12-letter words containing s, w, i, a
- friction saw — a high-speed circular saw, usually toothless, that is used for cutting metals by using frictional heat to melt the material adjacent to it.
- gallows bird — a person who deserves to be hanged.
- glassblowing — the art or process of forming or shaping a mass of molten or heat-softened glass into ware by blowing air into it through a tube.
- godwin's law — (humour) "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely recognised codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.
- greenwashing — Present participle of greenwash.
- grooving saw — a circular saw used for making grooves
- grosswardein — German name of Oradea.
- harris tweed — a hand-woven tweed made only by residents in the Outer Hebrides from locally dyed and spun wool
- heavyweights — Plural form of heavyweight.
- hot swapping — (hardware) The connection and disconnection of peripherals or other components without interrupting system operation. This facility may have design implications for both hardware and software.
- house wizard — (Probably from ad-agency tradetalk, "house freak") A hacker occupying a technical-specialist, R&D, or systems position at a commercial shop. A really effective house wizard can have influence out of all proportion to his/her ostensible rank and still not have to wear a suit. Used especially of Unix wizards. The term "house guru" is equivalent.
- housewarming — a party to celebrate a person's or family's move to a new home.
- in sb's wake — If you leave something or someone in your wake, you leave them behind you as you go.
- isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- it takes two — If you say it takes two or it takes two to tango, you mean that a situation or argument involves two people and they are both therefore responsible for it.
- jawless fish — cyclostome.
- jaws of life — powerful shears used for cutting a vehicle open after a collision
- kirschwasser — a fragrant, colorless, unaged brandy distilled from a fermented mash of cherries, produced especially in Germany, Switzerland, and Alsace, France.
- kitchenwares — Plural form of kitchenware.
- law of sines — a law stating that the ratio of a side of a plane triangle to the sine of the opposite angle is the same for all three sides.
- lawbreakings — Plural form of lawbreaking.
- lawyer's wig — the shaggy ink-cap
- lawyerliness — Quality of being lawyerly.
- long-waisted — of more than average length between the shoulders and waistline; having a low waistline.
- ludwigshafen — a city in SW Germany, on the Rhine opposite Mannheim.
- malt whiskey — Malt whiskey or malt is whiskey that is made from malt.
- mass wasting — downhill movement of soil and rock fragments induced by gravity.
- mwambutsa iv — 1912–77, king of Burundi 1962–66.
- new atlantis — a political allegory by Francis Bacon, published in 1627.
- new urbanism — an international movement concerned with tackling the problems associated with urban sprawl and car dependency
- newfashioned — Alternative form of new-fashioned.
- newsmagazine — a periodical specializing in reports and commentaries on current events, usually issued weekly.
- newspapering — Present participle of newspaper.
- newspaperism — anything characteristic of newspapers, esp a word or phrase used only by journalists
- night sweats — heavy sweating during sleep, especially as a symptom of certain diseases, as tuberculosis.
- noahide laws — the seven laws given to Noah after the Flood, which decree the establishment of a fair system of justice in society, and prohibit idolatry, blasphemy, murder, adultery and incest, robbery, and the eating of flesh taken from a living animal
- old-womanish — Sometimes Offensive. having characteristics considered typical of an old woman, as excessive fussiness or timidity.
- parallelwise — in a parallel manner
- passion week — the week preceding Easter; Holy Week.
- piercing saw — a small, fine-gauge saw blade with uniformly spaced, angled teeth, inserted in a jeweler's saw frame and used to cut precious metal and such soft materials as ivory and shell.
- plastic flow — deformation of a material that remains rigid under stresses of less than a certain intensity but that behaves under severer stresses approximately as a Newtonian fluid.
- plastic wrap — a very thin, transparent sheet of plastic, usually packaged in rolls and often having the ability to cling to other substances, used especially to wrap and store food and for microwave cooking.
- pleased with — satisfied or content with
- polish wheat — a wheat, Triticum polonicum, grown chiefly in S Europe, N Africa, and Turkestan.
- positive law — customary law or law enacted by governmental authority (as distinguished from natural law).
- post-weaning — to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than its mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
- power assist — a procedure for supplementing or replacing the manual effort needed to operate a device or system, often by hydraulic, electrical, or mechanical means.
- praiseworthy — deserving of praise; laudable: a praiseworthy motive.
- rainbow fish — guppy.
- reality show — A reality show is a type of television program that aims to show how ordinary people behave in everyday life, or in situations, often created by the program makers, which are intended to represent everyday life.