16-letter words containing f, a, s
- transverse flute — the normal orchestral flute, as opposed to the recorder (or fipple flute)
- two-family house — a house designed for occupation by two families in contiguous apartments, as on separate floors.
- 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.
- unfair dismissal — wrongful firing from a job
- utility software — system software that manages and optimizes the performance of hardware
- velcro fastening — a fastening made of Velcro
- visiting fireman — an influential person accorded special treatment while visiting an organization, industry, city, etc.
- visual interface — (tool, text) (vi) /V-I/, /vi:/, *never* /siks/ A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD release. vi became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favourite outside of MIT until the rise of Emacs after about 1984. It tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has often heard the editor's name pronounced /vi:l/). Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even some Emacs fans resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of Emacs). See holy wars.
- war of secession — American Civil War.
- way of all flesh — a novel (1903) by Samuel Butler.
- way of the cross — stations of the cross.
- weather forecast — meteorological prediction
- welfare benefits — financial assistance; social security payment
- welfare payments — government benefits
- welfare services — services that provide help with people's living conditions and financial problems
- windfall profits — Windfall profits are excessive profits with a non-business cause such as a natural disaster.
- wire-transferred — to transmit (money or credit) by wire transfer.
- woman of letters — a woman engaged in literary pursuits, especially a professional writer.
- women's suffrage — right of adult females to vote
- world federalism — federalism on a worldwide level.
- world federalist — a promoter or supporter of world federalism.
- writ of subpoena — a legal document commanding the attendance in court, as a witness, of the person on whom it is served, under a penalty