16-letter words containing a, s, k
- breakfast cereal — a type of food made from a cereal plant and commonly eaten at breakfast
- buckley's chance — no chance at all
- button snakeroot — blazing star (sense 1)
- cache on a stick — (architecture) (COAST) Intel Corporation attempt to's standardise the modular L2 cache subsystem in Pentium-based computers. A COAST module should be about 4.35" wide by 1.14" high. According to earlier specifications from Motorola, a module between 4.33" and 4.36" wide, and between 1.12" and 1.16" high is within the COAST standard. Some module vendors, including some major motherboard suppliers, greatly violate the height specification. Another COAST specification violated by many suppliers concerns clock distribution in synchronous modules. The specification requires that the clock tree to each synchronous chip be balanced, i.e. equal length from edge of the connector to individual chips. An unbalanced clock tree increases reflections and noise. For a 256 kilobyte cache module the standard requires the same clock be used for both chips but some vendors use separate clocks to reduce loading on the clock driver and hence increase the clock speed. However, this creates unbalanced loading in other motherboard configurations, such as motherboards with soldered caches in the system.
- calculate a risk — If you calculate a risk, you decide how likely an event is, whether the insurer should underwrite the risk, and at what cost.
- cantankerousness — disagreeable to deal with; contentious; peevish: a cantankerous, argumentative man.
- carrot and stick — If an organization has a carrot and stick approach or policy, they offer people things in order to persuade them to do something and punish them if they refuse to do it.
- cassia-bark tree — a lauraceous tree, Cinnamomum cassia, of eastern Asia.
- category mistake — a sentence that says of something in one category what can only intelligibly be said of something in another, as when speaking of the mind located in space
- character sketch — a brief description or portrayal of a person's character, qualities, etc
- clackmannanshire — a council area and historical county of central Scotland; became part of the Central region in 1975 but reinstated as an independent unitary authority in 1996; mainly agricultural. Administrative centre: Alloa. Pop: 47 680 (2003 est). Area: 142 sq km (55 sq miles)
- clarke's gazelle — dibatag.
- class background — a person's background with reference to social class
- clbuttic mistake — the humorous effect created by anti-obscenity filters that automatically replace offensive words in online articles with more acceptable variants
- cloak-and-suiter — a manufacturer or seller of clothing.
- cocktail sausage — a small sausage served with drinks
- combination skin — facial skin that is dry in some areas and greasy in others
- cornhusker state — Nebraska (used as a nickname).
- dakin's solution — a dilute solution containing sodium hypochlorite and boric acid, used as an antiseptic in the treatment of wounds
- dark-side hacker — (jargon, legal) A criminal or malicious hacker; a cracker. From George Lucas's Darth Vader, "seduced by the dark side of the Force". The implication that hackers form a sort of elite of technological Jedi Knights is intended. Opposite: samurai.
- desktop database — Macintosh file system
- drunkard's chair — a low, deep armchair of the 18th century.
- ducks and drakes — Also, duck and drake. a pastime in which flat stones or shells are thrown across water so as to skip over the surface several times before sinking.
- dynamic markings — directions and symbols used to indicate degrees of loudness
- eastern kingbird — any of several American tyrant flycatchers of the genus Tyrannus, especially T. tyrannus (eastern kingbird) of North America, known for their pugnacious disposition toward predators.
- english-speaking — speaking English as a mother tongue
- erlenmeyer flask — conical container used in laboratory
- falkland islands — disputed islands in Atlantic Ocean
- falling sickness — epilepsy.
- firework display — a public event at which fireworks are set alight
- first balkan war — Balkan War (def 1).
- first-aid worker — someone who is trained to give immediate medical help in an emergency
- fisherman's knot — a knot for joining two ropes of equal thickness consisting of an overhand knot or double overhand knot by each rope round the other, so that the two knots jam when pulled tight
- fishskin disease — ichthyosis
- for pete's sake! — an expression of frustration, exasperation or annoyance
- frankfurt school — a school of thought, founded at the University of Frankfurt in 1923 by Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and others, derived from Marxist, Freudian, and Hegelian theory
- fund supermarket — an online facility offering discounted investment opportunities and advice
- gapless playback — audio or visual playback without any interruptions or silence between tracks or scenes
- golden handshake — a special incentive, as generous severance pay, given to an older employee as an inducement to elect early retirement.
- gray nurse shark — a sand shark, Odontaspis arenarius, abundant in S African and Australian coastal waters and estuaries.
- great slave lake — a lake in NW Canada, in the Northwest Territories. 11,172 sq. mi. (28,935 sq. km).
- grey nurse shark — a common greyish Australian shark, Odontaspis arenarius
- guaranteed stock — stock for which dividends are guaranteed by a company other than the one issuing the stock.
- guy fawkes night — In Britain, Guy Fawkes Night is the evening of 5th November, when many people have parties with bonfires and fireworks. It began as a way of remembering the attempt by Guy Fawkes to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Guy Fawkes Night is often referred to as 'Bonfire Night'.
- hard times token — any of a series of U.S. copper tokens, issued 1834–41, bearing a political inscription or advertising message and serving as currency during coin shortages.
- hard-packed snow — snow which becomes very firmly packed as it becomes refrozen due to cold weather conditions rather than melting
- have sb to thank — If you say that you have someone to thank for something, you mean that you are grateful to them because they caused it to happen.
- hawksbill turtle — a sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, the shell of which is the source of tortoise shell: an endangered species.
- haymarket square — a square in Chicago: scene of a riot (Haymarket Riot) in 1886 between police and labor unionists.
- hen-and-chickens — any of several succulent plants that grow in clusters or colonies formed by runners or offshoots, as those of the genera Echeveria and Sempervivum.