15-letter words containing w, i, s, t
- spirit wrestler — a Doukhobor.
- spirits of wine — alcohol (def 1).
- stacking swivel — a metal swivel attached to the stock of a military rifle for use in hooking three rifles together to form a stack.
- stalactite work — (in Islamic architecture) intricate decorative corbeling in the form of brackets, squinches, and portions of pointed vaults.
- stand in awe of — to respect and fear
- starfish flower — carrion flower (def 2).
- stationary wave — standing wave.
- stephen hawking — Stephen William, born 1942, English mathematician and theoretical physicist.
- stillson wrench — a large wrench having adjustable jaws that tighten as the pressure on the handle is increased
- stoke newington — former metropolitan borough of London, now part of Hackney
- straightforward — going or directed straight ahead: a straightforward gaze.
- strawberry dish — a shallow, circular fruit dish with a fluted or pierced border.
- streamline flow — the flow of a fluid past an object such that the velocity at any fixed point in the fluid is constant or varies in a regular manner.
- swamp white oak — an oak, Quercus bicolor, of eastern North America, yielding a hard, heavy wood used in shipbuilding, for making furniture, etc.
- sweating system — the practice of employing workers in sweatshops.
- swimming trunks — men's swimsuit shorts
- swing both ways — to enjoy sexual partners of both sexes
- symphony writer — a composer of an extended large-scale orchestral composition, usually with several movements, at least one of which is in sonata form
- synod of whitby — the synod held in 664 at Whitby at which the Roman date for Easter was accepted and the Church in England became aligned with Rome
- take issue with — disagree with
- thankworthiness — the state or quality of being thankworthy or deserving thanks
- the cesarewitch — a long-distance horserace run each year in October at Newmarket racecourse
- the devil's own — a very difficult or problematic (thing)
- thorndike's law — the principle that all learnt behaviour is regulated by rewards and punishments, proposed by Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), US psychologist
- titius-bode law — Bode's law.
- touch base with — the bottom support of anything; that on which a thing stands or rests: a metal base for the table.
- towers of hanoi — (games) A classic computer science problem, invented by Edouard Lucas in 1883, often used as an example of recursion. "In the great temple at Benares, says he, beneath the dome which marks the centre of the world, rests a brass plate in which are fixed three diamond needles, each a cubit high and as thick as the body of a bee. On one of these needles, at the creation, God placed sixty-four discs of pure gold, the largest disc resting on the brass plate, and the others getting smaller and smaller up to the top one. This is the Tower of Bramah. Day and night unceasingly the priests transfer the discs from one diamond needle to another according to the fixed and immutable laws of Bramah, which require that the priest on duty must not move more than one disc at a time and that he must place this disc on a needle so that there is no smaller disc below it. When the sixty-four discs shall have been thus transferred from the needle on which at the creation God placed them to one of the other needles, tower, temple, and Brahmins alike will crumble into dust, and with a thunderclap the world will vanish." The recursive solution is: Solve for n-1 discs recursively, then move the remaining largest disc to the free needle. Note that there is also a non-recursive solution: On odd-numbered moves, move the smallest sized disk clockwise. On even-numbered moves, make the single other move which is possible.
- training wheels — a pair of small wheels attached one on each side of the rear wheel of a bicycle for stability while one is learning to ride.
- transfer window — the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other teams into their own
- trustworthiness — deserving of trust or confidence; dependable; reliable: The treasurer was not entirely trustworthy.
- tunbridge wells — a city in SW Kent, in SE England: mineral springs; resort.
- twist one's arm — to combine, as two or more strands or threads, by winding together; intertwine.
- twist the knife — to make a bad situation worse in a deliberately malicious way
- two-dimensional — having the dimensions of height and width only: a two-dimensional surface.
- two-thirds rule — a former rule in the Democratic Party, effective 1832–1936, requiring a vote of at least two thirds of its national convention delegates to nominate a presidential and vice-presidential candidate.
- tyrwhitt-wilson — Gerald Hugh, 14th Baron Berners [bur-nerz] /ˈbɜr nərz/ (Show IPA), 1883–1950, English composer, painter, and author.
- unanswerability — the quality of not being answerable or contestable
- university wits — a name given to an Elizabethan group of university-trained playwrights and pamphleteers, among them Robert Greene, John Lyly, Thomas Nash, and George Peele.
- unseaworthiness — constructed, outfitted, manned, and in all respects fitted for a voyage at sea.
- untrustworthily — in an untrustworthy manner; not trustworthily
- vatican swindle — Lafcadio's Adventures.
- walking catfish — an Asian catfish, Clarias batrachus, that can survive out of water and move overland from one body of water to another: introduced into Florida.
- walpurgis night — (especially in medieval German folklore) the evening preceding the feast day of St. Walpurgis, when witches congregated, especially on the Brocken.
- washington lily — a lily, Lilium washingtonianum, of the western coast of the U.S., having whorled leaves and fragrant, purple-spotted white flowers.
- washington palm — a palm tree, Washingtonia filifera, of California and Florida, having large fan-shaped leaves and small black fruits
- water-resistant — resisting though not entirely preventing the penetration of water.
- weather station — an installation equipped and used for meteorological observation.
- wedding present — a present given to a couple when they get married
- welfare statism — the belief in or practices of a welfare state.
- well-advertised — to announce or praise (a product, service, etc.) in some public medium of communication in order to induce people to buy or use it: to advertise a new brand of toothpaste.