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14-letter words containing a, c, o, e, n, s

  • scandium oxide — a white infusible powder, Sc 2 O 3 , soluble in acids.
  • scaremongering — a person who creates or spreads alarming news.
  • schematization — to reduce to or arrange according to a scheme.
  • schoolteaching — the profession of a schoolteacher.
  • sclerotization — the state of being sclerotized.
  • sconcheon arch — an archway that includes the sconcheons of a door or window.
  • scotch furnace — ore hearth.
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • second baseman — the player whose position is second base.
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • second reading — the stage in the consideration of a legislative bill that provides an opportunity for debate and amendment.
  • secondary beam — a beam of particles of one kind selected from the group of particles produced when a beam of particles from an accelerator (primary beam) strikes a target.
  • secondary cell — storage cell.
  • secondary gain — any advantage, as increased attention, disability benefits, or release from unpleasant responsibilities, obtained as a result of having an illness (distinguished from primary gain).
  • secondary road — a road less important than a main road or highway.
  • secondary wall — the innermost part of a plant cell wall, deposited after the wall has ceased to increase in surface area.
  • secondary wave — a transverse earthquake wave that travels through the interior of the earth and is usually the second conspicuous wave to reach a seismograph.
  • sectionization — the act or state of being sectionized
  • secularization — to make secular; separate from religious or spiritual connection or influences; make worldly or unspiritual; imbue with secularism.
  • securitization — the use of such securities as eurobonds to enable investors to lend directly to borrowers with a minimum of risk but without using banks as intermediaries
  • selenious acid — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous powder, H 2 SeO 3 , used chiefly as a reagent.
  • self-contained — containing in oneself or itself all that is necessary; independent.
  • self-dominance — rule; control; authority; ascendancy.
  • semi-dominance — incomplete dominance.
  • semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
  • sequaciousness — the condition or quality of being sequacious
  • serbo-croatian — a Slavic language spoken in Serbia and Croatia, usually written with Cyrillic letters in Serbia but with Roman letters in Croatia.
  • sericitization — the process of transforming into sericite
  • serodiscordant — pertaining to a relationship with one HIV-positive partner and one HIV-negative partner.
  • servomechanism — an electronic control system in which a hydraulic, pneumatic, or other type of controlling mechanism is actuated and controlled by a low-energy signal.
  • shadow cabinet — (in the British Parliament) a group of prominent members of the opposition who are expected to hold positions in the cabinet when their party assumes power.
  • shield volcano — a broad volcano built up from the repeated nonexplosive eruption of basalt to form a low dome or shield, usually having a large caldera at the summit
  • shower curtain — waterproof sheet around a shower
  • silent auction — an auction at which previously submitted written bids of prospective buyers are opened and compared, with each item being sold to the highest bidder.
  • silicon valley — the area in northern California, southwest of San Francisco in the Santa Clara valley region, where many of the high-technology design and manufacturing companies in the semiconductor industry are concentrated.
  • slalom descent — a winding descent
  • smoking jacket — a loose-fitting jacket for men, often of a heavy fabric and trimmed with braid, worn indoors, especially as a lounging jacket.
  • social drinker — a person who drinks alcoholic beverages usually in the company of others and is in control of his or her drinking.
  • social evening — a social gathering for the purpose of promoting companionship, communal activities, etc
  • social network — a network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts: Strong social networks can encourage healthy behaviors.
  • social science — the study of society and social behavior.
  • sockeye salmon — an important food fish, Oncorhynchus nerka, inhabiting the North Pacific.
  • sodium cyanide — a white, crystalline, deliquescent, water-soluble, poisonous powder, NaCN, prepared by heating sodium amide with charcoal: used chiefly in casehardening alloys, in the leaching and flotation of ore, and in electroplating.
  • soil mechanics — the branch of civil engineering that deals with the mechanical behavior of soil and similar materials when they are compressed or sheared or when liquids flow through them.
  • solar calendar — a calendar whose dates are based on the position of the earth and its proximity to the sun
  • somali current — a current of the Indian Ocean, flowing northward along the coast of Somalia in summer and southwestward the rest of the year.
  • song and dance — a story or statement, especially an untrue or misleading one designed to evade the matter at hand: Every time he's late, he gives me a song and dance about oversleeping.
  • soul-searching — the act or process of close and penetrating analysis of oneself, to determine one's true motives and sentiments.
  • sound archives — official records or files (as in a library) of sound recordings, broadcasts, or performances, esp those from radio programmes
  • south american — a continent in the S part of the Western Hemisphere. About 6,900,000 sq. mi. (17,871,000 sq. km).
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