19-letter words containing e, t, r, n
- rhetorical question — a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.
- riemannian geometry — Also called elliptic geometry. the branch of non-Euclidean geometry that replaces the parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry with the postulate that in a plane every pair of distinct lines intersects. Compare hyperbolic geometry.
- right circular cone — a cone whose surface is generated by lines joining a fixed point to the points of a circle, the fixed point lying on a perpendicular through the center of the circle.
- right-eyed flounder — any of several flatfishes of the family Pleuronectidae, having both eyes on the right side of the head.
- ring up the curtain — to begin a theatrical performance
- rio grande do norte — a state in E Brazil. 20,464 sq. mi. (53,000 sq. km). Capital: Natal.
- romanian tenderloin — a cut of beef consisting of the diaphragm muscle.
- royal correspondent — a journalist who reports on matters relating to royalty
- run into the ground — to do too long or too often; overdo
- run-length encoding — A kind of compression algorithm which replaces sequences ("runs") of consecutive repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and the length of the run. This can either be applied to all input characters, including runs of length one, or a special character can be used to introduce a run-length encoded group. The longer and more frequent the runs are, the greater the compression that will be achieved. This technique is particularly useful for encoding black and white images where the data units would be single bit pixels.
- sacramento sturgeon — white sturgeon.
- saint luke's summer — a period of unusually warm weather in the autumn
- samoa standard time — a standard time used in the zone which includes American Samoa, corresponding to the mean solar time of the 165th meridian west of Greenwich, England: it is eleven hours behind Greenwich time
- sandwich generation — the generation of people still raising their children while having to care for their aging parents.
- sanitary protection — Sanitary protection is sanitary towels or tampons.
- santa rosa de copan — a town in W Honduras: site of extensive Mayan ruins.
- santiago del estero — a city in N Argentina.
- saturation coverage — news coverage (of an event, etc) that is very thorough in order not to miss any details
- savings certificate — a certificate of deposit for a specific sum of money in a savings account, especially a deposit for a fixed term at a specified interest rate.
- scare the pants off — to scare extremely
- scattersite housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- screen actors guild — a labor union for motion-picture performers, founded in 1933. Abbreviation: SAG.
- sea of tranquillity — Astronomy. Mare Tranquillitatis.
- seat belt tensioner — A seat belt tensioner is a device in a vehicle that pulls a seat belt tight if there is a sudden movement or stop.
- secondary dentition — the permanent dentition
- secondary education — education at high-school level
- secondary infection — an infection resulting from another infection
- secondary intention — See under intention (def 5b).
- secondary picketing — the picketing by strikers of a place of work that supplies goods to or distributes goods from their employer
- secondary qualities — one of the qualities attributed by the mind to an object perceived, such as color, temperature, or taste.
- secondary structure — the arrangement of a polypeptide into a regular alpha helix, beta structure, or random coil configuration by the formation of intramolecular hydrogen bonds along the length of the chain.
- secondary-intention — an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.
- self-administration — the management of any office, business, or organization; direction.
- self-aggrandizement — increase of one's own power, wealth, etc., usually aggressively.
- self-congratulating — the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.
- self-congratulation — the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.
- self-congratulatory — the expression or feeling of uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's own accomplishment, good fortune, etc.; complacency.
- self-discrimination — an act or instance of discriminating, or of making a distinction.
- self-interpretation — the act of interpreting; elucidation; explication: This writer's work demands interpretation.
- self-reconstruction — an act of reconstructing.
- self-representation — the act of representing.
- self-responsibility — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- self-transformation — the act or process of transforming.
- sell down the river — a natural stream of water of fairly large size flowing in a definite course or channel or series of diverging and converging channels.
- semiconductor laser — a laser in which a semiconductor is the light-emitting source, used in many medical procedures.
- semidetached binary — a pair of stars that are so close together that mass transfer occurs from one to the other
- seminiferous tubule — any of the coiled tubules of the testis in which spermatozoa are produced.
- senatorial courtesy — the practice in the U.S. Senate of confirming only those presidential appointees approved by both senators from the state of the appointee, or by the senior senator of the president's party.
- senatorial district — one of a fixed number of districts into which a state of the U.S. is divided, each electing one member to the state senate.
- sense of proportion — If someone has a sense of proportion, they know what is really important and what is not.