18-letter words containing r, a, w, n
- personal allowance — the amount of money you are allowed to earn each year without paying tax
- peter and the wolf — a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936. It is a children's story with both music and text, spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra
- phantom withdrawal — the unauthorized removal of funds from a bank account using an automated teller machine
- pour cold water on — If someone pours cold water on a plan or idea, they criticize it so much that people lose their enthusiasm for it.
- prairie wake-robin — a woodland trillium, Trillium recurvatum, of the central U.S., having purple-mottled leaves and brown-purple flowers.
- prerelease showing — a showing of a film before it goes on general release
- presumption of law — a presumption based upon a policy of law or a general rule and not upon the facts or evidence in an individual case.
- random walk theory — the theory that the future movement of share prices does not reflect past movements and therefore will not follow a discernible pattern
- ready when you are — If you say to someone 'Ready when you are', you are telling them that you are now ready to do something and that as soon as they are ready, you will do it.
- resistance welding — welding utilizing pressure and heat that is generated in the pieces to be welded by resistance to an electric current.
- revolutionary wars — American Revolution.
- rhode island white — one of a dual-purpose American breed of chickens having white feathers and a rose comb.
- russo-japanese war — the war (1904–1905) between Russia and Japan.
- saskatchewan party — (in Canada) a Saskatchewan political party formed by former members of the provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal Parties
- schwarz inequality — Also called Cauchy's inequality. the theorem that the inner product of two vectors is less than or equal to the product of the magnitudes of the vectors.
- self-tapping screw — a screw designed to tap its corresponding female thread as it is driven.
- sharp-shinned hawk — a North American hawk, Accipiter striatus, having extremely slender legs, a bluish-gray back, and a white, rusty-barred breast.
- skinny-rib sweater — a tight-fitting ribbed woollen jumper or pullover
- slow-motion replay — a showing again in slow motion of a sequence of action, esp of part of a sporting contest immediately after it happens
- software backplane — (programming, tool) A CASE framework from Atherton.
- solomon rabinowitz — Solomon, Aleichem, Sholom.
- sow dragon's teeth — to take some action that is intended to prevent strife or trouble but that actually brings it about
- spread one's wings — to make full use of one's abilities
- st. andrew's cross — a low evergreen shrub, Ascyrum hypericoides, native to temperate and subtropical America, having flowers in clusters of three: often cultivated.
- st. lawrence river — a river in SE Canada, flowing NE from Lake Ontario, forming part of the boundary between New York and Ontario, and emptying into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 760 miles (1225 km) long.
- submarine sandwich — a sandwich made with a long cylindrical bread roll
- swarm intelligence — the collective behaviour of a group of animals, esp social insects such as ants, bees, and termites, that are each following very basic rules
- swartkrans ape-man — the fossil remains of the extinct hominid Australopithecus robustus, found at Swartkrans, Republic of South Africa: formerly classified in the genus Paranthropus.
- sweet vernal grass — a Eurasian meadow grass, Anthoxanthum odoratum, found throughout North America, having clusters of brownish-green flowers.
- sweptwing aircraft — an aircraft which has wings that are swept (usually) backwards
- telford and wrekin — a unitary authority in W Central England, in Shropshire. Pop: 160 300 (2003 est). Area: 289 sq km (112 sq miles)
- the bird has flown — the person in question has fled or escaped
- to bear witness to — If a person or thing bears witness to something, they show or say that it exists or happened.
- traditional weapon — a weapon having ceremonial tribal significance, such as an assegai or knobkerrie
- treaty of waitangi — a treaty signed in 1840 by Māori chiefs and a representative of the British Government, providing the basis for the British annexation of New Zealand
- two-minute warning — a time-out called by an official to notify both teams that two minutes remain in a half.
- two-tier financing — a form of lending in which the debt is divided into two separate parts, as in a first and second mortgage held by an individual on a single property
- ultralow frequency — an electromagnetic wave with a frequency between 300 and 3000 hertz. Abbreviation: ULF, ulf.
- ultrasonic welding — the use of high-energy vibration of ultrasonic frequency to produce a weld between two components which are held in close contact
- wage determination — the process of setting wage rates or establishing wage structures in particular situations
- 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
- warning coloration — a bold, distinctive pattern of color characteristic of a poisonous or unpalatable organism, as the skunk or the monarch butterfly, that functions as a warning to and defense against predators.
- warrant of fitness — a six-monthly certificate required for motor vehicles certifying mechanical soundness
- water of hydration — the portion of a hydrate that is represented as, or can be expelled as, water: now usually regarded as being in true molecular combination with the other atoms of the compound, and not existing in the compound as water.
- water on the brain — hydrocephalus.
- 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.
- weak nuclear force — weak interaction