20-letter words containing a, r, u, s, i
- rough-winged swallow — either of two New World swallows of the genus Stelgidopteryx, having outer primary feathers with small barblike hooks on the margins.
- santa cruz operation — (SCO) A supplier of Unix systems for Intel microprocessors. They supply Xenix and Open Desktop. Founded in 1979, SCO became a public company in May, 1993 and trades on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol SCOC. SCO maintains its world headquarters in Santa Cruz, California, USA; a European headquarters in Watford, England; a Government Systems Group in Reston, Virginia; and offices in Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America, and throughout Europe and the United States. In February 1993, SCO acquired IXI Limited of Cambridge, England, the leading supplier of Unix System windowing software.
- scatter site housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- schrodinger equation — the wave equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also called Schrödinger wave equation. Compare wave equation (def 2).
- schwarzschild radius — the radius at which a gravitationally collapsing celestial body becomes a black hole.
- secure accommodation — an institution where young offenders are kept in custody
- security association — (networking) The relationship between two or more entities (typically, a computer, but could be a user on a computer, or software component) which describes how the entities will use security services, such as encryption, to communicate. See RFC 1825.
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- serious fraud office — a UK government office responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious fraud cases
- serra da mantiqueira — a mountain range in SE Brazil, running parallel to the coast. Highest point, 9140 feet (2785 meters).
- shareholders' equity — Shareholders' equity is the total amount of ownership investment in a company.
- shibah asar betammuz — Shivah Asar Betammuz.
- shivah asar betammuz — a Jewish fast day observed on the 17th day of Tammuz in memory of the breach of the walls of Jerusalem by the Romans in a.d. 70.
- shoulder-length hair — hair that reaches a person's shoulders
- sierra madre del sur — a plateau mountain range in Guerrero and Oaxaca states, S Mexico. Highest peak 12,149 feet (3703 meters).
- social security card — a card that contains details of a person's social security number
- sodium fluoroacetate — a white, amorphous, water-soluble, poisonous powder, C 2 H 2 FO 2 Na, used as a rodenticide.
- sodium meta-arsenite — sodium arsenite.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- south orkney islands — an uninhabited group of islands in the S Atlantic, southeast of Cape Horn: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 621 sq km (240 sq miles)
- southern oscillation — a low-latitude fluctuation of atmospheric pressure closely linked with El Niño events, specifically the periods of El Niño warming and La Niña cooling.
- special patrol group — a former police unit tasked with counter terrorism in the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- spontaneous abortion — miscarriage (def 1).
- spontaneous-abortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- square cross-section — If a kelly has a square cross-section, it has a surface area with four equal sides, when looked at as if has been sliced through.
- square of opposition — a diagrammatic representation of the opposition of categorical propositions.
- squatter sovereignty — (used contemptuously by its opponents) popular sovereignty (def 2).
- straight-cut tobacco — tobacco that is cut in such a way that it will lie flat.
- structural isomerism — Chemistry. the relation of two or more compounds, radicals, or ions that are composed of the same kinds and numbers of atoms but differ from each other in structural arrangement (structural isomerism) as CH 3 OCH 3 and CH 3 CH 2 OH, or in the arrangement of their atoms in space and therefore in one or more properties. Compare optical isomerism, stereoisomerism.
- subscription library — a commercial lending library
- suitland-silver hill — a city in central Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
- summary jurisdiction — the right a court has to adjudicate immediately upon some matter arising during its proceedings
- supersonic transport — a commercial jet airplane that can fly faster than the speed of sound. Abbreviation: SST.
- surface-active agent — any substance that when dissolved in water or an aqueous solution reduces its surface tension or the interfacial tension between it and another liquid.
- surveillance society — a society where surveillance technology is widely used to monitor people's everyday activities
- synchronous rotation — rotation of a satellite in which the period of rotation is equal to the period of orbit around its primary, leaving the same face always pointing toward the primary: The moon is in synchronous rotation about the earth.
- systemic circulation — the circulatory system in general.
- terrestrial guidance — a method of missile or rocket guidance in which the flight path is controlled by reference to the strength and direction of the earth's gravitational or magnetic field
- the founding fathers — any of the men who were members of the U.S. Constituional Convention of 1787
- the garment industry — the manufacturing of items of clothing
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to get your bearings — to find out where one is or to find out what one should do next
- to 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.
- tobacco mosaic virus — a retrovirus causing mosaic disease in members of the nightshade family. Abbreviation: TMV.
- treasury certificate — an obligation of the U.S. government represented by certificates in denominations ranging from $1000 to $1,000,000, maturing in one year or less with interest periodically payable by the redemption of coupons.
- troilus and cressida — a satiric comedy (1598–1602?) by Shakespeare.
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- trustee savings bank — a British financial institution which offered savings facilities for small investors and was managed by unpaid trustees. Depositors had no voting rights and no say in financial or managerial matters. The bank is now a public limited company with the same rights and services as other banks and only retains the title in the abbreviated form TSB.
- tubing head pressure — The tubing head pressure is the pressure on the tubing, which is measured at the wellhead.