17-letter words containing a, i, m
- role-playing game — a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master.
- roman catholicism — the faith, practice, and system of government of the Roman Catholic Church.
- romantic movement — the late 18th- and early 19th-century movement in France, Germany, England, and America to establish Romanticism in art and literature.
- rubberman disease — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
- saint elmo's fire — corona discharge.
- saint-simonianism — the socialist system advocated by the Comte de Saint-Simon
- same-sex marriage — (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage: Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times. See Word Story at the current entry.
- samurai tradition — the body of customs, thought, practices, etc belonging to the samurai warrior caste of Japan
- sanctimoniousness — making a hypocritical show of religious devotion, piety, righteousness, etc.: They resented his sanctimonious comments on immorality in America.
- sandringham house — a residence of the royal family, in Sandringham, a village in E England, in Norfolk near the E shore of the Wash
- sandwich compound — any of a class of organometallic compounds whose molecules have a metal atom or ion bound between two plane parallel organic rings
- sawatch mountains — range of the Rocky Mountains, in central Colo.: highest peak, Elbert
- scarlet pimpernel — a plant belonging to the genus Anagallis, of the primrose family, especially A. arvensis (scarlet pimpernel) having scarlet or white flowers that close at the approach of bad weather.
- schematic capture — The process of entering the logical design of an electronic circuit into a CAE system by creating a schematic representation of components and interconnections.
- screaming meemies — extreme nervous tension
- screaming-meemies — extreme nervousness; hysteria (usually preceded by the).
- seaman apprentice — a noncommissioned enlisted person ranking above seaman recruit and below seaman. Abbreviation: SA.
- second-in-command — A second-in-command is someone who is next in rank to the leader of a group, and who has authority to give orders when the leader is not there.
- securities market — the market in stocks, shares, bonds and other securities
- selective amnesia — the deliberate forgetting of something
- self-administered — to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of: to administer the law.
- self-commendation — the act of commending; recommendation; praise: commendation for a job well done.
- self-condemnation — the act of condemning.
- self-confirmation — the act of confirming.
- self-emancipation — the act of emancipating.
- self-impregnating — to make pregnant; get with child or young.
- self-incompatible — not capable of self-pollination.
- selkirk mountains — a mountain range in SW Canada, in SE British Columbia. Highest peak: Mount Sir Sandford, 3533 m (11 590 ft)
- semi-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- semi-experimental — pertaining to, derived from, or founded on experiment: an experimental science.
- semi-manufactured — the making of goods or wares by manual labor or by machinery, especially on a large scale: the manufacture of television sets.
- semi-permeability — permeable only to certain small molecules: a semipermeable membrane.
- semi-professional — actively engaged in some field or sport for pay but on a part-time basis: semiprofessional baseball players.
- semi-quantitative — partially quantitative.
- semidetached mode — (programming) A term used by COCOMO to describe a project development somewhere between organic and embedded. The team members have a mixture of experienced and inexperienced personnel. The software to be developed has some characteristics of both organic and embedded modes. Semidetached software can be as large as 300K DSIs.
- semimicroanalysis — any analytical method in which the weight of the sample is between 10 and 100 milligrams.
- seminal principle — a potential, latent within an imperfect object, for attaining full development.
- semisophisticated — somewhat sophisticated.
- senior management — the most senior staff of an organization or business, including the heads of various divisions or departments led by the chief executive
- sentimental value — personal, emotional significance
- septicemic plague — an especially dangerous form of plague in which the infecting organisms invade the bloodstream. Compare plague (def 2).
- sexual dimorphism — the condition in which the males and females in a species are morphologically different, as with many birds.
- shorter catechism — one of the two catechisms established by the Westminster Assembly in 1647, used chiefly in Presbyterian churches.
- shuttle diplomacy — diplomatic negotiations carried out by a mediator who travels back and forth between the negotiating parties.
- sidewall sampling — Sidewall sampling is the process of taking a sample from the wall of the borehole.
- silk manufacturer — a person or business that is involved in the manufacture of silk thread and fabric
- silver star medal — a U.S. military decoration in the form of a bronze star with a small silver star at the center, awarded for gallantry in action
- similar triangles — triangles that are similar due to the equality of corresponding angles and the proportional similarity of the corresponding sides
- simulated leather — fake leather that is an imitation of real leather and is usually made from a cheaper material