20-letter words containing w, a, i, c
- particle beam weapon — a weapon that fires particle beams into the atmosphere or space
- pickwickian syndrome — an abnormality characterized by extreme obesity accompanied by sleepiness, hypoventilation, and polycythemia.
- prince edward island — an island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, forming a province of Canada: 2184 sq. mi. (5655 sq. km). Capital: Charlottetown.
- prince william sound — a sound in the Gulf of Alaska, on the S coast of Alaska: S end of Trans-Alaska oil pipeline at port of Valdez.
- red-winged blackbird — a North American blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, the male of which is black with scarlet patches, usually bordered with buff or yellow, on the bend of the wing.
- rotary-wing aircraft — an aircraft, esp a helicopter, that is lifted or propelled by rotating airfoils
- saint andrew's cross — a low evergreen shrub, Ascyrum hypericoides, native to temperate and subtropical America, having flowers in clusters of three: often cultivated.
- saxe-weimar-eisenach — a former grand duchy in Thuringia in central Germany.
- 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.
- schwarzschild sphere — the sphere which surrounds a non-rotating uncharged black hole, from within which no information can escape because of gravitational forces
- second law of motion — any of three laws of classical mechanics, either the law that a body remains at rest or in motion with a constant velocity unless an external force acts on the body (first law of motion) the law that the sum of the forces acting on a body is equal to the product of the mass of the body and the acceleration produced by the forces, with motion in the direction of the resultant of the forces (second law of motion) or the law that for every force acting on a body, the body exerts a force having equal magnitude and the opposite direction along the same line of action as the original force (third law of motion or law of action and reaction)
- senior aircraftwoman — a rank in the Royal Air Force comparable to that of a private in the army, though not the lowest rank in the Royal Air Force
- separation allowance — an allowance paid to a member of the military when they are forced to be apart from their family due to their military duties
- settle accounts with — to pay or receive a balance due
- slow-scan television — a technique or system in which an image is scanned electronically more slowly than is normally done in order to produce images, especially of still pictures, that can be transmitted economically, as over a telephone line, and displayed on a television screen.
- spanish west african — of or relating to the former Spanish overseas territory of Spanish West Africa (now the overseas provinces of Ifni and Spanish Sahara) or its inhabitants
- spanish-american war — the war between the U.S. and Spain in 1898.
- swan's neck pediment — a broken pediment, the outline of which consists of a pair of S -curves tangent to the cornice level at the ends of the pediment, rising to a pair of scrolls on either side of the center, where a finial often rises between the scrolls.
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
- to stick in the craw — to be unacceptable or displeasing to someone
- twisted stomach worm — stomach worm.
- 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
- wait-and-see tactics — methods of achieving what you want in a particular political situation that involve biding your time for events to run their course
- 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
- watch sb like a hawk — If you watch someone like a hawk, you observe them very carefully, usually to make sure that they do not make a mistake or do something you do not want them to do.
- watcom international — (company) A provider of application development tools and IBM PC-based SQL database servers. Founded in 1974, Watcom initially focused on scientific and engineering markets establishing itself as a supplier of programming and information tools worldwide, serving customers in 60 countries with highly regarded products such as WATFOR-77 for mainframes, minicomputers and PCs. Since the introduction of Watcom C in 1988, the company has emerged as an industry leader in optimising compilers for 16 and 32-bit Intel-based IBM PCs. Moving into the client/server market in 1992, Watcom introduced Watcom SQL, including SQL database servers for multi-user networks and single-user stand-alone applications. The product has since been incorporated into Powersoft's PowerBuilder development environment and the Powersoft Enterprise Series. In June, 1993, Watcom launched VX*REXX, an integrated visual development environment for OS/2. In February 1994, Watcom became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Powersoft Corporation which merged with Sybase Inc. on 13 February 1995. Today the company addresses a broad range of application developers, including corporate MIS professionals, system integrators, VARs and independent software vendors. Watcom has strategic relationships with IBM, Lotus, Microsoft, Intel and Novell. Based on its academic roots, Watcom maintains a research relationship with the nearby University of Waterloo. Watcom's products include the Watcom SQL databases, Watcom C/C++, and Watcom VX*REXX 2.1. Ian McPhee is President and Chief Executive Officer, David Boswell is Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Craig Dynes is Vice President of Finance and David Yach is Vice President of Development. Headquarters: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
- webster's dictionary — Informal. a dictionary of the English language, especially American English, such as Dictionary.com.
- western civilization — European culture, thought
- 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-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
- white-lipped peccary — a piglike artiodactyl mammal, Tayassu albirostris, of forests of southern North America, Central and South America: family Tayassuidae
- 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
- whyte classification — a system for classifying steam locomotives according to the total number of wheels on the front trucks, drivers, and rear trucks, in that order. For example, a Pacific locomotive is designated as 4-6-2.
- wide-angle converter — a person or thing that converts.
- wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
- winter olympic games — an international contest of winter sports, esp skiing, held every four years
- wipe the slate clean — begin afresh
- with a pinch of salt — without wholly believing; sceptically
- with all due respect — despite my regard for you
- worcestershire sauce — a sharp sauce made with soy, vinegar, spices, etc., originally made in Worcester, England.
- worker participation — a process by which subordinate employees, either individually or collectively, become involved in one or more aspects of organizational decision making within the enterprises in which they work
- working-capital fund — a fund established to finance operating activities in an industrial enterprise.
- write-once read-many — (storage) (WORM) Any type of storage medium to which data can be written to only a single time, but can be read from any number of times. Typically this is an optical disk whose surface is permanently etched using a laser in order to record information. WORM media have a significantly longer shelf life than magnetic media and thus are used when data must be preserved for a long time.