18-letter words containing i, s, r, a
- universal language — an auxiliary language that is used and understood everywhere.
- universal negative — a proposition of the form “No S is P.” Symbol: E, e.
- universal suffrage — suffrage for all persons over a certain age, usually 18 or 21, who in other respects satisfy the requirements established by law.
- universalizability — the thesis that any moral judgment must be equally applicable to every relevantly identical situation
- university faculty — a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas
- upper middle class — wealthy, highly-educated people
- urban homesteading — homesteading (def 2).
- venture capitalist — funds invested or available for investment in a new or unproven business enterprise.
- veterinary surgeon — Chiefly British. a veterinarian.
- video surveillance — a system of monitoring activity in an area or building using a television system in which signals are transmitted from a television camera to the receivers by cables or telephone links forming a closed circuit
- virginia snakeroot — any of various plants whose roots have been regarded as a remedy for snakebites, as the herb Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia snakeroot) having a medicinal rhizome and rootlets, and the white-flowered Polygala senega (Seneca snakeroot) having a medicinal root.
- visitor's passport — (formerly, in Britain) a passport, valid for one year and for certain countries only, that could be purchased from post offices
- voter registration — the requirement of citizens to become registered in order to vote
- wandering minstrel — travelling performer
- war risk insurance — life insurance for members of the armed forces.
- wardrobe assistant — a person who assists the wardrobe mistress in a theatre
- warehouse capacity — the amount of storage space in a warehouse
- warrant of fitness — a six-monthly certificate required for motor vehicles certifying mechanical soundness
- water stick insect — a slender sticklike flightless water bug, Ranatra linearis, that is predatory on small creatures such as water fleas
- watson-crick model — a widely accepted model for the three-dimensional structure of DNA, featuring a double-helix configuration for the molecule's two hydrogen-bonded complementary polynucleotide strands.
- weberian apparatus — (in certain fishes) a chain of small bones and ligaments connecting the inner ear with the air bladder.
- wernicke's aphasia — a type of aphasia caused by a lesion in Wernicke's area of the brain and characterized by grammatical but more or less meaningless speech and an apparent inability to comprehend speech.
- western alienation — a feeling of resentment by some inhabitants of western Canada against perceived favouritism by the national government towards the eastern provinces
- westinghouse brake — a railroad air brake operated by compressed air.
- wheelchair housing — housing designed or adapted for a chairbound person
- whispering gallery — a space or gallery beneath a dome or broad arch in which low sounds produced at any of certain points are clearly audible at certain other distant points.
- white man's burden — the alleged duty of white colonizers to care for nonwhite indigenous subjects in their colonial possessions.
- whittaker chambers — Robert, 1802–71, Scottish publisher and editor.
- wild passionflower — the maypop, Passiflora incarnata.
- wildlife sanctuary — an area where wild animals and plants are protected
- wilson's phalarope — a phalarope, Phalaropus tricolor, that breeds in the prairie regions of North America and winters in Argentina and Chile.
- winged everlasting — a bushy composite plant, Ammobium alatum, of Australia, having winged branches, javelin-shaped leaves, and white flowers.
- withdrawal symptom — effects of stopping a drug
- women at point sur — a narrative poem (1927) by Robinson Jeffers.
- women's liberation — a movement to combat sexual discrimination and to gain full legal, economic, vocational, educational, and social rights and opportunities for women, equal to those of men.
- world championship — an international competition in a particular sport or activity for people all around the world
- wrangell mountains — a mountain range in SE Alaska, extending into the Yukon, Canada. Highest peak: Mount Blackburn, 5037 m (16 523 ft)
- writ of assistance — a writ issued by a superior colonial court authorizing officers of the British crown to summon aid and enter and search any premises.
- wrongful dismissal — the act of making someone redundant for reasons which are illegal or unjust
- young conservative — a member of the youth section of the United Kingdom Conservative Party
- yves saint laurent — Louis Stephen [lwee ste-fen] /lwi stɛˈfɛn/ (Show IPA), 1882–1973, prime minister of Canada 1948–57.
- zone of saturation — the ground below the water table