16-letter words containing r, e, w, l
- lord howe island — an island in the S Pacific, E of Australia: a dependency of New South Wales. 5 sq. mi. (13 sq. km).
- lost-wax process — a process of investment casting in which a refractory mold is built up around a pattern of wax and then baked so as to melt and drain off the wax.
- low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
- lower california — Baja California.
- lower lough erne — a lough in Northern Ireland, fed by the river Erne
- lower palatinate — See under Palatinate (def 1).
- luck of the draw — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
- magnolia warbler — a black and yellow wood warbler, Dendroica magnolia, of North America.
- man of the world — a man who is widely experienced in the ways of the world and people; an urbane, sophisticated man.
- matthew flinders — Matthew, 1774–1814, English navigator and explorer: surveyed coast of Australia.
- middle westerner — the region of the United States bounded on the W by the Rocky Mountains, on the S by the Ohio River and the S extremities of Missouri and Kansas, and on the E, variously, by the Allegheny Mountains, the E border of Ohio, or the E border of Illinois.
- molecular weight — the average weight of a molecule of an element or compound measured in units once based on the weight of one hydrogen atom taken as the standard or on 1/16 (0.0625) the weight of an oxygen atom, but after 1961 based on 1/12 (0.083) the weight of the carbon-12 atom; the sum of the atomic weights of all the atoms in a molecule. Abbreviation: mol. wt.
- network analysis — a mathematical method of analyzing complex problems, as in transportation or project scheduling, by representing the problem as a network of lines and nodes.
- network meltdown — (networking) (By analogy with catastrophic failure of a nuclear reactor) An event that causes saturation, or near saturation, of a network. Network meltdown usually results from illegal or misrouted packets (see Chernobyl packet) and typically lasts only a short time. It may also be caused by a hardware fault. It is the network equivalent of thrashing.
- network topology — (networking) The "shape" of a network, how the nodes are connected to each other. Common topologies are bus network, star network and ring network.
- new orleans jazz — the jazz originating in New Orleans from about 1914; traditional jazz
- new world monkey — any of various arboreal anthropoid primates of the group or superfamily Platyrrhini, inhabiting forests from Mexico to Argentina and typically having a hairy face, widely separated nostrils, long arms, and a long, prehensile tail, and including the capuchin, douroucouli, howler monkey, marmoset, saki, spider monkey, squirrel monkey, titi, uakari, and woolly monkey.
- nightingale ward — a long hospital ward with beds on either side and the nurses' station in the middle
- no/little wonder — If you say 'no wonder', 'little wonder', or 'small wonder', you mean that something is not surprising.
- 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 world scale — in a way that involves the whole world
- 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.
- pearls of wisdom — good advice, wise words
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- portfolio worker — a person in portfolio employment
- 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.
- pressure welding — the welding together of two objects by holding them together under pressure.
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- pure watercolour — water-soluble pigment, applied in transparent washes and without the admixture of white pigment in the lighter tones
- railway carriage — a railway coach for passengers
- rainbow lorikeet — a small Australasian parrot, Trichoglossus haematodus, with brightly-coloured plumage
- raspberry sawfly — a black sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of the raspberry and blackberry.
- rattlesnake weed — a hawkweed, Hieracium venosum, of eastern North America, whose leaves and root are thought to possess medicinal properties.
- rear-wheel drive — a layout in motor vehicles which places the engine at the front and the driven wheels at the rear
- regional network — mid-level network
- renewable energy — any naturally occurring, theoretically inexhaustible source of energy, as biomass, solar, wind, tidal, wave, and hydroelectric power, that is not derived from fossil or nuclear fuel.
- 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
- rotary lawnmower — a lawn mower with a single blade attached in the middle that rotates as the mower is moved
- royal water lily — a water lily, Victoria amazonica (or V. regia), of the Amazon River and British Guiana, having floating leaves from three to six feet (0.9 to 1.8 meters) wide, the upturned margins from two to four inches (5 to 10 cm) high, and dull crimson flowers.
- second world war — World War II.
- seidlitz powders — a mild laxative consisting of tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and Rochelle salt, which are dissolved separately, mixed, and drunk after effervescence.
- seward peninsula — a peninsula in W Alaska, on Bering Strait.