12-letter words containing i, l, w
- władysław iv — 1595–1648, king of Poland (1632–48)
- wolf herring — a voracious clupeoid fish, Chirocentrus dorab, inhabiting the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans.
- wolf whistle — a wolf call made by whistling, often characterized by two sliding sounds, a peal up to a higher note and then one up to a lower note and down.
- wolf-ferrari — Ermanno [er-mahn-naw] /ɛrˈmɑn nɔ/ (Show IPA), 1876–1948, Italian composer.
- wolf-whistle — If someone wolf-whistles, they make a whistling sound with a short rising note and a longer falling note. Some men wolf-whistle at a woman to show that they think she is attractive, and some women find this offensive.
- wollastonite — a mineral, calcium silicate, CaSiO 3 , occurring usually in fibrous white masses.
- womb-leasing — bearing a child on behalf of a couple unable to have a child; surrogacy
- wonder child — an unusually intelligent or talented child; prodigy; wunderkind.
- wood's light — ultraviolet light filtered through glass containing nickel oxide, used in detecting forgeries, in detecting microbes in hair, etc.
- woolly aphid — any plant louse of the family Aphididae, characterized by a waxy secretion that appears like a jumbled mass of fine, curly, white cottony or woolly threads, as Eriosoma lanigerum (woolly apple aphid or American blight) and Prociphilus tessellatus (woolly alder aphid)
- working girl — Older Use: Often Offensive. a woman who works.
- working rail — fly rail (def 2).
- world savior — Saoshyant.
- world series — an annual series of games between the winning teams of the two major leagues: the first team to win four games being champions of the U.S.
- world spirit — (often initial capital letters) God.
- world war ii — the war between the Axis and the Allies, beginning on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland and ending with the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945, and of Japan on August 14, 1945. Abbreviation: WWII.
- world's fair — a large international exposition with exhibitions of arts, crafts, industrial and agricultural products, scientific achievements, etc.
- worldly-wise — wise as to the affairs of this world.
- wormseed oil — chenopodium oil.
- worshipfully — In a worshipful manner; reverentially.
- wranglership — (at Cambridge University) the position of a wrangler
- wusuli jiang — Ussuri.
- yellow birch — a North American birch, Betula alleghaniensis (or B. lutea), having yellowish or silvery gray bark.
- yellow daisy — the black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta.
- yellow light — a yellow traffic light, usually preceding a signal halting traffic in a particular direction.
- yellow peril — (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.
- yellow river — the second longest river in China, rising in SE Qinghai and flowing east, south, and east again to the Gulf of Bohai south of Tianjin; it has changed its course several times in recorded history. Length: about 4350 km (2700 miles)