12-letter words containing a, s, h, t, n
- sheet anchor — Nautical. a large anchor used only in cases of emergency.
- shoot a line — to try to create a false image, as by boasting or exaggerating
- shooting war — open conflict between hostile nations involving direct military engagements.
- short-acting — (of a drug) quickly effective, but requiring regularly repeated doses for long-term treatment, being rapidly absorbed, distributed in the body, and excreted
- short-change — to give less than the correct change to.
- short-handed — not having the usual or necessary number of workers, helpers, etc.
- shortchanged — to give less than the correct change to.
- shot on goal — a shot that enters the goal or would have entered the goal if it had not been blocked by the goalkeeper or another defensive player.
- shrimp plant — a small, sprawling shrub, Justicia brandegeana (or Beloperone guttata), of the acanthus family, native to Mexico, having small white flowers protruding from a series of overlapping reddish bracts and often cultivated as a houseplant.
- sinanthropus — the genus to which Peking man was formerly assigned.
- slant height — (of a right circular cone) the distance from the vertex to any point on the circumference of the base.
- slaughterman — a person employed to kill animals in a slaughterhouse
- slot machine — a gambling machine operated by inserting coins into a slot and pulling a handle that activates a set of spinning symbols on wheels, the final alignment of which determines the payoff that is released into a receptacle at the bottom.
- smith island — a group of islands in S Maryland and N Virginia, in Chesapeake Bay.
- smooth snake — any of several slender nonvenomous colubrid snakes of the European genus Coronella, esp C. austriaca, having very smooth scales and a reddish-brown coloration
- snaggletooth — a tooth growing out beyond or apart from others.
- snapshotting — an informal photograph, especially one taken quickly by a handheld camera.
- snatch block — a fairlead having the form of a block that can be opened to receive the bight of a rope at any point along its length.
- snatch squad — a squad of soldiers or police trained to deal with demonstrations by picking out and arresting the alleged ringleaders
- snowshoe cat — a breed of cat with soft short hair, blue eyes, an inverted V-shaped marking on the face, and white feet
- soft chancre — chancroid.
- south island — the largest island of New Zealand. 58,093 sq. mi. (150,460 sq. km).
- south korean — a country in E Asia: formed 1948 after the division of the former country of Korea at 38° N. 36,600 sq. mi. (94,795 sq. km). Capital: Seoul. Compare Korea.
- south orange — a city in NE New Jersey.
- south-facing — facing towards the south
- southeastern — from the south east
- spanish foot — a carved pyramidal foot having fluted, concave sides usually ending in a scroll at the bottom.
- sphacelation — the process of mortification
- sphincterial — relating to a sphincter
- spinach beet — chard, a plant cultivated for its edible leaves
- spring catch — a catch for an interior or cabinet door that has a bolt operated by a spring.
- stag hunting — the act of hunting or chasing and killing stags
- stakhanovism — a method for increasing production by rewarding individual initiative, developed in the Soviet Union in 1935.
- stakhanovite — a worker in the Soviet Union who regularly surpassed production quotas and was specially honored and rewarded.
- stand a show — to have a chance, esp. a remote one
- stand-offish — If you say that someone is stand-offish, you mean that they behave in a formal and rather unfriendly way.
- starchedness — the condition or quality of being starched
- starry night — a painting (1889) by Vincent van Gogh.
- stealthiness — done, characterized, or acting by stealth; furtive: stealthy footsteps.
- steganograph — a piece of coded writing; cipher
- stenographer — a person who specializes in taking dictation in shorthand.
- stenographic — the art of writing in shorthand.
- stenophagous — (of an animal) feeding on a limited variety of foods (opposed to euryphagous).
- stenothermal — (of animals or plants) able to exist only within a narrow range of temperature
- stern chaser — a cannon mounted at or near the stern of a sailing ship, facing aft.
- stern-chaser — a cannon mounted at or near the stern of a sailing ship, facing aft.
- stickhandler — a hockey or lacrosse player, esp. one who is talented at stickhandling.
- stinking ash — hoptree.
- stone-washed — Stone-washed jeans are jeans which have been specially washed with small pieces of stone so that when you buy them they are fairly pale and soft.
- stonyhearted — unfeeling; pitiless; cruel