15-letter words containing c, a, e, s, r
- shopping arcade — a place where a number of shops are connected together under one roof
- shoshone cavern — a large cave in NW Wyoming: a national monument.
- shoulder charge — an instance of a player charging into another so that there is contact between their shoulders (permissible in some circumstances)
- side impact bar — A side impact bar is a long beam in a car door that is designed to protect passengers during a crash.
- silicon carbide — a very hard, insoluble, crystalline compound, SiC, used as an abrasive and as an electrical resistor in objects exposed to high temperatures.
- simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
- simple fracture — a fracture in which the bone does not pierce the skin.
- sinclair, clive — Clive Sinclair
- singing teacher — a teacher who gives instruction in how to sing
- sled cultivator — go-devil (def 5).
- small cranberry — See under cranberry (def 1).
- snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
- social democrat — a person who advocates a gradual transition to socialism or a modified form of socialism by and under democratic political processes.
- social heritage — the entire inherited pattern of cultural activity present in a society.
- social register — a directory or list of people prominent in the fashionable society of a given area
- social security — (usually initial capital letters) a program of old-age, unemployment, health, disability, and survivors insurance maintained by the U.S. federal government through compulsory payments by specific employer and employee groups.
- social services — organized welfare efforts carried on under professional auspices by trained personnel.
- socratic method — the use of questions, as employed by Socrates, to develop a latent idea, as in the mind of a pupil, or to elicit admissions, as from an opponent, tending to establish a proposition.
- sodium chlorate — a colorless, water-soluble solid, NaClO 3 , cool and salty to the taste, used chiefly in the manufacture of explosives and matches, as a textile mordant, and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
- sodium citrates — the sodium salts of citric acid (monosodium citrate, disodium citrate, trisodium citrate)
- soft-shell crab — a crab, especially the blue crab, that has recently molted and therefore has a soft, edible shell.
- solar collector — any of numerous devices or systems designed to capture and use solar radiation for heating air or water and for producing steam to generate electricity.
- somatic therapy — any of a group of treatments presumed to act on biological factors leading to mental illness.
- source language — the language in which a text appears that is to be translated into another language. Compare target language (def 1).
- source material — original, authoritative, or basic materials utilized in research, as diaries or manuscripts.
- space character — a keyed space in text or data
- spanish america — the Spanish-speaking countries south of the U.S.: Mexico, Central America (with the exception of Belize), South America (with the exceptions of Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname), and most of the West Indies.
- special feature — an article differing from the normal format and focusing on a particular topic
- special library — a library maintained by an organization, as a business, association, or government agency, to collect materials and provide information of special relevance to the work of the organization.
- special partner — a partner whose liability for the firm's debts is limited to the amount that partner has invested in the firm.
- specific charge — the ratio of the charge on a particle to the mass of the particle.
- speckle pattern — the visual appearance of a star as viewed through a large telescope, with irregularities caused by the distorting effect of local turbulence in the earth's atmosphere.
- spectator sport — any sport that can be watched by spectators, as football or basketball, usually for a fee.
- spectral series — a series of lines in the spectrum of light emitted by excited atoms of an element, each line being related to the others in the series by a simple numerical equation and identified with a particular energy level of an atom of the element.
- spectrochemical — of, relating to, or utilizing the techniques of spectrochemistry.
- speech training — training designed to improve spoken skills, such as voice projection
- speed indicator — an instrument for counting the number of revolutions of a gasoline engine.
- spermatoblastic — relating to a spermatoblast
- spherical angle — an angle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spirochaetaemia — the presence of spirochaetes in the blood
- splanchnopleure — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
- sporting chance — an even or fair opportunity for a favorable outcome in an enterprise, as winning in a game of chance or in any kind of contest: They gave the less experienced players a sporting chance by handicapping the experts.
- spring-cleaning — a complete cleaning of a place, as a home, done traditionally in the spring of the year.
- sprinkler dance — a celebratory dance in which participants extend one arm and shake it to imitate the action of a rotating water sprinkler
- stack the cards — to prearrange the order of a pack of cards secretly so that the deal will benefit someone
- stage direction — an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.
- stalactite work — (in Islamic architecture) intricate decorative corbeling in the form of brackets, squinches, and portions of pointed vaults.
- standard candle — a unit of luminous intensity; the candela: not in scientific usage because of possible confusion with a former unit (international candle)
- standard clause — a clause which is inserted as standard into certain types of contracts or agreements
- standing charge — fixed energy costs