17-letter words containing n, o, w
- quick on the draw — having fast reflexes
- rainbow coalition — a political grouping together by several minority parties
- reading knowledge — the ability to read a language, but not speak it
- renaissance woman — a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.
- revolutionary war — American Revolution.
- roll with a punch — to move in the same direction as a punch thrown at one so as to lessen its force
- row-level locking — (database) A technique used in database management systems, where a row is locked for writing to prevent other users from accessing data being while it is being updated. Other techniques are table locking and MVCC.
- rub the wrong way — to subject the surface of (a thing or person) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing: to rub a table top with wax polish; to rub the entire back area.
- run short/run low — If you are running short of something or running low on something, you do not have much of it left. If a supply of something is running short or running low, there is not much of it left.
- russian wolfhound — borzoi.
- saint john's wort — any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Hypericum, having yellow flowers and transparently dotted leaves.
- sandwich compound — any of a class of organometallic compounds whose molecules have a metal atom or ion bound between two plane parallel organic rings
- sanitation worker — a person employed to collect, haul away, and dispose of garbage.
- sawatch mountains — range of the Rocky Mountains, in central Colo.: highest peak, Elbert
- sawed-off shotgun — rifle with a short barrel
- second balkan war — Balkan War (def 2).
- secondary rainbow — a faint rainbow formed by light rays that undergo two internal reflections in drops of rain, appearing above the primary rainbow and having its colors in the opposite order.
- secondary winding — A secondary winding is the winding of a transformer that receives its energy by electromagnetic induction from the primary winding.
- self-acknowledged — widely recognized; generally accepted: an acknowledged authority on Chinese art.
- settlement worker — a person who works with underprivileged people in a settlement house.
- sheepswool sponge — wool sponge.
- show in (or out) — to usher into (or out of) a given place
- shower attachment — a device fixed to taps to make a shower
- singer-songwriter — A singer-songwriter is someone who writes and performs their own songs, especially popular songs.
- sino-japanese war — the war (1894–95) between China and Japan over the control of Korea that resulted in the nominal independence of Korea and the Chinese cession to Japan of Formosa and the Pescadores.
- slap on the wrist — a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
- slings and arrows — Slings and arrows are unpleasant things that happen to you and that are not your fault.
- snowmass mountain — a mountain in W central Colorado, in the Elk Mountains, in the S Rocky Mountains: ski resorts. 14,092 feet (4295 meters).
- social networking — the development of social and professional contacts; the sharing of information and services among people with a common interest.
- social notworking — the practice of spending time unproductively on social networking websites, esp when one should be working
- software engineer — a person who writes computer programs
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- spin one's wheels — a circular frame or disk arranged to revolve on an axis, as on or in vehicles or machinery.
- spiny-headed worm — any of a small group of endoparasites of the phylum Acanthocephala, as larvae parasitic in insects and crustaceans and as adults in various vertebrates.
- spread your wings — if you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience
- spring cankerworm — the striped, green caterpillar of any of several geometrid moths: a foliage pest of various fruit and shade trees, as Paleacrita vernata (spring cankerworm) and Alsophila pometaria (fall cankerworm)
- stonewall jackson — Andrew ("Old Hickory") 1767–1845, U.S. general: 7th president of the U.S. 1829–37.
- store and forward — to store (information) in a computer for later forward transmission through a telecommunication network
- strawberry blonde — woman: with reddish fair hair
- sun-2 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc., based on the Motorola 68000. Followed by the Sun-3 Workstation.
- sun-3 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the 1980s, based on the Motorola 68020. Successor to the Sun-2 Workstation, followed by the Sun-4 Workstation. The Sun-3 had a custom MMU. A couple of mutant models used an entirely different architecture.
- sun-4 workstation — (computer) A Unix workstation produced by Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the late 1980s[?], based on SPARC processors. The Sun-4 followed the Sun-3 Workstation. Later SPARC-based workstations were called "SPARCstations".
- swaddling clothes — cloth for wrapping around a baby
- swainson's thrush — a North American thrush, Catharus ustulatus, having olive upper parts and wintering south to Argentina.
- sweet mock orange — the syringa, Philadelphus coronarius.
- switching station — A switching station is equipment used to tie together two or more electric circuits through switches.
- sword and sorcery — a genre of literature and film, usually set in days of old with magic as well as sword fighting
- teaching software — computer software for use in providing online education
- tell its own tale — to be self-evident
- the lower animals — relatively simple or primitive animals and not mammals or vertebrates