256 mm)
- west carrollton — a town in W Ohio.
- west hartlepool — a former borough, now part of Hartlepool, in Cleveland County, in NE England, at the mouth of the Tees.
- wheelchairbound — Confined to a wheelchair.
- wilderness road — a 300-mile (500-km) route from eastern Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, explored by Daniel Boone in 1769 and marked as a trail by him and other pioneers in 1775: a major route for early settlers moving west.
- windfall profit — a profit that arises thanks to an external event over which the person profiting had no control
- winter holidays — a period of rest from work or studies taken in winter
- wolf-rayet star — a very hot (35,000–100,000 K) and luminous star in the early stages of evolution, with broad emission lines in its spectrum.
- wolverine state — Michigan (used as a nickname).
- working capital — the amount of capital needed to carry on a business.