15-letter words containing a, w, s
- spotted cowbane — a North American water hemlock, Cicuta maculata, of the parsley family, having a purple-mottled stem, white flowers, and deadly poisonous, tuberlike roots.
- spread the word — make others aware
- stacking swivel — a metal swivel attached to the stock of a military rifle for use in hooking three rifles together to form a stack.
- stalactite work — (in Islamic architecture) intricate decorative corbeling in the form of brackets, squinches, and portions of pointed vaults.
- stand in awe of — to respect and fear
- starfish flower — carrion flower (def 2).
- stationary wave — standing wave.
- stephen hawking — Stephen William, born 1942, English mathematician and theoretical physicist.
- straightforward — going or directed straight ahead: a straightforward gaze.
- strawberry bass — the black crappie. See under crappie.
- strawberry bush — an E North American shrub or small tree, Euonymus americanus, having pendulous capsules that split when ripe to reveal scarlet seeds: family Celastraceae
- strawberry dish — a shallow, circular fruit dish with a fluted or pierced border.
- strawberry mark — a small, reddish, slightly raised birthmark.
- strawberry roan — a horse with a reddish coat that is liberally flecked with white hairs.
- strawberry tree — an evergreen shrub or tree, Arbutus unedo, of the heath family, native to southern Europe, bearing a scarlet, strawberrylike fruit.
- 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.
- subminimum wage — See example at subminimum (def 1).
- sunflower state — Kansas (used as a nickname).
- swainson's hawk — a migratory hawk, Buteo swainsoni, of western North America, that winters in southern South America.
- swallow-tanager — a tropical American bird, Tersina viridis, related to the true tanagers but with longer, swallowlike wings.
- swamp white oak — an oak, Quercus bicolor, of eastern North America, yielding a hard, heavy wood used in shipbuilding, for making furniture, etc.
- sweating system — the practice of employing workers in sweatshops.
- swedish massage — a massage employing techniques of manipulation and muscular exercise systematized in Sweden in the 19th century.
- sweep the board — (in gambling) to win all the cards or money
- sweet chocolate — cocoa product with high sugar content
- sweetheart deal — any agreement in which a public body offers unduly favourable terms to a private company or individual
- swellheadedness — the fact or state of being conceited
- swing both ways — to enjoy sexual partners of both sexes
- 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 issue with — disagree with
- 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.
- test the waters — assess or evaluate sth
- thankworthiness — the state or quality of being thankworthy or deserving thanks
- the cesarewitch — a long-distance horserace run each year in October at Newmarket racecourse
- the lower ranks — people who have a low rank in a military organization
- thorndike's law — the principle that all learnt behaviour is regulated by rewards and punishments, proposed by Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), US psychologist
- titius-bode law — Bode's law.
- to sow gapeseed — to stare in a gaping manner instead of attending to business
- touch base with — the bottom support of anything; that on which a thing stands or rests: a metal base for the table.
- 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.
- training wheels — a pair of small wheels attached one on each side of the rear wheel of a bicycle for stability while one is learning to ride.
- transfer window — the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other teams into their own
- transverse wave — a wave in which the direction of displacement is perpendicular to the direction of propagation, as a surface wave of water.
- troubled waters — a confused or chaotic state of affairs: The situation was terrible, but like many politicians he was attracted by troubled waters.
- twelve apostles — the twelve disciples chosen by Jesus to go forth to teach the gospel
- twist one's arm — to combine, as two or more strands or threads, by winding together; intertwine.
- two-dimensional — having the dimensions of height and width only: a two-dimensional surface.
- two-star petrol — leaded petrol that has a low octane number; inferior leaded petrol