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15-letter words containing l, a, c, r, i

  • rural sociology — the sociological study of life in rural areas and the effects of ruralization.
  • russell's attic — (mathematics)   An imaginary room containing countably many pairs of shoes (i.e. a pair for each natural number), and countably many pairs of socks. How many shoes are there? Answer: countably many (map the left shoes to even numbers and the right shoes to odd numbers, say). How many socks are there? Also countably many, we want to say, but we can't prove it without the Axiom of Choice, because in each pair, the socks are indistinguishable (there's no such thing as a left sock). Although for any single pair it is easy to select one, we cannot specify a general method for doing this.
  • rusty blackbird — a North American blackbird, Euphagus carolinus, the male of which has plumage that is uniformly bluish-black in the spring and rusty-edged in the fall.
  • sabbatical year — Also called sabbatical leave. (in a school, college, university, etc.) a year, usually every seventh, of release from normal teaching duties granted to a professor, as for study or travel.
  • sailor's choice — any of various small percoid fishes of American coastal regions of the Atlantic, esp the grunt Haemulon parra and the pinfish
  • sailor's-choice — any of several fishes living in waters along the Atlantic coast of the U.S., especially a pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides, ranging from Massachusetts to Texas, and a grunt, Haemulon parrai, ranging from Florida to Brazil.
  • salary increase — an increase in the salary or pay given to an employee
  • sand-lime brick — a hard brick composed of silica sand and a lime of high calcium content, molded under high pressure and baked.
  • saprophytically — any organism that lives on dead organic matter, as certain fungi and bacteria.
  • scaling circuit — an electronic device or circuit that aggregates electric pulses and gives a single output pulse for a predetermined number of input pulses
  • scared shitless — terrified
  • scarlet lychnis — a plant, Lychnis chalcedonica, of the pink family, having scarlet or sometimes white flowers, the arrangement and shape of the petals resembling a Maltese cross.
  • schillerization — the process of altering crystals to produce schiller
  • seleucia pieria — an ancient port in Syria, on the River Orontes: the port of Antioch, of military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids; largely destroyed by earthquake in 526; site of present-day Samandaǧ (Turkey)
  • self-caricature — a picture, description, etc., ludicrously exaggerating the peculiarities or defects of persons or things: His caricature of the mayor in this morning's paper is the best he's ever drawn.
  • self-lacerating — to tear roughly; mangle: The barbed wire lacerated his hands.
  • self-laceration — the result of lacerating; a rough, jagged tear.
  • self-proclaimed — to announce or declare in an official or formal manner: to proclaim war.
  • semi-articulate — uttered clearly in distinct syllables.
  • semicrystalline — partly or imperfectly crystalline.
  • semicylindrical — of, relating to, or having the shape of a semicylinder
  • semilogarithmic — (of graphing) having one scale logarithmic and the other arithmetic or of uniform gradation.
  • semitranslucent — imperfectly or almost translucent.
  • ship's articles — a type of contract by which sailors agree to the conditions, payment, etc, for the ship in which they are going to work
  • shrimp cocktail — prawns and lettuce in Mary Rose sauce
  • silicon carbide — a very hard, insoluble, crystalline compound, SiC, used as an abrasive and as an electrical resistor in objects exposed to high temperatures.
  • silviculturally — with reference to silviculture
  • simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
  • simple fracture — a fracture in which the bone does not pierce the skin.
  • sinclair, clive — Clive Sinclair
  • sled cultivator — go-devil (def 5).
  • snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
  • social bookmark — the practice of saving bookmarked Web pages to a public website as a way to share the links with other Internet users: Social bookmarking is a tool that allows you to add tags and comments to your bookmarks.
  • social contract — the voluntary agreement among individuals by which, according to any of various theories, as of Hobbes, Locke, or Rousseau, organized society is brought into being and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare or to regulate the relations among its members.
  • social democrat — a person who advocates a gradual transition to socialism or a modified form of socialism by and under democratic political processes.
  • social drinking — the practice of drinking alcohol occasionally and usually only in social situations
  • social heritage — the entire inherited pattern of cultural activity present in a society.
  • social register — a directory or list of people prominent in the fashionable society of a given area
  • social security — (usually initial capital letters) a program of old-age, unemployment, health, disability, and survivors insurance maintained by the U.S. federal government through compulsory payments by specific employer and employee groups.
  • social services — organized welfare efforts carried on under professional auspices by trained personnel.
  • social-drinking — a person who drinks alcoholic beverages usually in the company of others and is in control of his or her drinking.
  • socialist party — a U.S. political party advocating socialism, formed about 1900 chiefly by former members of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Labor Party.
  • socioculturally — from a sociocultural point of view
  • sociohistorical — involving social and historical elements
  • sodium chlorate — a colorless, water-soluble solid, NaClO 3 , cool and salty to the taste, used chiefly in the manufacture of explosives and matches, as a textile mordant, and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
  • source material — original, authoritative, or basic materials utilized in research, as diaries or manuscripts.
  • special feature — an article differing from the normal format and focusing on a particular topic
  • special library — a library maintained by an organization, as a business, association, or government agency, to collect materials and provide information of special relevance to the work of the organization.
  • special partner — a partner whose liability for the firm's debts is limited to the amount that partner has invested in the firm.
  • spectral series — a series of lines in the spectrum of light emitted by excited atoms of an element, each line being related to the others in the series by a simple numerical equation and identified with a particular energy level of an atom of the element.
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