8-letter words containing w, a
- cowgrass — the common name for Trefolium medium, a species of Trefoil; also applied to the commonly cultivated form of red clover
- cowhands — Plural form of cowhand.
- coxswain — The coxswain of a lifeboat or other small boat is the person who steers the boat.
- cpu wars — /C-P-U worz/ A 1979 large-format comic by Chas Andres chronicling the attempts of the brainwashed androids of IPM (Impossible to Program Machines) to conquer and destroy the peaceful denizens of HEC (Human Engineered Computers). This rather transparent allegory featured many references to ADVENT and the immortal line "Eat flaming death, minicomputer mongrels!" (uttered, of course, by an IPM stormtrooper). It is alleged that the author subsequently received a letter of appreciation on IBM company stationery from the head of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Laboratories (then, as now, one of the few islands of true hackerdom in the IBM archipelago). The lower loop of the B in the IBM logo, it is said, had been carefully whited out. See eat flaming death.
- crabwise — (of motion) sideways; like a crab
- crabwood — a tropical American meliaceous tree, Carapa guianensis
- crackjaw — difficult to pronounce
- cramdown — (legal) A court settlement in bankruptcy in which creditors receive less than they were owed.
- cranwell — a village in E England, in Lincolnshire: Royal Air Force College (1920)
- crawdads — Plural form of crawdad.
- crawfish — A crawfish is a small shellfish with five pairs of legs which lives in rivers and streams. You can eat some types of crawfish.
- crawford — Joan, real name Lucille le Sueur. 1908–77, US film actress, who portrayed ambitious women in such films as Mildred Pierce (1945)
- crawlers — a baby's overalls; rompers
- crawlies — Fear, anxiety.
- crawling — a defect in freshly applied paint or varnish characterized by bare patches and ridging
- crawlway — a low passageway in a cave or mine that can only be negotiated by crawling
- crenshaw — a hybrid variety of melon with yellow skin and pale pink flesh
- crew cab — A crew cab is a cab in a vehicle such as a fire engine that has been extended with a second row of seats to carry additional crew.
- crewmate — a colleague on the crew of a boat or ship
- crossway — a junction
- crowbait — an emaciated, worn-out horse or cow.
- crowbars — Plural form of crowbar.
- crudware — /kruhd'weir/ Pejorative term for the hundreds of megabytes of low-quality freeware circulated by user's groups and BBSs in the micro-hobbyist world.
- curassow — any gallinaceous ground-nesting bird of the family Cracidae, of S North, Central, and South America. Curassows have long legs and tails and, typically, a distinctive crest of curled feathers
- cutaways — Plural form of cutaway.
- cutwater — the forward part of the stem of a vessel, which cuts through the water
- cyberwar — The use of computers to disrupt the activities of an enemy country, especially the deliberate attacking of communication systems.
- cycleway — A cycleway is a road, route, or path for cyclists.
- damewort — Hesperis matronalis, a herbaceous mustard.
- daneweed — an alternative name for a danewort
- danewort — a caprifoliaceous shrub, Sambucus ebulus, native to Europe and Asia and having serrated leaves and white flowers
- dark web — the portion of the Internet that is intentionally hidden from search engines, uses masked IP addresses, and is accessible only with a special web browser: part of the deep web.
- darktown — a part of a town or city inhabited largely by blacks.
- dawdlers — Plural form of dawdler.
- dawdling — proceeding at a slow pace
- dawnings — Plural form of dawning.
- dawnlike — the first appearance of daylight in the morning: Dawn broke over the valley.
- deadwood — dead trees or branches
- deadwork — work necessary to expose an orebody, as the removal of overburden.
- dec wars — A 1983 Usenet posting by Alan Hastings and Steve Tarr spoofing the "Star Wars" movies in hackish terms. Some years later, ESR (disappointed by Hastings and Tarr's failure to exploit a great premise more thoroughly) posted a 3-times-longer complete rewrite called "Unix WARS"; the two are often confused.
- declawed — Simple past tense and past participle of declaw.
- delaware — a member of a North American Indian people formerly living near the Delaware River
- demoware — (computing) A cut-down demonstration version of a computer program so that it can be tried before purchase.
- dew claw — a functionless claw of some dogs, not reaching the ground in walking.
- dewclaws — Plural form of dewclaw.
- die away — If a sound dies away, it gradually becomes weaker or fainter and finally disappears completely.
- diredawa — a city in E Ethiopia.
- disallow — to refuse to allow; reject; veto: to disallow a claim for compensation.
- disavows — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of disavow.
- dishware — dishes used for food; tableware.