8-letter words containing w, h, a
- gunwhale — Misspelling of gunwale.
- hackwork — writing, painting, or any professional work done for hire and usually following a formula rather than being motivated by any creative impulse.
- hailwood — Mike, full name Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood. 1940–81, English racing motorcyclist: world champion (250 cc.) 1961 and 1966–67; (350 cc.) 1966–67; and (500 cc.) 1962–65
- hairwork — the art of producing articles made of hair
- hairworm — any small, slender worm of the family Trichostrongylidae, parasitic in the alimentary canals of various animals.
- half-raw — (of meat) only partially cooked
- half-wit — a person who is feeble-minded.
- halfwits — Plural form of halfwit.
- halfword — (computing) An area of storage one half the size of the word in a particular system; usually two bytes.
- hallowed — regarded as holy; venerated; sacred: Hallowed be Thy name; the hallowed saints; our hallowed political institutions.
- hallways — Plural form of hallway.
- hamewith — in a homewards manner
- handsaws — Plural form of handsaw.
- handsewn — sewn by hand.
- handwash — If you handwash something, you wash it by hand rather than in a washing machine.
- handwave — [possibly from gestures characteristic of stage magicians] To gloss over a complex point; to distract a listener; to support a (possibly actually valid) point with blatantly faulty logic. If someone starts a sentence with "Clearly..." or "Obviously..." or "It is self-evident that...", it is a good bet he is about to handwave (alternatively, use of these constructions in a sarcastic tone before a paraphrase of someone else's argument suggests that it is a handwave). The theory behind this term is that if you wave your hands at the right moment, the listener may be sufficiently distracted to not notice that what you have said is wrong. Failing that, if a listener does object, you might try to dismiss the objection with a wave of your hand. The use of this word is often accompanied by gestures: both hands up, palms forward, swinging the hands in a vertical plane pivoting at the elbows and/or shoulders (depending on the magnitude of the handwave); alternatively, holding the forearms in one position while rotating the hands at the wrist to make them flutter. In context, the gestures alone can suffice as a remark; if a speaker makes an outrageously unsupported assumption, you might simply wave your hands in this way, as an accusation, far more eloquent than words could express, that his logic is faulty.
- handwork — work done by hand, as distinguished from work done by machine.
- hangchow — Older Spelling. Hangzhou.
- hard-won — If you describe something that someone has gained or achieved as hard-won, you mean that they worked hard to gain or achieve it.
- hardwall — a type of gypsum plaster used as a basecoat.
- hardware — metalware, as tools, locks, hinges, or cutlery.
- hardwick — Elizabeth, 1916–2007, U.S. novelist and critic.
- hardwire — Alternative spelling of hard-wire.
- hardwood — the hard, compact wood or timber of various trees, as the oak, cherry, maple, or mahogany.
- harewood — the greenish-gray wood of the sycamore maple, used for making furniture.
- haridwar — a city in Uttar Pradesh, N India, on the Ganges River: a holy city to Hindus.
- harrowed — an agricultural implement with spikelike teeth or upright disks, drawn chiefly over plowed land to level it, break up clods, root up weeds, etc.
- harrower — an agricultural implement with spikelike teeth or upright disks, drawn chiefly over plowed land to level it, break up clods, root up weeds, etc.
- hatchway — Nautical. hatch2 (def 1a).
- hathaway — Anne, 1557–1623, the wife of William Shakespeare.
- hawaiian — of or relating to Hawaii or the Hawaiian Islands.
- hawaiite — (geology) An olivine basalt intermediate between alkali olivine and mugearite.
- hawfinch — a European grosbeak, Coccothraustes coccothraustes.
- hawk owl — a gray and white diurnal owl, Surnia ulula, of northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere, resembling a hawk in appearance and actions.
- hawk-eye — a dark-blue chatoyant quartz formed by the silicification of crocidolite, used for ornamental purposes. Compare tiger's-eye (def 1).
- hawkbell — a small bell fitted to a hawk's leg
- hawkbill — hawksbill turtle.
- hawkbits — Plural form of hawkbit.
- hawklike — any of numerous birds of prey of the family Accipitridae, having a short, hooked beak, broad wings, and curved talons, often seen circling or swooping at low altitudes.
- hawkling — A small, young, or immature hawk.
- hawknose — a nose curved like the beak of a hawk.
- hawkshaw — a detective.
- hawkweed — any composite plant of the genus Hieracium, usually bearing yellow flowers.
- hawthorn — any of numerous plants belonging to the genus Crataegus, of the rose family, typically a small tree with stiff thorns, certain North American species of which have white or pink blossoms and bright-colored fruits and are cultivated in hedges.
- hayakawa — S(amuel) I(chiye) [ih-chee-ey] /ɪˈtʃi eɪ/ (Show IPA), 1906–92, U.S. semanticist, educator, and politician, born in Canada: senator 1977–83.
- hayworth — Rita (Margarita Carmen Cansino) 1918–87, U.S. dancer and actress.
- headwall — a cliff or steep slope rising at one end of a glaciated valley.
- headward — In the region or direction of the head.
- headwear — coverings for the head, especially hats.
- headwind — a wind opposed to the course of a moving object, especially an aircraft or other vehicle (opposed to tailwind).