12-letter words containing w, i, e, l
- white-collar — belonging or pertaining to the ranks of office and professional workers whose jobs generally do not involve manual labor or the wearing of a uniform or work clothes.
- white-slaver — a person engaged in white-slave traffic or business.
- whittle away — To whittle away something or whittle away at it means to gradually make it smaller, weaker, or less effective.
- whittle down — To whittle down a group or thing means to gradually make it smaller.
- whole sister — a sister whose parents are the same as one's own.
- wigglesworth — Michael, 1631–1705, U.S. theologian and author, born in England.
- wild cabbage — a European plant, Brassica oleracea, with broad leaves and a long spike of yellow flowers: the plant from which the cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprout have been bred
- wild lettuce — any of various uncultivated species of lettuce, growing as weeds in fields and waste places, especially a North American species, Lactuca canadensis.
- wild parsley — any of several uncultivated plants resembling the parsley in shape and structure.
- wildernesses — Plural form of wilderness.
- wilhelmina i — (Wilhelmina Helena Pauline Maria of Orange-Nassau) 1880–1962, queen of the Netherlands 1890–1948 (mother of Juliana).
- wilkes-barre — a city in E Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River.
- will contest — legal proceedings to contest the authenticity or validity of a will.
- william howe — E(dgar) W(atson) 1853–1937, U.S. novelist and editor.
- william tell — a legendary Swiss patriot forced by the Austrian governor to shoot an apple off his son's head with bow and arrow.
- williewaught — a substantial serving or swig of an alcoholic beverage
- wilton house — a mansion in Wilton in Wiltshire: built for the 1st Earl of Pembroke in the 16th century; rebuilt after a fire in 1647 by Inigo Jones and John Webb; altered in the 19th century by James Wyatt; landscaped grounds include a famous Palladian bridge
- windlestraws — Plural form of windlestraw.
- window ledge — outdoors: bottom edge of a window
- wine-colored — of the color of wine; dark red.
- wineglassful — the capacity of a wineglass, typically containing four to six fluid ounces.
- winter blues — a feeling of depression or deep unhappiness associated with experiencing the cold and darkness of winter
- winter melon — a variety of late-keeping muskmelon, Cucumis melo inodorus, having a sweet, edible flesh.
- winterkilled — Simple past tense and past participle of winterkill.
- wishing well — a well or pool of water supposed to grant the wish of one who tosses a coin into it.
- witch hobble — the hobblebush.
- withdrawable — to draw back, away, or aside; take back; remove: She withdrew her hand from his. He withdrew his savings from the bank.
- withholdment — the act of withholding
- wolf herring — a voracious clupeoid fish, Chirocentrus dorab, inhabiting the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans.
- wolf whistle — a wolf call made by whistling, often characterized by two sliding sounds, a peal up to a higher note and then one up to a lower note and down.
- wolf-ferrari — Ermanno [er-mahn-naw] /ɛrˈmɑn nɔ/ (Show IPA), 1876–1948, Italian composer.
- wolf-whistle — If someone wolf-whistles, they make a whistling sound with a short rising note and a longer falling note. Some men wolf-whistle at a woman to show that they think she is attractive, and some women find this offensive.
- wollastonite — a mineral, calcium silicate, CaSiO 3 , occurring usually in fibrous white masses.
- womb-leasing — bearing a child on behalf of a couple unable to have a child; surrogacy
- wonder child — an unusually intelligent or talented child; prodigy; wunderkind.
- world series — an annual series of games between the winning teams of the two major leagues: the first team to win four games being champions of the U.S.
- worldly-wise — wise as to the affairs of this world.
- wormseed oil — chenopodium oil.
- wranglership — (at Cambridge University) the position of a wrangler
- yellow birch — a North American birch, Betula alleghaniensis (or B. lutea), having yellowish or silvery gray bark.
- yellow daisy — the black-eyed Susan, Rudbeckia hirta.
- yellow light — a yellow traffic light, usually preceding a signal halting traffic in a particular direction.
- yellow peril — (in historical contexts) the alleged danger that predominantly white Western civilizations and populations could be overwhelmed by Asian peoples.
- yellow river — the second longest river in China, rising in SE Qinghai and flowing east, south, and east again to the Gulf of Bohai south of Tianjin; it has changed its course several times in recorded history. Length: about 4350 km (2700 miles)