16-letter words containing a, c, t, i, s
- spreading center — a linear zone in the sea floor along which magma rises and from which adjacent crustal plates are moving apart.
- spreading factor — a substance, as hyaluronidase, that promotes the diffusion of a material through body tissues
- st. clair shores — a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.
- stab in the back — to pierce or wound with or as if with a pointed weapon: She stabbed a piece of chicken with her fork.
- staffing officer — someone who recruits, hires, and ensures the interests of staff and employees in an organization
- stage production — a play or show which is performed on stage
- stamp collecting — Stamp collecting is the hobby of building up a collection of stamps.
- stamp collection — the act of collecting postage stamps as a hobby
- standing cypress — a plant, Ipomopsis rubra, of the southern U.S., having feathery leaves and clusters of red and yellow flowers.
- stannic chloride — a colorless fuming and caustic liquid, SnCl 4 , soluble in water and alcohol, that converts with water to a crystalline solid: used for electrically conductive and electroluminescent coatings and in ceramics.
- stannic sulphide — an insoluble solid compound of tin usually existing as golden crystals or as a yellowish-brown powder: used as a pigment. Formula: SnS2
- start-up capital — capital used to set up a new business
- state capitalism — a form of capitalism in which the central government controls most of the capital, industry, natural resources, etc.
- state's evidence — evidence given by an accomplice in a crime who becomes a voluntary witness against the other defendants: The defendants' case was lost when one of them turned state's evidence.
- static character — a literary or dramatic character who undergoes little or no inner change; a character who does not grow or develop.
- static discharge — Static discharge is the release of static electricity when two objects touch each other.
- steam locomotive — a locomotive moved by steam power generated in its own boiler: still in commercial use in nations that have not yet converted entirely to diesel and electric locomotives.
- steamboat gothic — a florid architectural style suggesting the gingerbread-decorated construction of river boats of the Victorian period.
- steric hindrance — the prevention or retardation of inter- or intramolecular interactions as a result of the spatial structure of a molecule.
- stick at nothing — to be prepared to do anything; be unscrupulous or ruthless
- stick out a mile — to be extremely obvious
- sticking plaster — an adhesive cloth or other material for covering and closing superficial wounds, holding bandages in place, etc.
- stinging capsule — a nematocyst.
- stock allocation — Stock allocation is the decisions made about how quantities held at a central point will be distributed amongst several outlets in a retail chain.
- stock car racing — the sport of racing in stock cars
- stocking machine — a type of knitting machine
- stomach stapling — Stomach stapling is an operation in which part of the stomach is removed in order to help a person to eat less and lose weight.
- stomach-churning — causing nausea.
- stonecrop family — the plant family Crassulaceae, characterized by succulent herbaceous plants and shrubs with simple, fleshy leaves, clusters of small flowers, and dry, dehiscent fruit, and including hen-and-chickens, houseleek, kalanchoe, live-forever, orpine, sedum, and stonecrop.
- storage capacity — amount of room or space
- strait-lacedness — the state or quality of being strait-laced
- strange particle — any elementary particle with a strangeness quantum number other than zero.
- street christian — (especially in the 1960s) a Christian whose religious life centers more in social or communal groups than in institutional churches.
- strict liability — responsibility for damage or loss regardless of intention or culpability
- strike a balance — compromise
- string orchestra — an orchestra consisting only of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses
- student teaching — the act of teaching in a school for a limited period under supervision as part of a course to qualify as a teacher
- studentification — the renting of particular accommodation exclusively to students
- subcartilaginous — partially or incompletely cartilaginous.
- subjectification — to make subjective.
- subsistence wage — the lowest wage upon which a worker and his or her family can survive
- subtropical high — one of several highs, as the Azores and Pacific highs, that prevail over the oceans at latitudes of about 30 degrees N and S. Also called subtropical anticyclone. Compare high (def 37).
- succession state — any of a number of usually new states that are established in or expand over the territory formerly ruled by one large state
- summa theologica — a philosophical and theological work (1265–74) by St. Thomas Aquinas, consisting of an exposition of Christian doctrine.
- summer complaint — an acute condition of diarrhea, occurring during the hot summer months chiefly in infants and children, caused by bacterial contamination of food and associated with poor hygiene.
- superfecundation — the fertilization of two or more ova discharged at the same ovulation by successive acts of sexual intercourse.
- superficialities — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
- superunification — a theory intended to describe the electromagnetic force, the strong force, the weak force, and gravity as a single, unified force.
- supporting actor — performer: not lead
- surface integral — the limit, as the norm of the partition of a given surface into sections of area approaches zero, of the sum of the product of the areas times the value of a given function of three variables at some point on each section.