15-letter words containing w, e, l, a
- curie-weiss law — the principle that the magnetic susceptibility of a paramagnetic substance is inversely proportional to the difference between its temperature and its Curie point
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- daffodil yellow — a bright yellow colour
- daily newspaper — A daily newspaper is a newspaper that is published every day of the week except Sunday.
- daughter-in-law — Someone's daughter-in-law is the wife of their son.
- de broglie wave — a hypothetical wave associated with the motion of a particle of atomic or subatomic size that describes effects such as the diffraction of beams of particles by crystals.
- delaware jargon — a jargon based on Unami Delaware, now extinct but formerly used as a lingua franca in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York.
- distilled water — water from which impurities, as dissolved salts and colloidal particles, have been removed by one or more processes of distillation; chemically pure water.
- downward closed — closure
- draft-mule work — drudgery
- draw oneself up — to assume a straighter posture; stand or sit straight
- east longmeadow — a city in SW Massachusetts.
- edwards plateau — a highland area in SW Texas. 2000–5000 feet (600–1500 meters) high.
- emotional wreck — a person who is feeling very sad, confused, or desperate because of something bad that has happened to them
- english sparrow — a small Eurasian weaverbird, Passer domesticus, now established in North America and Australia. It has a brown streaked plumage with grey underparts
- ennerdale water — a lake in NW England, in Cumbria in the Lake District. Length: 4 km (2.5 miles)
- fall cankerworm — the striped, green caterpillar of any of several geometrid moths: a foliage pest of various fruit and shade trees, as Paleacrita vernata (spring cankerworm) and Alsophila pometaria (fall cankerworm)
- falling weather — wet weather, as rain or snow.
- false miterwort — foamflower.
- fellow creature — a kindred creature, especially a fellow human being.
- fellow traveler — a person who supports or sympathizes with a political party, especially the Communist Party, but is not an enrolled member.
- flamingo-flower — a central American plant, Anthurium scherzeranum, of the arum family, having a red, coiled spadix and a bright red, shiny, heart-shaped spathe, grown as an ornamental.
- flock wallpaper — a type of wallpaper with a raised pattern
- flowering maple — any of various shrubs belonging to the genus Abutilon, of the mallow family, having large, bright-colored flowers.
- flowering plant — a plant that produces flowers, fruit, and seeds; angiosperm.
- fly-on-the-wall — A fly-on-the-wall documentary is made by filming people as they do the things they normally do, rather than by interviewing them or asking them to talk directly to the camera.
- forward echelon — (in a military operation) the troops and officers in a combat zone or in a position to engage the enemy.
- fraternal twins — one of a pair of twins, not necessarily resembling each other, or of the same sex, that develop from two separately fertilized ova.
- free throw lane — the rectangular area, 19 feet (5.7 meters) long and usually 12 or 16 feet (3.6 m or 4.8 meters) wide, extending from the end line behind each backboard to the foul line and along the sides of which players line up during a foul shot.
- fundamental law — the organic law of a state, especially its constitution.
- gale-force wind — a wind of force seven to ten on the Beaufort scale or from 45 to 90 kilometres per hour
- get a wiggle on — to hurry up
- giant sunflower — a composite plant, Helianthus giganteus, of eastern North America, growing nearly 12 feet (4 meters) high and having very large yellow flower heads.
- gila woodpecker — a dull-colored woodpecker, Melanerpes uropygialis, of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.
- give it a whirl — If you decide to give an activity a whirl, you do it even though it is something that you have never tried before.
- greenland whale — an arctic right whale, Balaena mysticetus, that is black with a cream-coloured throat
- griqualand west — a former district in S South Africa, N of the Orange River and W of the Orange Free State: diamonds found 1867.
- half wellington — a loose boot extending to just above the ankle and usually worn under the trousers.
- half-wave plate — a crystal thin enough to cause a phase difference of 180° between the ordinary and extraordinary rays of polarized light, thereby changing the direction of the plane of polarization.
- hardware dealer — a person or shop who deals in metal tools and implements and mechanical equipment and components, etc
- heads will roll — If you say that heads will roll as a result of something bad that has happened, you mean that people will be punished for it, especially by losing their jobs.
- heath speedwell — a temperate scrophulariaceous plant, Veronica officinalis, having small blue or pinkish white flowers
- hebrew calendar — the lunisolar calendar used by Jews, as for determining religious holidays, that is reckoned from 3761 b.c. and was established by Hillel II in the 4th century a.d., the calendar year consisting of 353 days (defective year) 354 days (regular year) or 355 days (perfect year or abundant year) and containing 12 months: Tishri, Heshvan, Kislev, Tevet, Shevat, Adar, Nisan, Iyar, Sivan, Tammuz, Av, and Elul, with the 29-day intercalary month of Adar Sheni added after Adar seven times in every 19-year cycle in order to adjust the calendar to the solar cycle. The Jewish ecclesiastical year begins with Nisan and the civil year with Tishri.
- hewlett-packard — (HP) Hewlett-Packard designs, manufactures and services electronic products and systems for measurement, computation and communications. The company's products and services are used in industry, business, engineering, science, medicine and education in approximately 110 countries. HP was founded in 1939 and employs 96600 people, 58900 in the USA. They have manufacturing and R&D establishments in 54 cities in 16 countries and approximately 600 sales and service offices in 110 countries. Their revenue (in 1992/1993?) was $20.3 billion. The Chief Executive Officer is Lewis E. Platt. HP's stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Pacific, Tokyo, London, Frankfurt, Zurich and Paris exchanges. Quarterly sales $6053M, profits $347M (Aug 1994).
- horizontal well — A horizontal well is a well which has sections that have been drilled at more than 80 degrees from the vertical in order to penetrate a greater length of the reservoir.
- identical twins — one of a pair of twins who develop from a single fertilized ovum and therefore have the same genotype, are of the same sex, and usually resemble each other closely.
- in all weathers — If you say that someone does something in all weathers, you mean that they do it regularly whether the weather is good or bad.
- irvine dataflow — (language) (Always called "Id") A non-strict, single assignment language and incremental compiler developed by Arvind and Gostelow and used on MIT's Tagged-Token Dataflow Architecture and planned to be used on Motorola's Monsoon. See also Id Nouveau.
- ja well no fine — used to indicate reluctant acceptance
- javelin thrower — a person who throws a javelin