17-letter words containing a, s, e, n, t, o
- significant other — Sociology. a person, as a parent or peer, who has great influence on one's behavior and self-esteem.
- sinbad the sailor — a merchant in The Arabian Nights who makes seven adventurous voyages
- single-track road — a road that is only wide enough for one vehicle
- sixth commandment — “Thou shalt not kill”: sixth of the Ten Commandments.
- skate on thin ice — to place oneself in a dangerous or delicate situation
- slap on the wrist — a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
- sleep deprivation — a condition in which you have not had enough sleep
- slenderness ratio — aspect ratio (def 4a).
- slenderness-ratio — Aeronautics. the ratio of the span of an airfoil to its mean chord.
- snatch one's time — to leave a job, taking whatever pay is due
- social assistance — welfare program
- social enterprise — a business organization that works to benefit society as a whole
- social networking — the development of social and professional contacts; the sharing of information and services among people with a common interest.
- social settlement — settlement (def 14).
- socratic elenchus — the drawing out of the consequences of a position in order to show them to be contrary to some accepted position
- sodium propionate — a transparent, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 3 H 5 NaO 2 , used in foodstuffs to prevent mold growth, and in medicine as a fungicide.
- software engineer — a person who writes computer programs
- soil conservation — any of various methods to achieve the maximum utilization of the land and preserve its resources through such controls as crop rotation, prevention of soil erosion, etc.
- solicitor general — a law officer who maintains the rights of the state in suits affecting the public interest, next in rank to the attorney general.
- sound effects man — a man who produces sounds artificially or reproduces them from a recording, etc, to create a theatrical effect, such as the bringing together of two halves of a hollow coconut shell to simulate a horse's gallop. Such sound effects are used in plays, films, etc
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- south farmingdale — a town on central Long Island, in SE New York.
- south lanarkshire — a council area of S Scotland, comprising the S part of the historical county of Lanarkshire: included within Strathclyde Region from 1975 to 1996: has uplands in the S and part of the Glasgow conurbation in the N: mainly agricultural. Administrative centre: Hamilton. Pop: 303 010 (2003 est). Area: 1771 sq km (684 sq miles)
- south sea company — a British joint stock company that traded in South America in the 18th century. The South Sea Company took over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks, and a financial crash in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble)
- south sea islands — the islands in the S Pacific that constitute Oceania
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- southern rhodesia — a former name (until 1964) of Zimbabwe (def 1).
- southern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, including the Dodecanese, lying off the SW coast of Turkey
- southern triangle — the constellation Triangulum Australe.
- spaghettification — the theoretical stretching of an object as it encounters extreme differences in gravitational forces, especially those associated with a black hole.
- span of attention — attention span.
- special constable — a person recruited for temporary or occasional police duties, esp in time of emergency
- special education — education that is modified or particularized for those with singular needs, as disabled or maladjusted people, slow learners, or gifted children.
- spenserian sonnet — a sonnet employing the rhyme scheme abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.
- sperrin mountains — a mountain range in NW Northern Ireland
- spit in the ocean — a variety of poker in which four cards are dealt face down to each player and one card, forming the fifth for all hands, is dealt face up in the center of the table, the exposed card and others of its denomination being wild cards.
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- split personality — multiple personality.
- spot announcement — a brief radio or television announcement, usually an advertisement, made by an individual station during or after a network program.
- spotted sandpiper — a North American sandpiper, Actitis macularia, that has brownish-gray upper parts and white underparts, and is spotted with black in the summer.
- sri international — (company) One of the world's largest contract research firms. Founded in 1946 in conjuction with Stanford University as the Stanford Research Institute, they later became fully independent and were incorporated as a non-profit organisation under U.S. and California laws. SRI does research and development in many areas, independently and for hire. They produce and sell reports on the independent research. Address: Menlo Park, California, USA; Cambridge, UK.
- stage-door johnny — a man who often goes to a theater or waits at a stage door to court an actress.
- stand on ceremony — to insist on or act with excessive formality
- stand-up comedian — performer: tells jokes
- stannous chloride — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, SnCl 2 ⋅2H 2 O, used chiefly as a reducing and tinning agent, and as a mordant in dyeing with cochineal.
- stannous fluoride — a white, crystalline powder, SnF 2 , slightly soluble in water: used as a source of fluorine in the prevention of dental caries, especially as a toothpaste additive.
- stationary engine — an engine mounted in a fixed position, as one used for driving generators, compressors, etc.
- statutory meeting — company shareholders' discussion
- statutory offense — a wrong punishable under a statute, rather than at common law.
- stay of execution — If you are given a stay of execution, you are legally allowed to delay obeying an order of a court of law.