17-letter words containing w, a, n
- narrow-shouldered — having shoulders which do not extend very far from the neck; not broad-shouldered
- nashville warbler — a North American wood warbler, Vermivora ruficapilla, having a gray head, an olive-green back, and yellow underparts.
- nautical twilight — the period of time during which the sun is 12° below the horizon
- nervous breakdown — (not in technical use) any disabling mental disorder requiring treatment.
- network marketing — a marketing strategy in which sales representatives of a company recruit other salespeople and earn commissions on their own sales and on the sales made by their team: Use your personal relationships to be successful in network marketing.
- new age traveller — New Age travellers are people who live in tents and vehicles and travel from place to place, and who reject many of the values of modern society.
- new england aster — a tall composite plant, Aster novae-angliae, of the northeastern U.S., the flowers of which have lavender to deep-purple rays.
- new england range — a plateau in New South Wales in SE Australia, in the Great Dividing Range, rising to 5000 feet (1524 meters).
- new guinea pidgin — the variety of Neo-Melanesian spoken in Papua New Guinea and neighbouring islands
- new lease on life — a contract renting land, buildings, etc., to another; a contract or instrument conveying property to another for a specified period or for a period determinable at the will of either lessor or lessee in consideration of rent or other compensation.
- new orleans style — a style of jazz developed in New Orleans early in the 20th century, influenced by blues, ragtime, marching band music, and minstrelsy and marked by polyphonic group improvisation.
- new scotland yard — See under Scotland Yard (def 1).
- newcastle disease — a rapidly spreading virus-induced disease of birds and domestic fowl, as chickens, marked by respiratory difficulty, reduced egg production and, in chicks, paralysis.
- newfoundland time — a form of civil time observed on the island of Newfoundland, one and one-half hours later than Eastern time and a half hour later than Atlantic time.
- newspaper cutting — clipping from a news publication
- nine days' wonder — an event or thing that arouses considerable but short-lived interest or excitement.
- ninety-day wonder — an officer commissioned in a branch of the armed forces after an unusually short training period, especially after a three-months officers' training course during World War II.
- non-manual worker — a person whose job involves the use of their mind, rather than the use of their hands or physical strength
- north-wall hammer — a type of ice axe that has a hammer as part of its head
- northcountrywoman — a female native or inhabitant of the North of England
- northwest passage — a ship route along the Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- norwegian current — an ocean current formed from the terminus of the North Atlantic Current, flowing N along the Norwegian coast into the Barents Sea.
- not worth a whoop — worthless
- observation tower — lookout, observation point
- of its own accord — If something happens of its own accord, it seems to happen by itself, without anyone making it happen.
- off one's own bat — If someone does something off their own bat, they do it without anyone else suggesting it.
- old-man-and-woman — houseleek (def 1).
- on the wrong tack — a short, sharp-pointed nail, usually with a flat, broad head.
- one-time password — (security) (OTP) A security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. OTP generates passwords using either the MD4 or MD5 hashing algorithms. The equivalent term "S/Key", developed by Bellcore, is a trademark of Telcordia Technologies, so the name OTP is used increasingly. See RFC 1760 - "The S/KEY One-Time Password System" and RFC 1938 - "A One-Time Password System".
- open-channel flow — Open-channel flow is a liquid flow in a channel, which has a free liquid surface.
- orange flower oil — neroli oil.
- pacific northwest — the region of North America lying north of the Columbia River and west of the Rockies
- papua new guinean — a native or inhabitant of Papua New Guinea.
- papua-new-guinean — an inhabitant or native of Papua New Guinea
- parliamentary law — the body of rules, usages, and precedents that governs proceedings of legislative and deliberative assemblies.
- pay someone's way — to pay someone's share of the expenses
- peak viewing time — the time at which the largest numbers of the population are watching television
- peloponnesian war — a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of hegemony in Greece from Athens to Sparta.
- play along (with) — to join in or cooperate (with)
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- poison-arrow frog — a small, bright-colored terrestrial frog of the family Dendrobatidae, of Central and South American rain forests, that secretes a virulent poison from its skin, once used on the tips of Indian hunting arrows.
- power of attorney — a written document given by one person or party to another authorizing the latter to act for the former.
- pressure drawdown — Pressure drawdown is the difference between the reservoir pressure and the flowing wellbore pressure, which drives fluids from the reservoir into the wellbore.
- private ownership — the fact of being owned by a private individual or organization, rather than by the state or a public body
- prusso-danish war — a war of 1864 between Prussia and Denmark by which Denmark lost Schleswig-Holstein.
- put in a word for — to make favourable mention of (someone); recommend
- quality newspaper — a more serious newspaper which gives detailed accounts of world events, as well as reports on business, culture, and society
- quantum cell wire — (electronics, computing) (Or "quantum wire", "binary wire") Quantum cells arranged in a line to carry signals. Adjacent cells with the same orientation are at a low energy state and a change of orientation at one end of a quantum wire propagates along the wire, transmitting a signal. However, unlike conventional wire, since only the orientation of charge pairs changes, no current flows. Circuits created using quantum cell wires are referred to as Quantum-dot Wireless Digital Circuits, see quantum dot, Quantum-dot Cellular Automata.
- quick on the draw — having fast reflexes
- rainbow coalition — a political grouping together by several minority parties