21-letter words containing w, e, t, r
- sovereign wealth fund — an investment fund created using the financial assets of a national government
- step-down transformer — a device that transfers an alternating current from one circuit to one or more other circuits with a decrease of voltage
- surface acoustic wave — an acoustic wave generated on the surface of a piezoelectric substrate: used as a filter in electronic circuits
- surface-to-underwater — (of a missile, message, etc.) traveling from the surface of the earth to a target underwater.
- sweet spirit of nitre — ethyl nitrite spirit.
- take sb at their word — If you take someone at their word, you believe what they say, when they did not really mean it or when they meant something slightly different.
- the break of day/dawn — The break of day or the break of dawn is the time when it begins to grow light after the night.
- the letter of the law — If you say that someone keeps to the letter of the law , you mean that they act according to what is actually written in the law, rather than according to the general principles of it, especially when you disapprove of this.
- the lower vertebrates — relatively simple and primitive vertebrates
- the microsoft network — (networking) (MSN) Microsoft's ISP and online content service, launched in October 1996. Not to be confused with Microsoft Networking. MSN was originally based on custom software and protocols, however Microsoft saw the error of their ways and adopted Internet standards. MSN now provides standard WWW and email facilities, albeit with Microsoft's Internet Explorer web-browser and the Outlook Express email software. The service also provides "Community Services" including newsgroups, forums, and chat.
- the middle of nowhere — remote place
- the throwaway society — a society full of excessive consumption and waste of food, products, etc
- the women's land army — a unit of women recruited to do agricultural work in the United Kingdom during World War I and World War II
- the yellow brick road — the road to success or happiness (in the film the Wizard of Oz the yellow brick road leads to Oz)
- thermal power station — a power station in which heat is converted into electricity
- three-toed woodpecker — either of two woodpeckers of the genus Picoides, of the Northern Hemisphere, having only three toes on each foot.
- threshold wage policy — a policy whereby wages are increased in accordance with inflation
- throw one's hat at it — to give up all hope of getting or achieving something
- throw sb a curve ball — If someone throws you a curve or throws you a curve ball, they surprise you by doing something that you do not expect.
- throw someone a curve — a continuously bending line, without angles.
- to lay down your life — If someone lays down their life for another person, they die so that the other person can live.
- to let your hair down — If you let your hair down, you relax completely and enjoy yourself.
- to look the other way — If you say that someone looks the other way, you are critical of them because they pay no attention to something unpleasant that is happening, when they should be dealing with it properly.
- to put/set sb to work — If you put someone to work or set them to work, you give them a job or task to do.
- to rub shoulders with — If you rub shoulders with famous people, you meet them and talk to them. You can also say that you rub elbows with someone, especially in American English.
- to set foot somewhere — If you say that someone sets foot in a place, you mean that they enter it or reach it, and you are emphasizing the significance of their action. If you say that someone never sets foot in a place, you are emphasizing that they never go there.
- to sink without trace — If you say that someone or something sinks without trace or sinks without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
- to throw in the towel — If you throw in the towel, you stop trying to do something because you realize that you cannot succeed.
- traffic control tower — an elevated structure for the visual observation and control of the air and ground traffic at an airport
- twenty-two metre line — one of two lines on a rugby pitch which are twenty-two metres from the goal-line
- two-point perspective — a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point (one-point perspective) two points (two-point perspective) or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position.
- under one's own steam — If you do something under your own steam, you do it without any help from anyone else.
- venus's flower basket — a glass sponge of the genus Euplectella, inhabiting deep waters off the Philippines and Japan, having a cylindrical skeleton formed of an intricate latticework of siliceous spicules.
- warm silence software — A small company run by(?) Robin Watts, producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.
- watenstedt-salzgitter — former name of Salzgitter.
- water of constitution — water present in a molecule that cannot be removed without disrupting the molecule.
- water-vascular system — a system of closed, fluid-filled tubes and ducts of echinoderms used in clinging, locomotion, feeding, and respiration.
- weinberg-salam theory — electroweak theory.
- well-ordering theorem — the theorem of set theory that every set can be made a well-ordered set.
- west university place — a city in SE Texas.
- wet collodion process — a photographic process, in common use in the mid-19th century, employing a glass photographic plate coated with iodized collodion and dipped in a silver nitrate solution immediately before use.
- what price something? — what are the chances of something happening now?
- what the future holds — If you wonder what the future holds, you wonder what will happen in the future.
- whip-and-tongue graft — a graft prepared by cutting both the scion and the stock in a sloping direction and inserting a tongue in the scion into a slit in the stock.
- whistling in the dark — If you say that someone is whistling in the dark, you mean that they are trying to remain brave and convince themselves that the situation is not as bad as it seems.
- white-crowned sparrow — a North American sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys, having black and white stripes on the head.
- white-knuckle paddler — an inexpert and timid canoeist.
- wildlife photographer — someone that specializes in taking photographs of wild animals, especially in their natural habitats, and plants
- william the conqueror — ("the Conqueror") 1027–87, duke of Normandy 1035–87; king of England 1066–87 (son of Robert I, duke of Normandy).
- wilson's storm petrel — a small petrel, Oceanites oceanicus, that breeds in the Southern Hemisphere but ranges into the North Atlantic and Pacific oceans.