22-letter words containing a, y, r, s

preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
probationary assistant — a teacher in the first probationary years
process cinematography — cinematography in which the main or foreground action or scene is superimposed on or combined with simulated or separately filmed background action or scenery to produce special visual effects.
prothonotary apostolic — a member of the first college of prelates of the Roman Curia.
psychological thriller — book, movie: suspense story
pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
quantum chromodynamics — a quantum field theory that describes quarks and gluons and their interactions, with the color of the quarks playing a role analogous to that of electric charge. Abbreviation: QCD. Also called chromodynamics. Compare color (def 18).
research systems, inc. — (RSI) Distributors of Interactive Data Language (IDL).
rheumatoid spondylitis — ankylosing spondylitis.
rocky mountain oysters — mountain oyster.
rural delivery service — mail delivery operated primarily to deliver and collect mail in rural communities with no other convenient postal facilities.
safety integrity level — A safety integrity level is a relative level of risk reduction.
safety-critical system — A computer, electronic or electromechanical system whose failure may cause injury or death to human beings. E.g. an aircraft or nuclear power station control system. Common tools used in the design of safety-critical systems are redundancy and formal methods. See also aeroplane rule.
sapir-whorf hypothesis — a theory developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf that states that the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
saturday night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
saturday-night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
schachter's hypothesis — (web) The observation that "Given two unrelated technical terms, an Internet search engine will retrieve only résumés". This was first formulated by Joshua Eli Schachter in about 1998, while poring over the uniformly irrelevant pages that resulted from a search he'd run on "+Perl +MAPI" in Altavista.
secondary articulation — coarticulation (def 2).
secondary spermatocyte — See under spermatocyte.
secondary-articulation — concomitance of articulation, as in fro, ostensibly a succession of three discrete sounds but physically a single articulation (f-) blending into a coarticulation (-fr-), which blends into an articulation (-r-), which blends into a coarticulation (-ro-), which blends into an articulation (-o).
secretary to the board — the secretary to the board of directors; company secretary
social security number — A Social Security number is a nine digit number that is given to U.S. citizens and to people living in the U.S. You need it to get a job, collect Social Security benefits and receive some government services.
somatic nervous system — the section of the nervous system responsible for sensation and control of the skeletal muscles
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 delivery stamp — a stamp of special design, having a value indicating an extra fee in addition to the regular postage, and affixed to an item of mail to ensure its special delivery.
spectrophotometrically — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
spinal accessory nerve — accessory nerve.
st. marys falls canals — three ship canals (two U.S., one Canadian) bypassing a rapids of the St. Marys River at Sault Ste. Marie
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
subjective probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined by subjective criteria
subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
supplementary question — a question asked in Parliament by an MP during Questions to the Prime Minister
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.
take one's breath away — the air inhaled and exhaled in respiration.
temporal lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
temporal-lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
the nature conservancy — a US charitable environmental organization, founded in 1951, that works to preserve the plants, animals, and natural communities by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive
the same/the very same — You say 'the same' or 'the very same' in reply to someone's question when you are saying that they have identified a person or thing correctly.
thermal imaging system — equipment providing images of a target, or of a person or thing under examination
time-lapse photography — the photographing on motion-picture film of a slow and continuous process, as the growth of a plant, at regular intervals, especially by exposing a single frame at a time, for projection at a higher speed.
to be a one-way street — if you describe an agreement or a relationship as a one-way street, you mean that only one of the sides in the agreement or relationship is offering something or is benefitting from it
to cast your mind back — If you cast your mind back to a time in the past, you think about what happened then.
to cast your net wider — If you cast your net wider, you look for or consider a greater variety of things.
to lead someone astray — If you are led astray by someone or something, you behave badly or foolishly because of them.
to overplay one's hand — If someone overplays their hand, they act more confidently than they should because they believe that they are in a stronger position than they actually are.
toey as a roman sandal — very anxious

Was this page helpful?

Yes No

Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page

Tell us why?