16-letter words containing c, o, s, y
- poverty-stricken — suffering from poverty; extremely poor: poverty-stricken refugees.
- primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
- prison psychosis — a state of mental confusion, transitory or permanent, brought on by incarceration or by the anticipation of imprisonment.
- proboscis monkey — a reddish, arboreal monkey, Nasalis larvatus, of Borneo, the male of which has a long, flexible nose: an endangered species.
- process industry — business of treating raw materials
- process theology — a form of theology that emphasizes the close relation of human beings, nature, and God.
- proficiency test — an exam which test how proficient or skilled someone is in a particular activity, field of study, language, etc
- pseudoparenchyma — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
- psychoanalytical — a systematic structure of theories concerning the relation of conscious and unconscious psychological processes.
- psychobiological — the use of biological methods to study normal and abnormal emotional and cognitive processes, as the anatomical basis of memory or neurochemical abnormalities in schizophrenia.
- psychogeriatrics — the psychology of old age.
- psychoimmunology — the branch of medicine studying the effects of psychological phenomena on the immune system; the intersection of psychology and immunology.
- psychophysiology — the branch of physiology that deals with the interrelation of mental and physical phenomena.
- psychotechnology — the body of knowledge, theories, and techniques developed for understanding and influencing individual, group, and societal behavior in specified situations.
- ptolemaic system — a system elaborated by Ptolemy and subsequently modified by others, according to which the earth was the fixed center of the universe, with the heavenly bodies moving about it.
- public schoolboy — a boy attending a public school, or a man who attended one
- pyloric stenosis — an abnormal narrowing of the valve at the outlet from the stomach, preventing normal passage of food into the small intestine.
- quasi-compulsory — required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
- radiosymmetrical — radially symmetrical.
- recursion theory — (theory) The study of problems that, in principle, cannot be solved by either computers or humans.
- reserve buoyancy — the difference between the volume of a hull below the designed waterline and the volume of the hull below the lowest opening incapable of being made watertight.
- restriction play — a limited number of opening moves that are predetermined by their chance selection from an accepted list.
- rhabdomyosarcoma — a malignant tumor made up of striated muscle tissue.
- royal commission — (in Britain) a body set up by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister to gather information about the operation of existing laws or to investigate any social, educational, or other matter. The commission has prescribed terms of reference and reports to the government on how any change might be achieved
- safety-conscious — conscious of being safe and preventing danger
- scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
- 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
- sclerenchymatous — supporting or protective tissue composed of thickened, dry, and hardened cells.
- 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.
- security council — the division of the United Nations charged with maintaining international peace, composed of five permanent members (U.S., Russian Federation, France, United Kingdom, and the People's Republic of China) and ten temporary members, each serving for two years.
- security officer — civilian, policeman or soldier who is responsible for security in a town or country
- sedimentary rock — rock formed from compacted minerals
- selective memory — an ability to remember some facts while apparently forgetting others, especially when they are inconvenient
- self-complacency — pleased with oneself; self-satisfied; smug.
- self-deprecatory — belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest.
- self-exculpatory — intended to excuse oneself from blame or guilt
- send to coventry — to ostracize or ignore
- shipping company — business that sends goods overseas
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.