12-letter words containing a, o, r, i, s
- salmon brick — a soft, imperfectly fired brick having a reddish-orange color.
- salutatorian — (in some U.S. schools and colleges) the student ranking second highest in the graduating class, who delivers the salutatory at commencement.
- salutatorium — a porch or room in a monastery or church serving as a meeting or almsgiving place for monks or priests and the laity.
- salutiferous — salutary.
- samurai bond — a bond issued in Japan and denominated in yen, available for purchase by nonresidents of Japan
- sanguiferous — conveying blood, as a blood vessel.
- sanguivorous — feeding on blood, as a bat or insect.
- sankt moritz — German name of St. Moritz.
- saprobiology — the branch of ecology that studies decaying organic matter or environments, especially saprophytes that derive nourishment in this way.
- saprophytism — living and feeding on dead organic matter
- sarcomatosis — the condition in which a sarcoma has become disseminated throughout the body.
- sardonically — characterized by bitter or scornful derision; mocking; cynical; sneering: a sardonic grin.
- saronic gulf — an inlet of the Aegean, on the SE coast of Greece, between Attica and the Peloponnesus. 50 miles (80 km) long; 30 miles (48 km) wide.
- satin-flower — a Californian plant, Clarkia amoena, of the evening primrose family, having cup-shaped pink or purplish flowers blotched with red.
- satirization — to attack or ridicule with satire.
- satisfactory — giving or affording satisfaction; fulfilling all demands or requirements: a satisfactory solution.
- satyromaniac — a lascivious man; lecher.
- savoir faire — knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.
- savoir-faire — knowledge of just what to do in any situation; tact.
- savoir-vivre — knowledge of the world and the ways or usages of polite society.
- scarificator — a person who scarifies.
- scarlatinoid — resembling scarlatina or its eruptions.
- scatteration — the act of scattering.
- scenographic — the art of representing objects in accordance with the rules of perspective.
- schizocarpic — a dry, dehiscent fruit that at maturity splits into two or more one-seeded carpels.
- scintillator — a phosphor capable of producing scintillations.
- scopes trial — John Thomas, 1901–70, U.S. high-school teacher whose teaching of the Darwinian theory of evolution became a cause célèbre (Scopes Trial or Monkey Trial) in 1925.
- scotch grain — a coarse, pebble-grained finish given to heavy leather, esp. for men's shoes
- scouring pad — a small pad, as of steel wool or plastic mesh, used for scouring pots, pans, etc.
- scrapbooking — hobby: collaging
- scrieveboard — the drawing board of a shipbuilder
- scrive board — a floorlike construction on which the lines of a vessel can be drawn or scribed at full size.
- scrobiculate — furrowed or pitted.
- scrophularia — a member of a genus of flowering plants which have a square stem and are known as figworts
- scsi adaptor — (hardware) (Or "host adaptor") A device that communicates between a computer and its SCSI peripherals. The SCSI adaptor is usually assigned SCSI ID 7. It is often a separate card that is connected to the computer's bus (e.g. PCI, ISA, PCMCIA) though increasinly, SCSI adaptors are built in to the motherboard. Apart from being cheaper, busses like PCI are too slow to keep up with the newer SCSI standards like Ultra SCSI and Ultra-Wide SCSI. There are several varieties of SCSI (and their connectors) and an adaptor will not support them all. The performance of SCSI devices is limited by the speed of the SCSI adaptor and its connection to the computer. An adaptor that plugs into a parallel port is unlikely to be as fast as one incorporated into a motherboard. Fast adaptors use DMA or bus mastering. Some SCSI adaptors include a BIOS to allow PCs to boot from a SCSI hard disk, if their own BIOS supports it. Note that it is not a "SCSI controller" - it does not control the devices, and "SCSI interface" is redundant - the "I" of "SCSI" stands for "interface".
- sea crossing — a journey by sea from one coast to another
- sea milkwort — a maritime plant, Glaux maritima, having small, pinkish-white flowers.
- sea scorpion — scorpionfish.
- secobarbital — a white, odorless, slightly bitter powder, C 1 2 H 1 8 N 2 O 3 , used as a sedative and hypnotic.
- section mark — section (def 16).
- seismography — the scientific measuring and recording of the shock and vibrations of earthquakes.
- semi-dormant — lying asleep or as if asleep; inactive, as in sleep; torpid: The lecturer's sudden shout woke the dormant audience.
- semi-organic — noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.
- semi-popular — regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general: a popular preacher.
- semiarboreal — (of animals) spending half or some of their life in trees
- semiglobular — possessing the form of half a globe; hemispheric.
- semitropical — subtropical.
- senarmontite — a mineral, antimony trioxide, Sb 2 O 3 , occurring in pearl-colored isometric octahedrons: a dimorph of valentinite.
- serial bonds — Serial bonds are bonds that are issued at the same time but have staggered maturity dates.
- serial comma — a comma used after the next-to-last item in a series of three or more items when the next-to-last and last items are separated by a conjunction. In the series A, B, C, or D, the comma after C is the series comma.