16-letter words containing n, e, w, c
- darwin's finches — the finches of the subfamily Geospizinae of the Galapagos Islands, showing great variation in bill structure and feeding habits: provided Darwin with evidence to support his theory of evolution
- declare war (on) — to make a formal declaration of being at war (with)
- downy woodpecker — a small, North American woodpecker, Picoides pubescens, having black and white plumage.
- dutch new guinea — a former name of Irian Jaya.
- electric welding — the process of welding together, through the use of the heat that is produced by an electric current, pieces of metal
- emergency powers — special permission allowing a minister, government, etc to take action in an emergency without having to have their actions approved by parliament
- emergency worker — a person whose job is to help people in emergencies
- endowment policy — a document containing a record, and the terms and conditions of, an endowment mortgage.
- family allowance — a regular government payment to the parents of children up to a certain age
- firewall machine — (networking, security) A dedicated gateway server with special security precautions on it, used to service external connections (typically from the public Internet). The firewall machine protects servers and networks hidden behind it from crackers. The typical firewall is an inexpensive microprocessor-based Unix machine with no critical data, with public network ports on it, but just one carefully watched connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special precautions may include threat monitoring, call-back, and even a complete iron box keyable to particular incoming IDs or activity patterns. The type of network and security environment of a firewall machine is often called a De-Militarised Zone (DMZ). It may contain other servers such as e-mail servers or proxy gateways - machines that need to be publicly accessible but also need some access to internal systems. Also known as a (Venus) flytrap after the insect-eating plant.
- flowering quince — any shrub belonging to the genus Chaenomeles, of the rose family, native to eastern Asia, having showy, waxy flowers and a quincelike fruit, grown widely as an ornamental.
- forward exchange — a foreign bill purchased at a stipulated price and payable at a future date.
- francis townsend — Francis Everett, 1867–1960, U.S. physician and proposer of the Townsend plan.
- friction welding — a method of welding thermoplastics or metals by the heat generated by rubbing the members to be joined against each other under pressure.
- functional water — water containing additives that provide extra nutritional value
- geostrophic wind — a wind whose velocity and direction are mathematically defined by the balanced relationship of the pressure gradient force and the Coriolis force: conceived as blowing parallel to isobars.
- get on your wick — If you say that someone or something gets on your wick, you mean that they annoy and irritate you.
- giant's causeway — a large body of basalt, unusual in displaying perfect columnar jointing, exposed on a promontory on the northern coast of Northern Ireland.
- goolagong cawley — Evonne [ih-von,, ee-von] /ɪˈvɒn,, iˈvɒn/ (Show IPA), born 1951, Australian tennis player.
- green woodpecker — a woodpecker, Picus viridis, of Eurasia and northern Africa, having green plumage with a yellow rump and red on the top of the head.
- growth substance — any substance, produced naturally by a plant or manufactured commercially, that, in very low concentrations, affects plant growth; a plant hormone
- hand screw clamp — a screw that can be tightened by the fingers, without the aid of a tool.
- hard-packed snow — snow which becomes very firmly packed as it becomes refrozen due to cold weather conditions rather than melting
- hawthorne effect — a positive change in the performance of a group of persons taking part in an experiment or study due to their perception of being singled out for special consideration.
- icterine warbler — a European variety of tree warbler (Hippolais icterina )
- in lockstep with — progressing at exactly the same speed and in the same direction as other people or things, esp as a matter of course rather than by choice
- inclined railway — a cable railway used on particularly steep inclines unsuitable for normal adhesion locomotives
- kentucky warbler — a wood warbler, Oporornis formosus, of the U.S., olive-green above, yellow below, and marked with black on the face.
- kentucky windage — a method of correcting for windage, gravity, etc., by aiming a weapon to one side of the target instead of by adjusting the sights.
- know one's place — a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent.
- knuckle sandwich — a punch in the mouth with a clenched fist.
- lawson criterion — (in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reactor) the requirement that in order for the energy produced by fusion to exceed the energy expended in causing the fusion, the product of the density of the fuel and the time during which it is confined at that density (Lawson product) must be greater than a certain number that depends on the kind of fuel used.
- low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
- lower california — Baja California.
- machine washable — suitable for washing in a washing machine
- mackinaw blanket — a thick woolen blanket, often woven with bars of color, formerly used in the northern and western U.S. by Indians, loggers, etc.
- maintenance crew — a group of people who work together to keep a road, building, vehicle, or machine in good condition by regularly checking it and repairing it when necessary
- monkey-faced owl — barn owl.
- network computer — a relatively inexpensive computer with minimal processing power, designed primarily to provide access to computer networks, as corporate intranets or the Internet. Abbreviation: NC.
- new commonwealth — a term used esp in the latter part of the 20th century in Britain to describe countries in the British Commonwealth that became independent after World War II
- new haven colony — a settlement founded in 1638 by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton at Quinnipiac (now New Haven, Conn.).
- new jack (swing) — a style of rhythm-and-blues music blending rap, disco, funk, soul, etc. and characterized by aggressive, boastful, romantic lyrics
- new smyrna beach — a town in NE Florida.
- newspaper office — an office where the editorial and production staff of a newspaper work
- nuncupative will — a will made by the oral and unwritten declaration of the testator, valid only in special circumstances.
- on a world scale — in a way that involves the whole world
- one-way function — (cryptography, mathematics) A function which is easy to compute but whose inverse is very difficult to compute. Such functions have important applications in cryptography, specifically in public-key cryptography. See also: trapdoor function.
- packet switching — a method of efficient data transmission whereby the initial message is broken into relatively small units, or packets, that are routed independently and subsequently reassembled.
- packet-switching — a method of efficient data transmission whereby the initial message is broken into relatively small units, or packets, that are routed independently and subsequently reassembled.
- projected window — a casement window in which the inner end of the sash slides along a track on the sill as the sash swings outward.