16-letter words containing w, p, l
- phillis wheatley — Phillis [fil-is] /ˈfɪl ɪs/ (Show IPA), 1753?–84, American poet, born in Africa; probably Senegal.
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- poiseuille's law — the law that the velocity of a liquid flowing through a capillary is directly proportional to the pressure of the liquid and the fourth power of the radius of the capillary and is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the liquid and the length of the capillary.
- portfolio worker — a person in portfolio employment
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- powerpc platform — (architecture, standard) (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
- pressure welding — the welding together of two objects by holding them together under pressure.
- proposal writing — Extension of Fortran for proposal writing.
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- pure watercolour — water-soluble pigment, applied in transparent washes and without the admixture of white pigment in the lighter tones
- raspberry sawfly — a black sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of the raspberry and blackberry.
- reprocessed wool — wool cloth respun and rewoven from the raveled fibers of unused cloth, such as the waste or clippings from a garment factory
- rochelle powders — (not in technical use) Seidlitz powders.
- rolled paperwork — a form of decoration on small objects, such as boxes, in which a design is made up of tiny rolls of paper cut crossways and laid together: popular in the 18th and 19th centuries
- seidlitz powders — a mild laxative consisting of tartaric acid, sodium bicarbonate, and Rochelle salt, which are dissolved separately, mixed, and drunk after effervescence.
- seward peninsula — a peninsula in W Alaska, on Bering Strait.
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
- sleep-wake cycle — Physiology. the species-specific biological pattern of alternating sleep and wakefulness, in humans roughly 8 hours of nocturnal sleep and 16 hours of daytime activity.
- smokeless powder — any of various substitutes for ordinary gunpowder that give off little or no smoke, especially one composed wholly or mostly of guncotton.
- spanish windlass — a stick used as a device for twisting and tightening a rope or cable
- spring snowflake — a European amaryllidaceous plant, Leucojum vernum, with white nodding bell-shaped flowers
- superb blue wren — a small Australian bird, Malurus cyaneus, the adult male of which has bright blue plumage
- swash plate pump — a collar or face plate on a shaft that is inclined at an oblique angle to the axis of rotation and imparts reciprocating motion to push rods parallel to the shaft axis
- sweeten the pill — If someone does something to sweeten the pill or sugar the pill, they do it to make some unpleasant news or an unpleasant measure more acceptable.
- swine erysipelas — erysipelas (def 2).
- the yellow press — (formerly) popular newspapers publishing sensational stories
- throw for a loop — a portion of a cord, ribbon, etc., folded or doubled upon itself so as to leave an opening between the parts.
- tightrope walker — performer who walks on high wire
- to blow your top — If someone blows their top, they become very angry about something.
- topless swimsuit — swimsuit which has no covering for the breasts
- twelvepenny nail — a nail that is 3 1/4 inches (8.25 cm) long.
- two-body problem — the problem of calculating the motions of two bodies in space moving solely under the influence of their mutual gravitational attraction.
- two-percent milk — Two-percent milk is milk from which some of the cream has been removed.
- two-tailed pasha — a distinctive vanessid butterfly of S Europe, Charaxes jasius, having mottled brown wings with a yellow-orange margin and frilled hind edges
- twofold purchase — a purchase using a double standing block and a double running block so as to give a mechanical advantage of four or five, neglecting friction, depending on whether the hauling is on the standing block or the running block.
- unpublished work — a literary work that has not been reproduced for sale or publicly distributed.
- up to the elbows — deeply engaged (in work, etc.)
- up with the lark — up early in the morning
- virginia cowslip — a perennial woodland plant (Mertensia virginica) of the borage family, native to E North America and having clusters of blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers
- walk a tightrope — be in a precarious position
- water lily tulip — a showy tulip, Tulipa kaufmanniana, of Turkestan, having spreading, white or pale-yellow flowers with yellow centers streaked with red.
- welfare payments — government benefits
- well-appreciated — to be grateful or thankful for: They appreciated his thoughtfulness.
- well-compensated — to recompense for something: They gave him ten dollars to compensate him for his trouble.
- well-disciplined — having or exhibiting discipline; rigorous: paintings characterized by a disciplined technique.
- well-experienced — wise or skillful in a particular field through experience: an experienced teacher.
- well-represented — having good or sufficient representation
- well-upholstered — (of a person) fat
- west springfield — a city in SW Massachusetts, near Springfield.
- whiptail wallaby — a wallaby of NE Australia, Macropus parryi, with a long slender tail