16-letter words containing i, n, w
- seward peninsula — a peninsula in W Alaska, on Bering Strait.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- shared ownership — (in Britain) a form of house purchase whereby the purchaser buys a proportion of the dwelling, usually from a local authority or housing association, and rents the rest
- short sweetening — sugar.
- shorthand writer — a person trained to write in shorthand
- sir isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- 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.
- spanish windlass — a stick used as a device for twisting and tightening a rope or cable
- speed networking — the practice of trying to form business connections and contacts through meetings at which individuals are given the opportunity to have several conversations of limited duration with strangers
- spit-and-sawdust — (of a pub) shabby, dirty, and basic
- spring snowflake — a European amaryllidaceous plant, Leucojum vernum, with white nodding bell-shaped flowers
- subsistence wage — the lowest wage upon which a worker and his or her family can survive
- sumo (wrestling) — a highly stylized Japanese form of wrestling engaged in by large, extremely heavy men
- swedenborgianism — of or relating to Emanuel Swedenborg, his religious doctrines, or the body of followers adhering to these doctrines and constituting the Church of the New Jerusalem, or New Church.
- swedish vallhund — a small sturdy dog of a Swedish breed with a long body and pricked pointed ears
- sweet almond oil — almond oil (def 1).
- sweeten the pill — If someone does something to sweeten the pill or sugar the pill, they do it to make some unpleasant news or an unpleasant measure more acceptable.
- swimming costume — A swimming costume is the same as a swimsuit.
- swine erysipelas — erysipelas (def 2).
- swinging sixties — the 1960s as a decade when social and sexual freedom increased
- swiss army knife — a small knife with blades and other tools, such as a nail file and corkscrew, all folding into the handle.
- swiss stone pine — a five-needled pine tree, Pinus cembra,, found especially in mountain regions of Central Europe and yielding edible seeds
- swiss tournament — (in certain games and sports) a tournament system in which players are paired in each round according to the scores they then have, playing a new opponent each time. More players can take part than in an all-play-all tournament of the same duration
- the little woman — one's wife
- the swiss-french — people from French-speaking Switzerland
- the weakest link — the person who is making the least contribution to the collective achievement of a group
- the written word — writing rather than speaking
- this-worldliness — concern or preoccupation with worldly things and values.
- 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.
- to waste no time — If you waste no time in doing something, you take the opportunity to do it immediately or quickly.
- to wine and dine — If you wine and dine, or if someone wines and dines you, you go out, for example to expensive restaurants, and spend a lot of money.
- tomorrow evening — on the evening of the day after today
- tower of silence — a circular stone platform, typically 30 feet (9.1 meter) in height, on which the Parsees of India leave their dead to be devoured by vultures.
- turn upside down — invert
- twelvepenny nail — a nail that is 3 1/4 inches (8.25 cm) long.
- twenty questions — an oral game in which one player selects a word or object whose identity the other players attempt to guess by asking up to twenty questions that can be answered with a yes or a no.
- twin-carburettor — (of an engine) having two carburettors
- twin-lens camera — a camera having two separately mounted lenses coordinated to eliminate parallax errors or for making stereoscopic photographs.
- twin-lens reflex — See under reflex camera. Abbreviation: TLR.
- two-percent milk — Two-percent milk is milk from which some of the cream has been removed.
- under one's wing — in one's care or tutelage
- unknown quantity — mathematics: amount not known
- unlawful killing — Unlawful killing is used to refer to crimes which involve one person killing another.
- unpublished work — a literary work that has not been reproduced for sale or publicly distributed.
- unskilled worker — a worker who does not have any special skill or training
- upside-down cake — a cake that is baked on a layer of fruit, then turned before serving so that the fruit is on top.
- vaughan williams — Ralph, 1872–1958, English composer.
- viewing audience — the audience reached by television
- virginia cowslip — a perennial woodland plant (Mertensia virginica) of the borage family, native to E North America and having clusters of blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers
- walking delegate — (formerly) an official appointed by a trade union to go from place to place to investigate working conditions, to ascertain whether union contracts were being fulfilled, and, sometimes, to negotiate contracts between employers and the union.