16-letter words containing c, h, i, s, o
- purchasing power — Also called buying power. the ability to purchase goods and services.
- quasi-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- queen's champion — a hereditary official at British coronations, representing the king (King's Champion) or the queen (Queen's Champion) who is being crowned, and having originally the function of challenging to mortal combat any person disputing the right of the new sovereign to rule.
- rainbow seaperch — an embiotocid fish, Hypsurus caryi, living off the Pacific coast of North America, having red, orange, and blue stripes on the body.
- recursion theory — (theory) The study of problems that, in principle, cannot be solved by either computers or humans.
- richmond heights — a city in E Missouri, near St. Louis.
- saccharification — to convert (starch) into sugar.
- sado-masochistic — Something that is sado-masochistic is connected with the practice of sado-masochism.
- 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.
- scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
- scheme of things — Someone's scheme of things is the way in which they think that things in their life should be organized.
- schlieren method — a method for detecting regions of differing densities in a clear fluid by photographing a beam of light passed obliquely through it.
- schneider trophy — a trophy for air racing between seaplanes of any nation, first presented by Jacques Schneider (1879–1928) in 1913; won outright by Britain in 1931
- school committee — (in New Zealand) a parent group selected to support a primary school
- school inspector — an official whose job is to inspect schools and to report on their quality and conditions
- 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
- schoolgirl crush — an infatuation that a young girl has, usually for an older man such as a teacher or an actor, which is seen as superficial and unlikely to last for long
- 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.
- scottish borders — a council area in SE Scotland, on the English border: created in 1996, it has the same boundaries as the former Borders Region: it is mainly hilly, with agriculture (esp sheep farming) the chief economic activity. Administrative centre: Newtown St Boswells. Pop: 108 280 (2003 est). Area: 4734 sq km (1827 sq miles)
- scottish terrier — one of a Scottish breed of small terriers having short legs and a wiry, steel-gray, brindled, black, sandy, or wheaten coat.
- scrovegni chapel — Arena Chapel.
- second childhood — senility; dotage.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- sharia-compliant — (of a product or service) produced or offered in accordance with the doctrines of the sharia
- shipping company — business that sends goods overseas
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- shopping complex — a shopping centre
- shortfin corvina — See under corvina.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- sit on the fence — to be unable or unwilling to commit oneself
- situation ethics — a view of ethics that deprecates general moral principles while emphasizing the source of moral judgments in the distinctive characters of specific situations.
- social gathering — party, get-together
- social pathology — a social factor, as poverty, old age, or crime, that tends to increase social disorganization and inhibit personal adjustment.
- something fierce — desperately, intensely
- sonata da chiesa — an instrumental musical form, common in the Baroque period, that usually consists of four movements alternating between slow and fast.
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.
- sour-milk cheese — cottage cheese made from sour milk.
- south carolinian — a state in the SE United States, on the Atlantic coast. 31,055 sq. mi. (80,430 sq. km). Capital: Columbia. Abbreviation: SC (for use with zip code), S.C.
- spanish moroccan — of or relating to the former Spanish colony of Spanish Morocco (now part of Morocco) or its inhabitants
- spectrochemistry — the branch of chemistry that deals with the chemical analysis of substances by means of the spectra of light they absorb or emit.
- spectroheliogram — a photograph of the sun made with a spectroheliograph.
- speech community — the aggregate of all the people who use a given language or dialect.
- st. clair shores — a city in SE Michigan, near Detroit.
- stannic chloride — a colorless fuming and caustic liquid, SnCl 4 , soluble in water and alcohol, that converts with water to a crystalline solid: used for electrically conductive and electroluminescent coatings and in ceramics.
- steamboat gothic — a florid architectural style suggesting the gingerbread-decorated construction of river boats of the Victorian period.
- stick at nothing — to be prepared to do anything; be unscrupulous or ruthless
- stilton (cheese) — a rich, crumbly cheese with veins of blue-green mold