16-letter words containing o, r, w
- nine-days wonder — something that arouses great interest, but only for a short period
- no/little wonder — If you say 'no wonder', 'little wonder', or 'small wonder', you mean that something is not surprising.
- northern whiting — northern kingfish.
- northwesternmost — Farthest northwest.
- norwegian buhund — a slightly-built medium-sized dog of a breed with erect pointed ears and a short thick tail carried curled over its back
- not worth a damn — worthless
- not worth a shit — useless, valueless, etc.
- observation ward — a ward in a hospital where patients are monitored
- of it own accord — If something happens of its own accord, it seems to happen by itself, without anyone making it happen.
- off off broadway — experimental or avant-garde drama produced in New York City, in small theaters, halls, churches, etc.
- off-off-broadway — experimental or avant-garde drama produced in New York City, in small theaters, halls, churches, etc.
- old world monkey — any of various anthropoid primates of the family Cercopithecidae, of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, and Asia, typically having a hairless face, forward- or downward-directed nostrils, relatively short arms, flat nails, and either having a rudimentary tail or using the tail for balance rather than grasping, and including the baboon, colobus monkey, guenon, langur, macaque, mandrill, mangabey, patas, proboscis, and talapoin.
- old-girl network — an association among women that is comparable to or modeled on an old-boy network.
- on a war footing — If a country or armed force is on a war footing, it is ready to fight a war.
- on a world scale — in a way that involves the whole world
- on the downgrade — waning in importance, popularity, health, etc
- one with another — on average
- optical tweezers — a laser device used to study, manipulate, or trap a microscopic object, as a microorganism or cell, with nanometer precision.
- otherworldliness — The quality of being otherworldly.
- overhead railway — elevated railroad.
- overwhelmingness — that overwhelms; overpowering: The temptation to despair may become overwhelming.
- part way through — mid-way; before the end
- pay-as-you-throw — denoting a system for waste collection in which households are charged according to the amount of refuse they leave
- pearls of wisdom — good advice, wise words
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- poor boy sweater — a snug-fitting, pullover sweater with ribbing on both the body and sleeves, worn by girls and women.
- poor white trash — white trash.
- portfolio worker — a person in portfolio employment
- portmanteau word — a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
- potato tuberworm — the larva of the potato moth.
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- powerpc platform — (architecture, standard) (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
- 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.
- proposal writing — Extension of Fortran for proposal writing.
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- purchasing power — Also called buying power. the ability to purchase goods and services.
- pure watercolour — water-soluble pigment, applied in transparent washes and without the admixture of white pigment in the lighter tones
- put a foot wrong — to make a mistake
- put to the sword — to kill with a sword or swords
- rainbow lorikeet — a small Australasian parrot, Trichoglossus haematodus, with brightly-coloured plumage
- rainbow seaperch — an embiotocid fish, Hypsurus caryi, living off the Pacific coast of North America, having red, orange, and blue stripes on the body.
- raise an eyebrow — If something causes you to raise an eyebrow or to raise your eyebrows, it causes you to feel surprised or disapproving.
- rear-view mirror — a mirror mounted on the side, windshield, or instrument panel of an automobile or other vehicle to provide the driver with a view of the area behind the vehicle.
- redbank whiteoak — a city in S Tennessee.
- regent bowerbird — a bowerbird, Sericulus chrysocephalus, the males of which have deep black plumage with brilliant golden head, neck, and wing patches and build elaborate bowers.
- regional network — mid-level network
- reprocessed wool — wool cloth respun and rewoven from the raveled fibers of unused cloth, such as the waste or clippings from a garment factory
- robin goodfellow — Puck (def 1).
- rochelle powders — (not in technical use) Seidlitz powders.
- rolled paperwork — a form of decoration on small objects, such as boxes, in which a design is made up of tiny rolls of paper cut crossways and laid together: popular in the 18th and 19th centuries