15-letter words containing a, n, d, e
- spanish needles — (used with a singular or plural verb) a composite plant, Bidens bipinnata, having achenes with downwardly barbed awns.
- special edition — newspaper, magazine: extra issue
- special student — a student who is not seeking a degree but enrols in a course, esp to gain academic credits
- speed indicator — an instrument for counting the number of revolutions of a gasoline engine.
- spheroidization — the conversion of grains into spheroids
- spotted cowbane — a North American water hemlock, Cicuta maculata, of the parsley family, having a purple-mottled stem, white flowers, and deadly poisonous, tuberlike roots.
- spread sampling — the selection of a corpus for statistical analysis by selecting a number of short passages at random throughout the work and considering their aggregation
- sprinkler dance — a celebratory dance in which participants extend one arm and shake it to imitate the action of a rotating water sprinkler
- squadron leader — air-force officer
- stage direction — an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.
- stand in awe of — to respect and fear
- stand to reason — a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event, etc.: the reason for declaring war.
- stand-up comedy — telling jokes to an audience
- standard bearer — military: person who carries a flag
- standard candle — a unit of luminous intensity; the candela: not in scientific usage because of possible confusion with a former unit (international candle)
- standard clause — a clause which is inserted as standard into certain types of contracts or agreements
- standard-bearer — an officer or soldier of an army or military unit who bears a standard.
- standing charge — fixed energy costs
- standing orders — Military. (formerly) a general order always in force in a command and establishing uniform procedures for it; standard operating procedure.
- stannic sulfide — a yellowish or brownish, water-insoluble powder, SnS 2 , usually used suspended in lacquer or varnish for gilding and bronzing metals, wood, paper, etc.; mosaic gold.
- star-nosed mole — a North American mole, Condylura cristata, having a starlike ring of fleshy processes around the end of the snout.
- starting handle — a crank used to start the motor of an automobile.
- starvation diet — insufficient food to stay alive
- state education — education provided by the state; education which is not private
- steamed pudding — a traditional pudding containing fat, sugar, eggs, flour, and other ingredients, which is steamed
- step-and-repeat — noting or pertaining to a process by which successive photo-offset plates are produced automatically or semiautomatically with great precision: used especially in making plates for multicolor printing.
- stranger danger — the potential or perceived risk posed by unknown people to children and about which it may be advisable to warn them
- street accident — a traffic accident
- student teacher — a student who is studying to be a teacher and who, as part of the training, observes classroom instruction or does closely supervised teaching in an elementary or secondary school.
- studio audience — spectators on a TV set
- subject heading — a title or heading of a category, esp in a bibliography or index
- suck it and see — to try something to find out what it is, what it is like, or how it works
- suicide machine — a device designed to permit a terminally ill person to commit suicide, as by the automatic injection of a lethal drug.
- superabundantly — very or too abundantly
- superindividual — greater than the individual
- superordination — Logic. the relation between a universal proposition and a particular proposition of the same quality containing the same terms in the same order.
- surface density — quantity, as of electric charge, per unit surface area.
- surface-ripened — (of cheese) ripened on the surface by molds or other microorganisms.
- surgical needle — a needle for suturing.
- surrender value — cash value.
- sustained yield — the continuing supply of a natural resource, as timber, through scheduled harvests to insure replacement by regrowth or reproduction.
- swellheadedness — the fact or state of being conceited
- synecdochically — a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail for ten ships or a Croesus for a rich man.
- take down a peg — to lower the pride or conceit of; humble or dispirit
- take lying down — to be in a horizontal, recumbent, or prostrate position, as on a bed or the ground; recline. Antonyms: stand.
- take one's word — a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.
- tandem-compound — (of a compound engine or turbine) having high-pressure and low-pressure units in tandem.
- tar and feather — any of various dark-colored viscid products obtained by the destructive distillation of certain organic substances, as coal or wood.
- target audience — the target audience of a programme is the group of people that the programme-makers are trying to persuade to watch or listen to it
- tasmanian devil — a small, predacious marsupial, Sarcophilus harrisii, of Tasmania, having a black coat with white patches: its dwindling population is now confined to isolated areas.