16-letter words containing a, n, e, c
- sheepskin jacket — a short jacket made of the skin of a sheep with the wool still attached to it
- shipping channel — a navigational pathway that a ship uses to travel from one place to another
- shirring elastic — elastic used for shirring
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- sicilian vespers — a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.
- silver-lace vine — a hardy, twining, woody plant, Polygonum auberti, of the buckwheat family, native to western China and Tibet, having greenish-white, fragrant flowers in drooping clusters.
- simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- single occupancy — a type of travel accommodation, as at a hotel, for one person in a room.
- sir isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- situation comedy — a comedy drama, especially a television series made up of discrete episodes about the same group of characters, as members of a family.
- situation ethics — a view of ethics that deprecates general moral principles while emphasizing the source of moral judgments in the distinctive characters of specific situations.
- slap in the face — smack on the cheek
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- smack in the eye — a snub or setback
- smack one's lips — If you smack your lips, you open and close your mouth noisily, especially before or after eating, to show that you are eager to eat or enjoyed eating.
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- social economics — the study of the interrelation between economics and social behavior.
- social evolution — the gradual development of society and social forms, institutions, etc., usually through a series of peaceful stages. Compare revolution (def 2).
- social exclusion — Social exclusion is the act of making certain groups of people within a society feel isolated and unimportant.
- social gathering — party, get-together
- social insurance — any of various forms of insurance in which a government is an insurer, especially such insurance that provides assistance to disabled or unemployed workers and to aged persons.
- social scientist — sb: studies human society
- sodium carbonate — Also called soda ash. an anhydrous, grayish-white, odorless, water-soluble powder, Na 2 CO 3 , usually obtained by the Solvay process and containing about 1 percent of impurities consisting of sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soaps, paper, petroleum products, sodium salts, as a cleanser, for bleaching, and in water treatment.
- solar prominence — prominence (def 3).
- sole beneficiary — the only beneficiary
- sonata da camera — an instrumental musical form, common in the Baroque period, usually consisting of a series of dances.
- sonata da chiesa — an instrumental musical form, common in the Baroque period, that usually consists of four movements alternating between slow and fast.
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.
- south charleston — a city in W West Virginia.
- spanish chestnut — Castanea sativa
- spanish mackerel — an American game fish, Scomberomorus maculatus, inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean.
- spanish-american — noting or pertaining to the parts of America where Spanish is the prevailing language.
- special clearing — (in Britain) the clearing of a cheque through a bank in less than the usual three days, for an additional charge
- special handling — (in the U.S. Postal Service) the handling of third- and fourth-class mail as first-class upon the payment of a fee.
- special interest — special-interest group (def 1).
- special pleading — Law. pleading that alleges special or new matter in avoidance of the allegations made by the opposite side.
- spiritual incest — marriage or a sexual relationship between persons related by spiritual affinity or with a person under a solemn vow of chastity
- splanchnic nerve — Anatomy. any of several nerves to the viscera and blood vessels of the chest and pelvic areas.
- splanchnopleural — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
- spraying machine — a device for spraying large volumes of liquid, such as insecticide onto crops
- 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
- 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.