20-letter words containing u, a, w
- school without walls — a nontraditional educational program that uses community facilities as learning resources.
- schwarzschild radius — the radius at which a gravitationally collapsing celestial body becomes a black hole.
- settle accounts with — to pay or receive a balance due
- snow-on-the-mountain — a North American euphorbiaceous plant, Euphorbia marginata, having white-edged leaves and showy white bracts surrounding small flowers
- sound-and-light show — a nighttime spectacle or performance, at which a building, historic site, etc., is illuminated and the historic significance is imparted to spectators by means of narration, sound effects, and music.
- sweat one's guts out — to work very hard
- that makes two of us — the same applies to me
- the (great) unwashed — The unwashed or the great unwashed is a way of referring to poor or ordinary people.
- the luck of the draw — If you say that something is the luck of the draw, you mean that it is the result of chance and you cannot do anything about it.
- the other way around — reversed
- throw up one's hands — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
- to 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.
- to waste your breath — If someone says you are wasting your breath, they mean that the person you are talking to will not take any notice and so there is no point saying anything to them.
- to wear the trousers — If one person in a couple, especially the woman, wears the pants, or in British English wears the trousers, they are the one who makes all the decisions.
- to work your way swh — If you work your way somewhere, you move or progress there slowly, and with a lot of effort or work.
- travelling-wave tube — an electronic tube in which an electron beam interacts with a distributed high-frequency magnetic field so that energy is transferred from the beam to the field
- turn over a new leaf — one of the expanded, usually green organs borne by the stem of a plant.
- twelve-string guitar — an acoustic guitar having twelve strings instead of six, with each pair tuned an octave apart, and more difficult to play than the standard guitar.
- unified screw thread — a screw thread system introduced for defence equipment (1939–44), in which the thread form and pitch were a compromise between British Standard Whitworth and American Standard Sellers: adopted by the International Standards Organization
- university of hawaii — (body, education) A University spread over 10 campuses on 4 islands throughout the state. See also Aloha, Aloha Net.
- walking-around money — money that is carried on the person for routine expenses and minor emergencies; pocket money.
- war production board — the board (1942–45) that supervised and regulated the production and sale of matériel essential to the logistics of World War II. Abbreviation: WPB, W.P.B.
- wardrobe malfunction — an embarrassing situation caused by the clothes a person is wearing
- warehouse facilities — places for storing goods
- weights and measures — units or standards of measurement
- western mountain ash — a mountain ash, Sorbus sitchensis, of western North America.
- wet-bulb temperature — The wet-bulb temperature is the temperature reached by a small amount of liquid evaporating in a large amount of an unsaturated air-vapor mixture.
- wet-rice agriculture — the cultivation of rice by planting on dry land, transferring the seedlings to a flooded field, and draining the field before harvesting.
- what did you do with — You can ask someone what they did with something as another way of asking them where they put it.
- what-you-may-call-it — an object or person whose name one does not know or cannot recall.
- white bush (scallop) — a variety of summer squash having a saucer-shaped white fruit, scalloped around the edges
- whole-life insurance — a type of insurance with a savings element that is guaranteed to pay out on death provided premiums have been paid as required by the policy
- wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
- with all due respect — despite my regard for you
- woman of easy virtue — a sexually available woman, esp a prostitute
- worcestershire sauce — a sharp sauce made with soy, vinegar, spices, etc., originally made in Worcester, England.
- working-capital fund — a fund established to finance operating activities in an industrial enterprise.
- you know what i mean — You can use expressions such as you know what I mean and if you know what I mean to suggest that the person listening to you understands what you are trying to say, and so you do not have to explain any more.
- yu-shiang whole fish — /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ An obsolete name for the Greek character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII code 9, Unicode glyph 0x0263) which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not parsed) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Used primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.