17-letter words containing r, o, w
- great white heron — a large white heron, Ardea occidentalis, of Florida and the Florida Keys.
- great willow herb — either of two tall, large-flowered willow herbs, Epilobium angustifolium or E. hirsutum.
- greater spearwort — a Eurasian ranunculaceous plant, Ranunculus lingua, which grows in wet places and has long narrow leaves and yellow flowers
- guardhouse lawyer — a person in military service, especially an inmate of a guardhouse or brig, who is or claims to be an authority on military law, regulations, and soldiers' rights.
- guinea-hen flower — checkered lily.
- gulf war syndrome — a group of symptoms occurring in some Gulf War veterans, most commonly including headache and memory loss, muscle pain, skin disorders, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments, possibly caused by exposure to chemical weapons, vaccines, infectious diseases, or other factors.
- hardware platform — a group of compatible computers that can run the same software.
- have no words for — to be incapable of describing
- hawking radiation — the emission of particles by a black hole. Pairs of virtual particles in the intense gravitational field around a black hole may live long enough for one to move outward when the other is pulled into the black hole, making it appear that the black hole is emitting radiation
- hoare powerdomain — powerdomain
- homework exercise — an exercise that is set as homework
- horst wessel song — the official song of the Nazi party in Germany from 1933 to 1945.
- how's-your-father — sexual intercourse
- illinois waterway — a waterway system in N Illinois made up of canals and rivers connecting Lake Michigan in Chicago with the Mississippi River. 336 miles (541 km) long.
- immigrant workers — people who work in a country they arrived to in order to settle there
- in/with regard to — You can use with regard to or in regard to to indicate the subject that is being talked or written about.
- incomplete flower — a flower without one or more of the normal parts, as carpels, sepals, petals, pistils, or stamens.
- intelligence work — spying
- international law — the body of rules that nations generally recognize as binding in their conduct toward one another.
- into one's barrow — suited to one's interests or desires
- isherwood framing — a system for framing steel vessels in which light, closely spaced, longitudinal frames are connected by heavy, widely spaced transverse frames with deep webs.
- it's now or never — If you say 'It's now or never', you mean that something must be done immediately, because if it is not done immediately there will not be another chance to do it.
- julian of norwich — ?1342–?1413, English mystic and anchoress: best known for the Revelations of Divine Love describing her visions
- kawasaki syndrome — a syndrome, usually afflicting children, characterized by high fever, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, rashes, irritated eyes and mucous membranes, etc. with possible damage to the cardiovascular system
- king george's war — a war (1744–48) waged by England and its colonies against France, constituting the North American phase of the War of the Austrian Succession.
- lake waikaremoana — a lake in the North Island of New Zealand in a dense bush setting. Area: about 55 sq km (21 sq miles)
- law of reflection — the principle that when a ray of light, radar pulse, or the like, is reflected from a smooth surface the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, and the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- law of refraction — the principle that for a ray, radar pulse, or the like, that is incident on the interface of two media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the velocity of the ray in the first medium to the velocity in the second medium and the incident ray, refracted ray, and normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- law of trichotomy — the property that for natural numbers a and b , either a is less than b , a equals b , or a is greater than b .
- learned borrowing — a word or other linguistic form borrowed from a classical language into a modern language.
- lee harvey oswald — Lee Harvey, 1939–63, designated by a presidential commission to be the lone assassin of John F. Kennedy.
- leg before wicket — a manner of dismissal on the grounds that a batsman has been struck on the leg by a bowled ball that otherwise would have hit the wicket
- lesser yellowlegs — either of two American shorebirds having yellow legs, Tringa melanoleuca (greater yellowlegs) or T. flavipes (lesser yellowlegs)
- lie in wait (for) — to wait so as to catch after planning an ambush or trap (for)
- lincoln's sparrow — a North American sparrow, Melospiza lincolnii, having a buff breast with black streaks.
- low-hanging fruit — the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
- lowbush blueberry — a shrub, Vaccinium angustifolium, of eastern North America, having small, white flowers and blue-black fruit.
- lower forty-eight — the forty-eight conterminous states of the United States
- lower paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
- make the worst of — to be pessimistic about
- manpower planning — a procedure used in organizations to balance future requirements for all levels of employee with the availability of such employees
- mayflower compact — an agreement to establish a government, entered into by the Pilgrims in the cabin of the Mayflower on November 11, 1620.
- mercy otis warren — Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.
- microsoft network — The Microsoft Network
- microsoft windows — (operating system) Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. The 1996 market share of operating systems was: DOS/Windows 70% Windows 95 15% Windows NT 2% Other 13% Versions include 1985 Windows 1, 1987 Windows 2, 1987 Windows/386, 1990 Windows 3.0, 1992 Windows 3.1, 1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.1, 1993 Windows 3.11, 1993 Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 1993 Windows NT 3.1, 1994 Windows NT 3.5, 1995 Windows 95, 199? Windows NT 4, 1998 Windows 98, Windows NT 5, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.
- mid-level network — (Or "regional network"). The kind of networks which make up the second level of the Internet hierarchy. They are the transit networks which connect the stub networks to the backbone networks.
- middle low german — Low German of the period c1100–c1500.
- middle of nowhere — a completely isolated, featureless, or insignificant place
- milton work count — a system of hand valuation in which aces count 4, kings 3, queens 2, and jacks 1
- mother spleenwort — a fern, Asplenium bulbiferum, of tropical Africa and Australasia, the fronds often bearing bulbils that sprout into new plants while still attached, grown as an ornamental.