16-letter words containing c, a, s
- same-day service — (humour, operating system) An ironic term used to describe long response time, particularly with respect to MS-DOS system calls (which ought to require only a tiny fraction of a second to execute). Such response time is a major incentive for programmers to write programs that are not well-behaved. See also PC-ism.
- sandwich islands — the Hawaiian Islands
- sangre de cristo — a mountain range in S Colorado and N New Mexico: a part of the Rocky Mountains. Highest peak, Blanca Peak, 14,390 feet (4385 meters).
- santiago de cuba — a region in Ecuador, E of the Andes: the border long disputed by Peru.
- sauce americaine — a sauce prepared with tomatoes, garlic, wine, shallots, and herbs. See also à l’américaine.
- save one's bacon — the back and sides of the hog, salted and dried or smoked, usually sliced thin and fried for food.
- savonarola chair — a chair of the Renaissance having a number of transverse pairs of curved legs, crossing beneath the seat and rising to support the arms and back.
- saxo grammaticus — c1150–1206? Danish historian and poet.
- scandinavian lox — a kind of brine-cured salmon, having either a salt cure (Scandinavian lox) or a sugar cure (Nova Scotia lox) often eaten with cream cheese on a bagel.
- scar tissue code — (humour, programming) Old code that is commented out but still included in the current release.
- scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
- scarlet clematis — a slightly woody vine, Clematis texensis, of Texas, having bluish-green leaves, plumed fruit, and solitary, urn-shaped, scarlet-to-pink flowers.
- scarlet eggplant — a hairy, prickly plant, Solanum integrifolium, of the nightshade family, native to Africa, grown for its furrowed, nearly round, scarlet or yellow ornamental fruit.
- scavenger beetle — any beetle of the mostly aquatic family Hydrophilidae, having clubbed antennae and long palps, and usually feeding on decaying vegetation
- schaumburg-lippe — a former state in NW Germany.
- scheduled castes — (in India) the official name given to the lower castes that are now protected by the government and offered special concessions.
- schiff's reagent — a solution of rosaniline and sulfurous acid in water, used to test for the presence of aldehydes.
- schmaltz herring — herring caught just before spawning, when it has much fat
- school librarian — a librarian who works in or is in charge of a school library
- school-age child — a child who is old enough to go to school
- schoolteacherish — showing characteristics thought to be typical of a schoolteacher, as strictness and primness.
- schouten islands — a group of islands belonging to Papua New Guinea, in the Pacific Oceans, off the N coast of New Guinea.
- sclerenchymatous — supporting or protective tissue composed of thickened, dry, and hardened cells.
- scotch blackface — one of a Scottish breed of mountain sheep having a black face and growing long, coarse wool.
- scratch hardness — resistance of a material, as a stone or metal, to scratching by one of several other materials, the known hardnesses of which are assembled into a standard scale, as the Mohs' scale of minerals.
- scratch together — to assemble with difficulty
- scrovegni chapel — Arena Chapel.
- sculpture garden — a garden that showcases sculptures in landscaped surroundings
- seating capacity — the number of people a place can seat
- sebaceous glands — any of the cutaneous glands that secrete oily matter for lubricating hair and skin.
- second adventist — Adventist (def 1).
- second amendment — an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, guaranteeing the right to keep and bear arms as necessary to maintain a state militia.
- second world war — World War II.
- second-story man — a burglar who enters through an upstairs window.
- secondary accent — a stress accent weaker than primary accent but stronger than lack of stress.
- secondary cancer — a cancerous growth in some part of the body away from the site of the original tumour
- secondary colour — a colour formed by mixing two primary colours
- secondary growth — an increase in the thickness of the shoots and roots of a vascular plant as a result of the formation of new cells in the cambium.
- secondary market — the market that exists for an issue after large blocks of shares have been publicly distributed.
- secondary modern — Secondary moderns were schools which existed until recently in Britain for children aged between about eleven and sixteen, where more attention was paid to practical skills and less to academic study than in a grammar school.
- secondary phloem — phloem derived from the cambium during secondary growth.
- secondary school — a high school or a school of corresponding grade, ranking between a primary school and a college or university.
- secondary source — next after the first in order, place, time, etc.
- secondary stress — Engineering. a stress induced by the elastic deformation of a structure under a temporary load.
- secondary tissue — tissue derived from cambium.
- secondhand smoke — smoke from a cigarette, cigar, or pipe that is involuntarily inhaled, especially by nonsmokers.
- secular humanism — any set of beliefs that promotes human values without specific allusion to religious doctrines.
- security analyst — a person who specializes in evaluating information regarding stocks and bonds.
- security blanket — a blanket or other familiar item carried especially by a young child to provide reassurance and a feeling of psychological security.
- security manager — The security manager of a store is the person responsible for organizing all security in the store and to whom security guards report.