16-letter words containing a, t, o, r, y
- shaggy dog story — a funny story, traditionally about a talking dog, that, after an often long and involved narration of unimportant incidents, has an absurd or irrelevant punch line.
- shaggy-dog story — a funny story, traditionally about a talking dog, that, after an often long and involved narration of unimportant incidents, has an absurd or irrelevant punch line.
- shooting gallery — a place equipped with targets and used for practice in shooting.
- shorthand typing — shorthand and typing
- shorthand typist — A shorthand typist is a person who types and writes shorthand, usually in an office.
- slang dictionary — a specialized dictionary covering the words, phrases, and idioms that reflect the least formal speech of a language. These terms are often metaphorical and playful, and are likely to be evanescent as the spoken language changes from one generation to another. Much slang belongs to specific groups, as the jargon of a particular class, profession, or age group. Some is vulgar. Some slang terms have staying power as slang, but others make a transition into common informal speech, and then into the standard language. An online slang dictionary, such as the Dictionary.com Slang Dictionary, provides immediate information about the meaning and history of a queried term and its appropriateness or lack of appropriateness in a range of social and professional circumstances.
- social secretary — a personal secretary employed to make social appointments and handle personal correspondence.
- soft pornography — soft-core pornography.
- software library — a collection of programs that are used to develop software
- sooty shearwater — any of several long-winged seabirds, often used as food, especially Puffinus tenuirostris (short-tailed shearwater) of Australia and Puffinus griseus (sooty shearwater) which breeds in the Southern Hemisphere and winters in the Northern Hemisphere.
- sphygmomanometer — an instrument, often attached to an inflatable air-bladder cuff and used with a stethoscope, for measuring blood pressure in an artery.
- sphygmomanometry — an instrument, often attached to an inflatable air-bladder cuff and used with a stethoscope, for measuring blood pressure in an artery.
- stagedoor johnny — a man who often goes to a theater or waits at a stage door to court an actress.
- starry grasswort — a weedy plant, Cerastium arvense, of the pink family, native to the North Temperate Zone, having narrow leaves and white flowers.
- start-up company — new business
- state's attorney — (in judicial proceedings) the legal representative of the state.
- stationary front — a front between warm and cold air masses that is moving very slowly or not at all.
- stationary orbit — an orbit lying in, or approximately in, the plane of the equator for which the orbital period is equal to the spin period of the central body
- stationary point — a point on a curve at which the tangent is either horizontal or vertical, such as a maximum, a minimum, or a point of inflection
- stationary state — any of several energy states an atom may occupy without emitting electromagnetic radiation.
- statutory change — a change in the law
- stereoregularity — (of a polymer) the degree to which successive configurations in space along the chain follow a simple rule. Also called tacticity. Compare configuration (def 4).
- stonecrop family — the plant family Crassulaceae, characterized by succulent herbaceous plants and shrubs with simple, fleshy leaves, clusters of small flowers, and dry, dehiscent fruit, and including hen-and-chickens, houseleek, kalanchoe, live-forever, orpine, sedum, and stonecrop.
- storage capacity — amount of room or space
- strawberry blond — reddish blond.
- strongyloidiasis — an intestinal disease caused by infection with the nematode worm Strongyloides stercoralis
- syncategorematic — Traditional Logic. of or relating to a word that is part of a categorical proposition but is not a term, as all, some, is.
- systematic error — a persistent error that cannot be attributed to chance.
- systems software — Computers. a collection of system programs for use with a particular computer system.
- take holy orders — to become ordained
- terms of payment — The terms of payment of a sale state how and when an invoice is to be paid.
- territorial army — The Territorial Army is a British armed force whose members are not professional soldiers but train as soldiers in their spare time.
- tertiary college — a college system incorporating the secondary school sixth form and vocational courses
- tetrahydrozoline — a compound, C 13 H 16 N 2 , used in the treatment of nasal congestion and certain conditions of eye irritation.
- the moving party — a person who applies to a court or judge with the aim of obtaining a ruling in their favour
- the roaring days — the period of the Australian goldrushes
- the years of sth — the period when sth happened or existed
- there you are/go — You say 'there you are' or 'there you go' when you are offering something to someone.
- thermoplasticity — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
- three-point play — a play in which a player sinks the free throw that was awarded when the player was fouled while scoring a basket.
- thrombocytopenia — an abnormal decrease in the number of blood platelets.
- to carry the can — If you have to carry the can, you have to take all the blame for something.
- to carry the day — If someone carries the day, they are the winner in a contest such as a battle, debate, or sporting competition.
- to get your oats — to have sexual intercourse regularly
- to play for time — If you play for time, you try to make something happen more slowly, because you do not want it to happen or because you need time to think about what to do if it happens.
- to sow your oats — (of a young person) to behave in a rather uncontrolled way, esp by having a lot of sexual relationships
- to try your hand — If you try your hand at an activity, you attempt to do it, usually for the first time.
- tobacco industry — business of selling smoking products
- transfer company — a company that transports people or luggage for a relatively short distance, as between terminals of two railroad lines.
- transmethylation — the transfer of a methyl group from one compound to another.