17-letter words containing r, w
- south west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- south-west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- spaghetti western — a low-budget western movie shot in Italy or Spain, usually with Italian actors and an American star.
- spanish civil war — the civil war in Spain 1936–39.
- 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)
- squaw huckleberry — deerberry.
- store and forward — to store (information) in a computer for later forward transmission through a telecommunication network
- straw in the wind — If you say that an incident or piece of news is a straw in the wind, you mean that it gives an indication of what might happen in the future.
- strawberry blonde — woman: with reddish fair hair
- strawberry tomato — the small, edible, tomato-like fruit of the plant Physalis pruinosa, of the nightshade family.
- 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".
- swainson's thrush — a North American thrush, Catharus ustulatus, having olive upper parts and wintering south to Argentina.
- swash plate motor — a collar or face plate on a shaft that is inclined at an oblique angle to the axis of rotation and converts reciprocating motion to rotation
- sweet mock orange — the syringa, Philadelphus coronarius.
- sword and sorcery — a genre of literature and film, usually set in days of old with magic as well as sword fighting
- sword of damocles — Damocles (def 2).
- tanenbaum, andrew — Andrew Tanenbaum
- teaching software — computer software for use in providing online education
- technical drawing — the study and practice, esp as a subject taught in school, of the basic techniques of draughtsmanship, as employed in mechanical drawing, architecture, etc
- tennessee warbler — a North American wood warbler, Vermivora peregrina, having a gray head, a greenish back, and white underparts.
- test the water(s) — to explore a possible course of action; approach initially
- the lower animals — relatively simple or primitive animals and not mammals or vertebrates
- the lower mammals — relatively simple or primitive mammals
- the lower regions — hell
- the new jerusalem — the de facto capital of Israel (recognition of this has been withheld by the United Nations), situated in the Judaean hills: became capital of the Hebrew kingdom after its capture by David around 1000 bc; destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in 586 bc; taken by the Romans in 63 bc; devastated in 70 ad and 135 ad during the Jewish rebellions against Rome; fell to the Arabs in 637 and to the Seljuk Turks in 1071; ruled by Crusaders from 1099 to 1187 and by the Egyptians and Turks until conquered by the British (1917); centre of the British mandate of Palestine from 1920 to 1948, when the Arabs took the old city and the Jews held the new city; unified after the Six Day War (1967) under the Israelis; the holy city of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Pop: 693 200 (2003 est)
- the outside world — You can use the outside world to refer to all the people who do not live in a particular place or who are not involved in a particular situation.
- the unwritten law — the tradition that a person may avenge any insult to family integrity, as used to justify criminal acts of vengeance
- the water carrier — the constellation Aquarius, the 11th sign of the zodiac
- the winter season — the season of the year that covers the winter months
- the witching hour — the hour at which witches are supposed to appear, usually midnight
- thermal underwear — underwear designed to retain body heat in cold temperatures.
- thirty years' war — the war, often regarded as a series of wars (1618–48), in central Europe, initially involving a conflict between German Protestants and Catholics and later including political rivalries with France, Sweden, and Denmark opposing the Holy Roman Empire and Spain.
- three-strikes law — a law that mandates a life sentence to a felon convicted for the third time.
- throat sweetbread — sweetbread (def 2).
- throw the book at — a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.
- tiger swallowtail — a yellow swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, of eastern North America, having the forewings striped with black.
- to do one's worst — If someone does their worst, they do everything unpleasant that they can possibly do. You can say 'do your worst' to show someone that you are not frightened of what they may do.
- to knit your brow — If you knit your brows or knit your eyebrows, you frown because you are angry or worried.
- to know the ropes — If you know the ropes, you know how a particular job or task should be done.
- to play with fire — If you say that someone is playing with fire, you mean that they are doing something dangerous that may result in great harm for them and cause many problems.
- to show your face — If you show your face somewhere, you go there and see people, although you are not welcome, are rather unwilling to go, or have not been there for some time.
- to test the water — If you test the water or test the waters, you try to find out what reaction an action or idea will get before you do it or tell it to people.
- to throw a wrench — If someone throws a wrench or throws a monkey wrench into a process, they prevent something happening smoothly by deliberately causing a problem.
- top-security wing — a wing of a prison, mental hospital, etc that has a very high level of precautions against escape
- touch a raw nerve — If you say that you have touched a nerve or touched a raw nerve, you mean that you have accidentally upset someone by talking about something that they feel strongly about or are very sensitive about.