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16-letter words containing w, a, l, c

  • hit a brick wall — unable to continue or make progress because of a hindrance
  • holographic will — a will that is entirely in the handwriting of the testator: in some states recognized as valid without the attestation of witnesses.
  • icterine warbler — a European variety of tree warbler (Hippolais icterina )
  • inclined railway — a cable railway used on particularly steep inclines unsuitable for normal adhesion locomotives
  • kentucky warbler — a wood warbler, Oporornis formosus, of the U.S., olive-green above, yellow below, and marked with black on the face.
  • kirchhoff's laws — the law that the algebraic sum of the currents flowing toward any point in an electric network is zero.
  • know one's place — a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent.
  • knuckle sandwich — a punch in the mouth with a clenched fist.
  • lawson criterion — (in a hypothetical nuclear fusion reactor) the requirement that in order for the energy produced by fusion to exceed the energy expended in causing the fusion, the product of the density of the fuel and the time during which it is confined at that density (Lawson product) must be greater than a certain number that depends on the kind of fuel used.
  • lost-wax process — a process of investment casting in which a refractory mold is built up around a pattern of wax and then baked so as to melt and drain off the wax.
  • low-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.04 and 0.25 per cent carbon
  • lower california — Baja California.
  • luck of the draw — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
  • machine washable — suitable for washing in a washing machine
  • mackinaw blanket — a thick woolen blanket, often woven with bars of color, formerly used in the northern and western U.S. by Indians, loggers, etc.
  • mauchly, john w. — John Mauchly
  • molecular weight — the average weight of a molecule of an element or compound measured in units once based on the weight of one hydrogen atom taken as the standard or on 1/16 (0.0625) the weight of an oxygen atom, but after 1961 based on 1/12 (0.083) the weight of the carbon-12 atom; the sum of the atomic weights of all the atoms in a molecule. Abbreviation: mol. wt.
  • monkey-faced owl — barn owl.
  • multi-way branch — switch statement
  • new commonwealth — a term used esp in the latter part of the 20th century in Britain to describe countries in the British Commonwealth that became independent after World War II
  • new haven colony — a settlement founded in 1638 by John Davenport and Theophilus Eaton at Quinnipiac (now New Haven, Conn.).
  • nuncupative will — a will made by the oral and unwritten declaration of the testator, valid only in special circumstances.
  • on a world scale — in a way that involves the whole world
  • optical tweezers — a laser device used to study, manipulate, or trap a microscopic object, as a microorganism or cell, with nanometer precision.
  • place of worship — religious house: church, temple
  • powerpc platform — (architecture, standard)   (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
  • pure watercolour — water-soluble pigment, applied in transparent washes and without the admixture of white pigment in the lighter tones
  • railway carriage — a railway coach for passengers
  • sandwich islands — the Hawaiian Islands
  • second world war — World War II.
  • showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
  • sleep-wake cycle — Physiology. the species-specific biological pattern of alternating sleep and wakefulness, in humans roughly 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of daytime activity.
  • social darwinism — a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.
  • the commonwealth — the government in England under the Cromwells and Parliament from 1649 to 1660
  • the wheel blacks — the international wheelchair rugby football team of New Zealand
  • torricelli's law — the law that states that the speed of flow of a liquid from an orifice is equal to the speed that it would attain if falling freely a distance equal to the height of the free surface of the liquid above the orifice.
  • twin-lens camera — a camera having two separately mounted lenses coordinated to eliminate parallax errors or for making stereoscopic photographs.
  • twofold purchase — a purchase using a double standing block and a double running block so as to give a mechanical advantage of four or five, neglecting friction, depending on whether the hauling is on the standing block or the running block.
  • virginia cowslip — a perennial woodland plant (Mertensia virginica) of the borage family, native to E North America and having clusters of blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers
  • walking distance — distance that can easily be walked
  • walrus moustache — a long thick moustache drooping at the ends
  • waterless cooker — a tight-lidded kitchen utensil in which food can be cooked using only a small amount of water or only the juices emitted while cooking.
  • welfare services — services that provide help with people's living conditions and financial problems
  • well-appreciated — to be grateful or thankful for: They appreciated his thoughtfulness.
  • well-articulated — made clear or distinct: articulated sounds.
  • well-baby clinic — a health-service clinic for preventive monitoring, health education and advice for parents of babies
  • well-compensated — to recompense for something: They gave him ten dollars to compensate him for his trouble.
  • west valley city — city in NC Utah, near Salt Lake City: pop. 109,000
  • whatchamacallits — Plural form of whatchamacallit.
  • wheel animalcule — a rotifer.
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