17-letter words containing a, e, n, o, u
- senatus consultum — a decree of the senate of ancient Rome.
- sexual generation — the gametophyte generation in the alternation of generations in plants that produces a zygote from male and female gametes.
- shetland pullover — a thick woollen sweater made from Shetland wool
- shouting distance — hailing distance.
- socially included — benefiting from social inclusion
- socratic elenchus — the drawing out of the consequences of a position in order to show them to be contrary to some accepted position
- sodium propionate — a transparent, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 3 H 5 NaO 2 , used in foodstuffs to prevent mold growth, and in medicine as a fungicide.
- sound effects man — a man who produces sounds artificially or reproduces them from a recording, etc, to create a theatrical effect, such as the bringing together of two halves of a hollow coconut shell to simulate a horse's gallop. Such sound effects are used in plays, films, etc
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- south farmingdale — a town on central Long Island, in SE New York.
- south lanarkshire — a council area of S Scotland, comprising the S part of the historical county of Lanarkshire: included within Strathclyde Region from 1975 to 1996: has uplands in the S and part of the Glasgow conurbation in the N: mainly agricultural. Administrative centre: Hamilton. Pop: 303 010 (2003 est). Area: 1771 sq km (684 sq miles)
- south sea company — a British joint stock company that traded in South America in the 18th century. The South Sea Company took over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks, and a financial crash in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble)
- south sea islands — the islands in the S Pacific that constitute Oceania
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- southern rhodesia — a former name (until 1964) of Zimbabwe (def 1).
- southern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, including the Dodecanese, lying off the SW coast of Turkey
- southern triangle — the constellation Triangulum Australe.
- special education — education that is modified or particularized for those with singular needs, as disabled or maladjusted people, slow learners, or gifted children.
- sperrin mountains — a mountain range in NW Northern Ireland
- spot announcement — a brief radio or television announcement, usually an advertisement, made by an individual station during or after a network program.
- spread your wings — if you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience
- squash vine borer — the larva of a clearwing moth, Melittia satyriniformis, that bores into the stems of squash and related plants.
- stand-up comedian — performer: tells jokes
- stannous chloride — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, SnCl 2 ⋅2H 2 O, used chiefly as a reducing and tinning agent, and as a mordant in dyeing with cochineal.
- stannous fluoride — a white, crystalline powder, SnF 2 , slightly soluble in water: used as a source of fluorine in the prevention of dental caries, especially as a toothpaste additive.
- statutory meeting — company shareholders' discussion
- statutory offense — a wrong punishable under a statute, rather than at common law.
- stay of execution — If you are given a stay of execution, you are legally allowed to delay obeying an order of a court of law.
- stellar evolution — the sequence of changes that occurs in a star as it ages
- storm in a teacup — a violent fuss or disturbance over a trivial matter
- subclavian groove — either of two grooves in the first rib, one for the main artery (subclavian artery) and the other for the main vein (subclavian vein) of the arm
- subordinated debt — a debt that an unsecured creditor can only claim, in the event of a liquidation, after the claims of secured creditors have been paid
- subscription rate — the price charged for a subscription
- sudetes mountains — mountain range along the borders of N Czech Republic & SW Poland: highest peak, 5,259 ft (1,603 m)
- sufficient reason — the principle that nothing happens by pure chance, but that an explanation must always be available
- sunbury-on-thames — a town in SE England, in N Surrey. Pop: 27 415 (2001)
- sunday observance — the fact of keeping Sunday as a special day when people go to church
- super-nationalism — an extreme or fanatical loyalty or devotion to a nation.
- superaerodynamics — the branch of aerodynamics that deals with gases at very low densities.
- superalimentation — nourishment; nutrition.
- supercolumniation — the placing of one order of columns above another.
- supernova remnant — an expanding shell of gas, with accompanying strong radio and x-ray emissions, produced by a supernova.
- superregeneration — regeneration in which a signal is alternately amplified and quenched at a frequency slightly above the audible range to achieve high sensitivity with a single tube.
- support mechanism — any formal system or method of providing support or assistance
- supreme commander — the military officer commanding all allied forces in a theater of war.
- surface condenser — a device condensing steam or vapor by passing it over a cool surface.
- surrender to bail — to present oneself at court at the appointed time after having been on bail
- sustentation fund — a fund, esp in the Church of Scotland, to augment the support of ministers
- symbolic language — a specialized language dependent upon the use of symbols for communication and created for the purpose of achieving greater exactitude, as in symbolic logic or mathematics.
- take into account — an oral or written description of particular events or situations; narrative: an account of the meetings; an account of the trip.