12-letter words containing t, w, i, c
- new politics — politics concerned more with grass-roots participation in the political process than with party loyalty or affiliation: identified especially with the candidacies of Senators Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern.
- nightcrawler — An earthworm of the species Lumbricus terrestris, known for its large size and nocturnal surfacings.
- phonetic law — a statement of some regular pattern of sound change in a specific language, as Grimm's law or Verner's law.
- picture show — motion picture.
- 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.
- provincetown — a town at the tip of Cape Cod, in SE Massachusetts: resort.
- quick-witted — having a nimble, alert mind.
- redwood city — a city in W California.
- scram switch — (jargon) (From the nuclear power industry) An emergency power-off switch (see Big Red Switch), especially one positioned to be easily hit by evacuating personnel. In general, this is *not* something you frob lightly; these often initiate expensive events (such as Halon dumps) and are installed in a dinosaur pen for use in case of electrical fire or in case some luckless field servoid should put 120 volts across himself while Easter egging. SCRAM stands for Safety Control Rod Ax Man. In the early days of nuclear power, boron moderator rods were raised and lowered on ropes. In the event of a runaway chain reaction, a man with an axe would chop the rope and drop the rods into the nuclear pile to stop the reaction. See also molly-guard, TMRC.
- screenwriter — a person who writes screenplays, especially as an occupation or profession.
- scriptwriter — a person who writes scripts, as for movies, radio, or television.
- semantic web — an extension of the World Wide Web in which data is structured and XML-tagged on the basis of its meaning or content, so that computers can process and integrate the information without human intervention: the semantic Web acting as a global database or huge brain.
- space writer — a journalist or copywriter paid according to a space rate. Also called space man. Compare stringer (def 6).
- speechwriter — a person who writes speeches for others, usually for pay.
- static water — water collected and stored in reservoirs, tanks, etc., as for urban use.
- stitch wheel — a notched wheel used by a harness maker to mark out the spacing for stitching
- sweet cicely — any of several plants, as a European plant, Myrrhis odorata, of the parsley family, used as a potherb, or certain related North American plants of the genus Osmorhiza.
- switch grass — a North American grass, Panicum virgatum, having an open, branching inflorescence.
- switch plate — a plate, usually of metal, ceramic, or plastic, covering a switch so that the knob or toggle protrudes.
- tack welding — to join (pieces of metal) with a number of small welds spaced some distance apart.
- tapioca snow — snow pellets.
- the in-crowd — fashionable people; top people
- thick-witted — lacking intelligence; thickheaded; dull; stupid.
- town council — municipal government
- trickle-down — of, relating to, or based on the trickle-down theory: the trickle-down benefits to the local community.
- triple crown — an unofficial title held by a horse that wins the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes in a single season.
- twitch grass — couch grass.
- two sicilies — Two Sicilies.
- two-cylinder — (of an engine) having two cylinders
- wainscotings — Plural form of wainscoting.
- wainscotting — paneling or woodwork with which rooms, hallways, etc., are wainscoted.
- waistcoateer — a prostitute
- waistcoating — a fabric for making waistcoats.
- walkingstick — a stick used for walking
- watchability — detectable; apparent.
- watchdogging — a dog kept to guard property.
- water coning — Water coning is when flow in a well changes as the oil-water interface forms into a bell shape.
- watering can — a container for water, typically of metal or plastic and having a spout with a perforated nozzle, for watering or sprinkling plants, flowers, etc.
- wattenscheid — an industrial town in NW Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia east of Essen
- wavefunction — (physics) A mathematical function that describes the propagation of the quantum mechanical wave associated with a particle (or system of particles), related to the probability of finding the particle in a particular region of space.
- welwitschias — Plural form of welwitschia.
- west african — of or relating to West Africa
- west chicago — a town in NE Illinois.
- west warwick — a town in E Rhode Island, near Providence.
- wheel static — noise in an automobile radio induced by wheel rotation.
- whimsicality — Also, whimsicalness. whimsical quality or character.
- whipstitched — Simple past tense and past participle of whipstitch.
- whipstitches — Plural form of whipstitch.
- white clover — a clover, Trifolium repens, having white flowers, common in pastures and meadows.