22-letter words containing a, t, n
- south atlantic current — an eastward-flowing ocean current formed by the merging of the Brazil Current and the southward-flowing current near the Falkland Islands and forming the southern part of the general circulation of the South Atlantic Ocean.
- south sandwich islands — a group of volcanic islands, administered by England, in the South Atlantic Ocean: part of the Falkland Islands dependency. 120 sq. mi. (310 sq. km).
- south shetland islands — a group of uninhabited islands in the S Atlantic, north of the Antarctic Peninsula: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of British Antarctic Territory since 1962. (Claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 4662 sq km (1800 sq miles)
- southern redbelly dace — any of the small, brightly colored North American freshwater cyprinids, especially Phoxinus oreas (northern redbelly dace) and P. erythrogaster (southern redbelly dace)
- special drawing rights — the reserve assets of the International Monetary Fund on which member nations may draw in proportion to their contribution to the Fund
- special interest group — (SIG) One of several technical areas, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Well-known SIGs include SIGPLAN (the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages), SIGARCH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Architecture) and SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics).
- special-interest group — Also called special interest. a body of persons, corporation, or industry that seeks or receives benefits or privileged treatment, especially through legislation.
- spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
- spelling pronunciation — a pronunciation based on spelling, usually a variant of the traditional pronunciation. The spelling pronunciation of waistcoat is [weyst-koht] /ˈweɪstˌkoʊt/ (Show IPA) rather than [wes-kuh t] /ˈwɛs kət/ (Show IPA).
- spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
- split-dollar insurance — life insurance in which someone helps pay the premiums for another, as when an employer contributes to the premiums of an employee's policy.
- spontaneous combustion — the ignition of a substance or body from the rapid oxidation of its own constituents without heat from any external source.
- spontaneous generation — abiogenesis.
- st-pierre and miquelon — group of islands in the Atlantic, south of Newfoundland, constituting a political unit of France: includes the islands of St-Pierre (c. 10 sq mi, 26 sq km) & Miquelon & several islets: 93 sq mi (241 sq km); pop. 6,000
- st. marys falls canals — three ship canals (two U.S., one Canadian) bypassing a rapids of the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie
- stand the test of time — last, endure
- standard scratch score — the number of strokes a scratch player would need to go round a particular course, based on the length of each hole to the green and allowing 36 putts for the round
- start the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- state registered nurse — (formerly in Britain) a nurse who had extensive training and passed examinations enabling him or her to perform all nursing services
- statistical dependence — a condition in which two random variables are not independent. X and Y are positively dependent if the conditional probability, P(X|Y), of X given Y is greater than the probability, P(X), of X, or equivalently if P(X&Y) > P(X).P(Y). They are negatively dependent if the inequalities are reversed
- statute of limitations — a statute defining the period within which legal action may be taken.
- statute of westminster — the act of Parliament (1931) that formally recognized the independence of the dominions within the Empire
- straining at the leash — eagerly impatient to begin something
- strait of juan de fuca — a strait between Vancouver Island (Canada) and NW Washington (US). Length: about 129 km (80 miles). Width: about 24 km (15 miles)
- streetcar named desire — a play (1947) by Tennessee Williams.
- structural engineering — the branch of civil engineering dealing with the design and planning of large structures
- structural linguistics — a usually synchronic approach to language study in which a language is analyzed as an independent network of formal systems, each of which is composed of elements that are defined in terms of their contrasts with other elements in the system.
- structured programming — the design and coding of programs by a methodology (top-down) that successively breaks problems into smaller, nested subunits.
- student volunteer army — a students' voluntary organization that aims to undertake useful work in communities, founded in 2010 to help clear up after a damaging earthquake in Christchurch
- stuffing and stripping — (in marine transport) the packing and unpacking of containers
- subliminal advertising — a form of advertising on film or television that employs subliminal images to influence the viewer unconsciously
- subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
- substantive agreements — collective agreements that regulate jobs, pay, and conditions
- supplementary question — a question asked in Parliament by an MP during Questions to the Prime Minister
- swings and roundabouts — If you say that a situation is swings and roundabouts, you mean that there are as many gains as there are losses.
- syntactic construction — a construction that has no bound forms among its immediate constituents. Compare morphologic construction.
- system account manager — (cryptography, operating system, security) (SAM) A password database stored as a registry file in Windows NT and Windows 2000. The System Account Manager (SAM) database stores users' passwords in a hashed format. Since a hash function is one-way, this provides some measure of security for the storage of the passwords. In an attempt to enhance the security of the SAM database against offline cracking, Microsoft introduced the SYSKEY utility in Windows NT 4.0.
- system management mode — (hardware) (SMM) A reduced power consumption state provided by some Intel microprocessors. When a CPU enters SMM it saves its current state in a special area of static RAM called SMRAM (System Management RAM) and then runs a program, also stored in SMRAM, the SMM handler. SMM is implemented in all Intel "SL" suffixed CPUs. In June 1993, Intel announced it was discontinuing its SL range and instead making all its current processors SL enhanced. See also Auto Idle.
- tactile user interface — (interface) (TUI) Hardware and software to provide access to computer-based graphical[?] information using touch, often intended for blind people. See also haptics.
- take a fancy to sb/sth — If you take a fancy to someone or something, you start liking them, usually for no understandable reason.
- take cognizance of sth — If you take cognizance of something, you take notice of it or acknowledge it.
- take in (one's) stride — to cope with easily and without undue effort or hesitation
- take one's breath away — the air inhaled and exhaled in respiration.
- take someone's measure — a unit or standard of measurement: weights and measures.
- take something as read — to take something for granted as a fact; understand or presume
- take/tickle sb's fancy — If something takes your fancy or tickles your fancy, you like it a lot when you see it or think of it.
- talk someone's arm off — to talk to someone at great length or without pause
- talk through one's hat — a shaped covering for the head, usually with a crown and brim, especially for wear outdoors.
- tapered roller bearing — a rolling bearing that uses tapered rollers running in coned races and is able to accept axial thrust as well as providing shaft location
- tell it to the marines — of or relating to the sea; existing in or produced by the sea: marine vegetation.