16-letter words containing a, w, o, r, l
- immigration laws — regulations on incoming foreigners
- jailhouse lawyer — a prisoner who has taught himself or herself law while serving time, is knowledgeable about technical legal matters, and gives legal advice, especially to fellow prisoners.
- javelin throwing — the sport of throwing the javelin
- kirchhoff's laws — the law that the algebraic sum of the currents flowing toward any point in an electric network is zero.
- law of parsimony — a principle according to which an explanation of a thing or event is made with the fewest possible assumptions.
- lawson criterion — (in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reactor) the requirement that in order for the energy produced by fusion to exceed the energy expended in causing the fusion, the product of the density of the fuel and the time during which it is confined at that density (Lawson product) must be greater than a certain number that depends on the kind of fuel used.
- lesser spearwort — a Eurasian ranunculaceous plant, R. flammula, of the genus Ranunculus, which grows in wet places and has long narrow leaves and yellow flowers
- little brown bat — any of several small to medium-sized common bats of the genera Myotis and Eptesicus, found worldwide in caves, trees, and buildings, including M. lucifugus (little brown bat) and E. fuscus (big brown bat) a widespread North American species.
- littoral warfare — military combat conducted in coastal areas.
- long-wire aerial — a travelling-wave aerial consisting of one or more conductors, the length of which usually exceeds several wavelengths
- lord howe island — an island in the S Pacific, E of Australia: a dependency of New South Wales. 5 sq. mi. (13 sq. km).
- lost-wax process — a process of investment casting in which a refractory mold is built up around a pattern of wax and then baked so as to melt and drain off the wax.
- low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
- lower california — Baja California.
- lower palatinate — See under Palatinate (def 1).
- luck of the draw — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
- magnolia warbler — a black and yellow wood warbler, Dendroica magnolia, of North America.
- maid of all work — a maid who does all types of housework
- mallowpuff māori — a Māori who is considered to behave like a white person
- man of the world — a man who is widely experienced in the ways of the world and people; an urbane, sophisticated man.
- molecular weight — the average weight of a molecule of an element or compound measured in units once based on the weight of one hydrogen atom taken as the standard or on 1/16 (0.0625) the weight of an oxygen atom, but after 1961 based on 1/12 (0.083) the weight of the carbon-12 atom; the sum of the atomic weights of all the atoms in a molecule. Abbreviation: mol. wt.
- network analysis — a mathematical method of analyzing complex problems, as in transportation or project scheduling, by representing the problem as a network of lines and nodes.
- new orleans jazz — the jazz originating in New Orleans from about 1914; traditional jazz
- on a world scale — in a way that involves the whole world
- optical tweezers — a laser device used to study, manipulate, or trap a microscopic object, as a microorganism or cell, with nanometer precision.
- overhead railway — elevated railroad.
- pearls of wisdom — good advice, wise words
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- powerpc platform — (architecture, standard) (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
- proposal writing — Extension of Fortran for proposal writing.
- pure watercolour — water-soluble pigment, applied in transparent washes and without the admixture of white pigment in the lighter tones
- rainbow lorikeet — a small Australasian parrot, Trichoglossus haematodus, with brightly-coloured plumage
- regional network — mid-level network
- rolled paperwork — a form of decoration on small objects, such as boxes, in which a design is made up of tiny rolls of paper cut crossways and laid together: popular in the 18th and 19th centuries
- rotary lawnmower — a lawn mower with a single blade attached in the middle that rotates as the mower is moved
- royal water lily — a water lily, Victoria amazonica (or V. regia), of the Amazon River and British Guiana, having floating leaves from three to six feet (0.9 to 1.8 meters) wide, the upturned margins from two to four inches (5 to 10 cm) high, and dull crimson flowers.
- second world war — World War II.
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
- slow metabolizer — A slow metabolizer is someone whose body is slow to break down, absorb, or use a particular substance.
- social darwinism — a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.
- software library — a collection of programs that are used to develop software
- spring snowflake — a European amaryllidaceous plant, Leucojum vernum, with white nodding bell-shaped flowers
- strawberry blond — reddish blond.
- teutoburger wald — a chain of wooded hills in Germany, in Westphalia: Romans defeated by German tribes a.d.
- throw for a loop — a portion of a cord, ribbon, etc., folded or doubled upon itself so as to leave an opening between the parts.
- throw oneself at — to propel or cast in any way, especially to project or propel from the hand by a sudden forward motion or straightening of the arm and wrist: to throw a ball.
- tightrope walker — performer who walks on high wire
- to draw the line — If you draw the line at a particular activity, you refuse to do it, because you disapprove of it or because it is more extreme than what you normally do.
- torricelli's law — the law that states that the speed of flow of a liquid from an orifice is equal to the speed that it would attain if falling freely a distance equal to the height of the free surface of the liquid above the orifice.
- twofold purchase — a purchase using a double standing block and a double running block so as to give a mechanical advantage of four or five, neglecting friction, depending on whether the hauling is on the standing block or the running block.