17-letter words containing e, a, r, n, i
- warsaw convention — a multilateral treaty on aviation set up chiefly to limit air carriers' liability to passengers and shippers on international flights in the event of an accident.
- washington square — a short novel (1881) by Henry James.
- weapons inspector — a person who inspects a country's weapons
- weather-resistant — resisting the effects of severe weather, as rain or cold: weather-resistant cloth for topcoats.
- wedding breakfast — meal served at wedding reception
- weeping lovegrass — any grass of the genus Eragrostis, as E. curvula (weeping lovegrass) and E. trichodes (sand lovegrass) cultivated as forage and ground cover.
- welfare economics — a branch of economics concerned with improving human welfare and social conditions chiefly through the optimum distribution of wealth, the relief or reduction of unemployment, etc.
- western australia — a state in W Australia. 975,920 sq. mi. (2,527,635 sq. km). Capital: Perth.
- westminster abbey — a Gothic church in London, England.
- wheatstone bridge — a circuit for measuring an unknown resistance by comparing it with known resistances.
- whiter than white — extremely clean and white
- wide area network — a computer network that spans a relatively large geographical area.
- wide-area network — a computer network that spans a relatively large geographical area.
- williams syndrome — an abnormality in the genes involved in calcium metabolism, resulting in learning difficulties
- wimshurst machine — a device for the production of electric charge by electrostatic induction, consisting of two oppositely rotating glass or mica disks carrying metal strips upon which charges are induced and subsequently removed by contact with metallic combs.
- winding staircase — long set of spiral stairs
- windscreen washer — a small nozzle on the bonnet of a motor vehicle, from which jets of water are squirted electronically onto the windscreen to help clean it
- wire entanglement — a barbed-wire obstacle, usually mounted on posts and zigzagged back and forth along a front, designed to channel, delay, or halt an advance by enemy foot soldiers.
- with a difference — If you describe a job or holiday, for example, as a job with a difference or a holiday with a difference, you mean that the job or holiday is very interesting and unusual.
- work-life balance — a situation in which one divides or balances one's time between work and activities outside of work: It's hard to achieve a reasonable work-life balance when you run your own business.
- working substance — a substance, usually a fluid, that undergoes changes in pressure, temperature, volume, or form as part of a process for accomplishing work.
- wrangell-mountain — Mount, an active volcano in SE Alaska, in the Wrangell Mountains. 14,006 feet (4269 meters).
- wring one's hands — If someone wrings their hands, they hold them together and twist and turn them, usually because they are very worried or upset about something. You can also say that someone is wringing their hands when they are expressing sorrow that a situation is so bad but are saying that they are unable to change it.
- x-ray examination — an examination of part of the body, using an X-ray machine
- xerox corporation — (company) A US company, founded in 1906, specialising in document related technology and services including photocopiers, printers and office software. Xerox's acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services added business process and document management to their product range. In 2013 they have 140,000 employees. Their research centre, XEROX PARC, prototyped several revolutionary advances in computing, which the company failed to exploit, including the WIMP desktop metaphor and XEROX Network Services.
- year in, year out — a period of 365 or 366 days, in the Gregorian calendar, divided into 12 calendar months, now reckoned as beginning Jan. 1 and ending Dec. 31 (calendar year or civil year) Compare common year, leap year.
- year of confusion — (in ancient Rome) the year of 445 days preceding the introduction, in 46 b.c., of the Julian calendar: lengthened to compensate for the cumulative errors of the Roman calendar.
- yellow journalism — a color like that of egg yolk, ripe lemons, etc.; the primary color between green and orange in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 570 and 590 nm.
- yesterday evening — during the evening of the day preceding today
- yesterday morning — during the morning of the day preceding today
- zonal pelargonium — a pelargonium whose leaves are marked with concentric circles of a different colour to the rest of the leaf
- zoological garden — zoo (def 1).