15-letter words containing s, w, e, n
- university wits — a name given to an Elizabethan group of university-trained playwrights and pamphleteers, among them Robert Greene, John Lyly, Thomas Nash, and George Peele.
- unknown soldier — an unidentified soldier killed in battle and buried with honors, the tomb serving as a memorial to all the unidentified dead of a nation's armed forces. The tomb of the American Unknown Soldier, commemorating a serviceman killed in World War I, was established in the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia in 1921. In 1958, the remains of personnel of World War II and the Korean War were buried alongside the tomb (now called the Tomb of the Unknowns, ). In 1984, a serviceman of the Vietnam War was interred next to the others.
- unseaworthiness — constructed, outfitted, manned, and in all respects fitted for a voyage at sea.
- upperclasswoman — An upperclasswoman is a junior or senior student in a high school, college, or university.
- vatican swindle — Lafcadio's Adventures.
- viewing figures — the number of people watching a television programme
- waddesdon manor — a mansion near Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire: built (1880–89) in the French style for the Rothschild family: noted for its furnishings and collections of porcelain and paintings
- warmheartedness — The quality of being warmhearted.
- warrantableness — Quality of being warrantable.
- washing machine — an apparatus, especially a household appliance, for washing clothing, linens, etc.
- wassermann test — a diagnostic test for syphilis using the fixation of a complement by the serum of a syphilitic individual.
- water-resistant — resisting though not entirely preventing the penetration of water.
- weapons carrier — a light truck for transporting weapons or munitions in the field.
- weather station — an installation equipped and used for meteorological observation.
- wedding present — a present given to a couple when they get married
- well-considered — thought about or decided upon with care: a considered opinion.
- well-formedness — rightly or pleasingly formed: a well-formed contour.
- well-positioned — condition with reference to place; location; situation.
- well-understood — simple past tense and past participle of understand.
- welsbach burner — a type of gaslight in which a mantle containing thorium and cerium compounds becomes incandescent when heated by a gas flame
- wentworth scale — a scale for specifying the sizes (diameters) of sedimentary particles, ranging from clay particles (less than 1⁄256 mm) to boulders (over 256 mm)
- wernicke's area — a portion of the left posterior temporal lobe of the brain, involved in the ability to understand words.
- west carrollton — a town in W Ohio.
- west des moines — a city in S central Iowa, near Des Moines.
- west nile fever — a viral disease, caused by a flavivirus and spread by a mosquito (Culex pipiens), that results in encephalitis
- west nile virus — an illness caused by a chiefly mosquito-borne virus of the genus Flavivirus, characterized in a small percentage of infected persons by fever, headache, muscle weakness, and sometimes encephalitis or meningitis.
- west wind drift — Antarctic Circumpolar Current.
- western hemlock — a tall, narrow hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla, of western North America: the state tree of Washington.
- western juniper — a round-headed tree, Juniperus occidentalis, of the western coast of the U.S., having scalelike leaves with a gland on the back and oval, blue-black fruit.
- western reserve — a tract of land in NE Ohio reserved by Connecticut (1786) when its rights to other land in the western U.S. were ceded to the federal government; relinquished in 1800.
- western springs — a city in NE Illinois.
- western tanager — a tanager, Piranga ludoviciana, of western North America, the male of which is black, yellow, and orange-red.
- westphalian ham — a hard German ham with a distinctive flavor derived from being smoked over beechwood and juniper.
- what's-her-name — a girl or woman whose name is unknown, temporarily forgotten, or deliberately overlooked
- what's-his-name — man: forgotten name
- where one lives — in one's sensitive or defenceless position
- whip into shape — to bring by vigorous action into the proper or desired condition
- whippersnappers — Plural form of whippersnapper.
- whistle-blowing — a person who informs on another or makes public disclosure of corruption or wrongdoing.
- white cast iron — cast iron having most or all of its carbon in the form of cementite and exhibiting a silvery fracture.
- white mountains — a mountain range in the US, chiefly in N New Hampshire: part of the Appalachians. Highest peak: Mount Washington, 1917 m (6288 ft)
- white snakeroot — a North American plant, Eupatorium urticaefolium, the roots or rhizomes of which have been used as a remedy for snakebite
- whoopee cushion — a type of cushion or pillow used as a practical joke that, when sat upon, produces a loud noise resembling flatulence.
- wide-angle lens — A wide-angle lens is a lens which allows you to photograph a wider view than a normal lens.
- widow's benefit — (in the British National Insurance scheme) a former weekly payment made to a widow
- widow's pension — (in the British National Insurance scheme) a weekly payment made to a widow
- wiener neustadt — a city in E Austria, in Lower Austria. Pop: 37 627 (2002)
- wilderness area — a region whose natural growth is protected by legislation and whose recreational and industrial use is restricted.
- wilderness road — a 300-mile (500-km) route from eastern Virginia through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, explored by Daniel Boone in 1769 and marked as a trail by him and other pioneers in 1775: a major route for early settlers moving west.
- wilson's petrel — a small petrel, Oceanites oceanicus, that breeds in the Southern Hemisphere but ranges into the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.