14-letter words containing w, a
- westernisation — Non-Oxford British standard spelling of westernization.
- westernization — The process of assimilation, by a society, of the customs and practices of western culture.
- whachamacallit — an object or person whose name one does not know or cannot recall.
- whaddayacallit — A metasyntactic term used for any object whose actual name the speaker does not know or cannot remember.
- whale watching — the activity of observing whales in their natural surroundings
- what manner of — You use what manner of to suggest that the person or thing you are about to mention is of an unusual or unknown kind.
- wheel and axle — a simple machine consisting, in its typical form, of a cylindrical drum to which a wheel concentric with the drum is firmly fastened: ropes are so applied that as one unwinds from the wheel, another rope is wound on to the drum.
- wheel and deal — a circular frame or disk arranged to revolve on an axis, as on or in vehicles or machinery.
- wheel clamping — the practice of attaching wheel clamps to vehicles
- wheeler-dealer — a person who wheels and deals.
- whiplash-curve — the lash of a whip.
- whippersnapper — an unimportant but offensively presumptuous person, especially a young one.
- whipping cream — cream with enough butterfat to allow it to be made into whipped cream.
- whirlpool bath — a bath in which the body is immersed in swirling water as therapy or for relaxation.
- whistling swan — the small North American subspecies, Cygnus columbianus columbianus, of the tundra swan.
- white charlock — a related plant, Raphanus raphanistrum, with yellow, mauve, or white flowers and podlike fruits
- white elephant — a possession unwanted by the owner but difficult to dispose of: Our Victorian bric-a-brac and furniture were white elephants.
- white gasoline — unleaded and uncracked gasoline, designed especially for use in motorboats.
- white mahogany — an Australian eucalyptus, Eucalyptus acmenioides.
- white mariposa — a Mariposa lily, Calochortus venustus, having white or pale lilac flowers.
- white sapphire — a colorless variety of corundum, used as a gemstone.
- white sea bass — a large weakfish, Atractoscion nobilis, occurring along the Pacific coast of North America and popular as a sport and food fish.
- whitetip shark — Also called reef whitetip shark. a smooth dogfish, Triaenodon obseus, having white-tipped dorsal and caudal fins and occurring inshore among the reefs in the Pacific and Indian oceans and the Red Sea.
- whitewall tyre — a pneumatic tyre having white sidewalls
- whole language — a method of teaching reading in which reading is combined with listening, speaking, and writing practice, and literature is used to decode words in context. Compare phonics (def 1).
- wholeheartedly — fully or completely sincere, enthusiastic, energetic, etc.; hearty; earnest: a wholehearted attempt to comply.
- whooping crane — a white North American crane, Grus americana, having a loud, whooping call: an endangered species.
- wide-awake hat — a hat with a low crown and very wide brim
- wide-spreading — spreading over or covering a large area: wide-spreading showers; wide-spreading ivy.
- wild buckwheat — umbrella plant (def 3).
- wild hydrangea — a shrub, Hydrangea arborescens, of the saxifrage family, common throughout the eastern half of the U.S., having egg-shaped leaves and a rounded cluster of white flowers.
- wildcat strike — unofficial work stoppage
- wilhelmstrasse — a street in Berlin, Germany: location of the German foreign office and other government buildings until 1945.
- william bowman — William Scott ("Scotty") born 1933, Canadian hockey coach.
- william gibson — (person) Author of cyberpunk novels such as Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Virtual Light (1993). Neuromancer, a novel about a computer hacker/criminal "cowboy" of the future helping to free an artificial intelligence from its programmed bounds, won the Hugo and Nebula science fiction awards and is credited as the seminal cyberpunk novel and the origin of the term "cyberspace". Gibson does not have a technical background and supposedly purchased his first computer in 1992.
- willow pattern — a decorative design in English ceramics, depicting chiefly a willow tree, small bridge, and two birds, derived from Chinese sources and introduced in approximately 1780: often executed in blue and white but sometimes in red and white.
- willow warbler — any of several usually grayish-green leaf warblers, especially Phylloscopus trochilus, of Europe.
- win hands down — be outright winner
- wind generator — an electric generator situated on a tower and driven by the force of wind on blades or a rotor.
- wind indicator — a large weather vane used at airports to indicate wind direction.
- windmill grass — finger grass.
- window cleaner — someone that cleans windows for a living
- window display — an arrangement of items in a shop window
- windsor castle — a castle in the town of Windsor in Berkshire, residence of English monarchs since its founding by William the Conqueror
- wing commander — British. an officer in the Royal Air Force equivalent in rank to a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force.
- winning hazard — an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable: The job was full of hazards.
- winning streak — several consecutive wins
- winter aconite — a small Old World plant, Eranthis hyemalis, of the buttercup family, often cultivated for its bright-yellow flowers, which appear very early in the spring.
- winter jasmine — a shrub, Jasminum nudiflorum, of China, having winter-blooming, yellow flowers.
- wiring harness — a system of insulated conducting wires bound together with insulating materials, used in the electrical system of a machine, as a motor vehicle or washing machine.