17-letter words containing i, r, s, a
- rubber-base paint — latex paint.
- rubberman disease — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- rush-hour traffic — the large number of vehicles that move along roads, travelling to or from work at the beginning and end of the working day
- russian turkestan — a vast region in W and central Asia, E of the Caspian Sea: includes territory in the S central part of Xinjiang province in China (Eastern Turkestan or Chinese Turkestan) a strip of N Afghanistan, and the area (Russian Turkestan) comprising the republics of Kazakhstan, Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan), Tadzhikistan (Tajikistan), Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.
- russian wolfhound — borzoi.
- sacrifice paddock — a grassed area allowed to be grazed completely, to be cultivated and resown later
- sacrificial anode — Chemistry. an anode that is attached to a metal object subject to electrolysis and is decomposed instead of the object.
- safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
- safety precaution — a precaution that is taken in order to ensure that something is safe and not dangerous
- saint bonaventure — Saint ("the Seraphic Doctor") 1221–74, Italian scholastic theologian.
- saint christopher — Saint, died a.d. c250, Christian martyr.
- saint croix river — Also called Santa Cruz. a U.S. island in the N Lesser Antilles: the largest of the Virgin Islands. 82 sq. mi. (212 sq. km).
- saint elmo's fire — corona discharge.
- saint john's wort — any of various plants or shrubs of the genus Hypericum, having yellow flowers and transparently dotted leaves.
- salt-rising bread — a kind of bread leavened with a fermented mixture of salted milk, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and soda.
- same-sex marriage — (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage: Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times. See Word Story at the current entry.
- samurai tradition — the body of customs, thought, practices, etc belonging to the samurai warrior caste of Japan
- san francisco bay — a bay in W California: the harbor of San Francisco; connected with the Pacific by the Golden Gate strait. 50 miles (80 km) long; 3–12 miles (5–19 km) wide.
- sandringham house — a residence of the royal family, in Sandringham, a village in E England, in Norfolk near the E shore of the Wash
- sandro botticelli — Sandro [san-droh,, sahn-;; Italian sahn-draw] /ˈsæn droʊ,, ˈsɑn-;; Italian ˈsɑn drɔ/ (Show IPA), (Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi) 1444?–1510, Italian painter.
- sanitary landfill — landfill.
- sanitation worker — a person employed to collect, haul away, and dispose of garbage.
- santa rosa island — an island off the coast of California, in the Santa Barbara (Channel Islands) of California. 17 miles (27 km) long.
- saturation diving — a method of prolonged diving, using an underwater habitat to allow divers to remain in the high-pressure environment of the ocean depths long enough for their body tissues to become saturated with the inert components of the pressurized gas mixture that they breathe: when this condition is reached, the amount of time required for decompression remains the same, whether the dive lasts a day, a week, or a month.
- scarlet firethorn — a Eurasian evergreen, thorny shrub, Pyracantha coccinea, of the rose family, having white, hairy flower clusters and bright red berries.
- scarlet lightning — scarlet lychnis.
- scarlet pimpernel — a plant belonging to the genus Anagallis, of the primrose family, especially A. arvensis (scarlet pimpernel) having scarlet or white flowers that close at the approach of bad weather.
- schematic capture — The process of entering the logical design of an electronic circuit into a CAE system by creating a schematic representation of components and interconnections.
- schiff-s--reagent — a solution of rosaniline and sulfurous acid in water, used to test for the presence of aldehydes.
- scratch 'n' sniff — denoting a product that releases a smell when scratched
- screaming meemies — extreme nervous tension
- screaming-meemies — extreme nervousness; hysteria (usually preceded by the).
- scrophulariaceous — belonging to the Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family of plants.
- seaman apprentice — a noncommissioned enlisted person ranking above seaman recruit and below seaman. Abbreviation: SA.
- second derivative — the derivative of the derivative of a function: Acceleration is the second derivative of distance with respect to time.
- second generation — being the second generation of a family to be born in a particular country: the oldest son of second-generation Americans.
- second-generation — being the second generation of a family to be born in a particular country: the oldest son of second-generation Americans.
- secondary glazing — insulation by means of a second pane of glass, or a sheet of plastic: a simple form of double glazing
- secondary quality — one of the qualities attributed by the mind to an object perceived, such as color, temperature, or taste.
- secondary rainbow — a faint rainbow formed by light rays that undergo two internal reflections in drops of rain, appearing above the primary rainbow and having its colors in the opposite order.
- secondary sealing — Secondary sealing is a system of wiper seals used in floating roof tanks.
- secondary winding — A secondary winding is the winding of a transformer that receives its energy by electromagnetic induction from the primary winding.
- securities dealer — a person who buys and sells securities
- securities market — the market in stocks, shares, bonds and other securities
- self-administered — to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of: to administer the law.
- self-aggrandizing — increase of one's own power, wealth, etc., usually aggressively.
- self-appreciation — gratitude; thankful recognition: They showed their appreciation by giving him a gold watch.
- self-confirmation — the act of confirming.
- self-consecration — the act of setting oneself to a task or vocation without ordination by others or by a religious body.
- self-conservation — the act of conserving; prevention of injury, decay, waste, or loss; preservation: conservation of wildlife; conservation of human rights.