20-letter words containing l, e, a, s, r
- set the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- shareholders' equity — Shareholders' equity is the total amount of ownership investment in a company.
- sharp-tailed sparrow — a sparrow, Ammospiza caudacuta, inhabiting salt marshes in North America, having narrow, sharply pointed tail feathers.
- shoulder-length hair — hair that reaches a person's shoulders
- sierra madre del sur — a plateau mountain range in Guerrero and Oaxaca states, S Mexico. Highest peak 12,149 feet (3703 meters).
- silicon tetrahydride — silane (def 1).
- sir william berkeley — Busby [buhz-bee] /ˈbʌz bi/ (Show IPA), (William Berkeley Enos) 1895–1976, U.S. choreographer and musical-film director.
- skull and crossbones — a representation of a front view of a human skull above two crossed bones, originally used on pirates' flags and now used as a warning sign, as in designating substances as poisons.
- snowflake generation — the generation of people who became adults in the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations
- social security card — a card that contains details of a person's social security number
- sodium fluoroacetate — a white, amorphous, water-soluble, poisonous powder, C 2 H 2 FO 2 Na, used as a rodenticide.
- software methodology — (programming) The study of how to navigate through each phase of the software process model (determining data, control, or uses hierarchies, partitioning functions, and allocating requirements) and how to represent phase products (structure charts, stimulus-response threads, and state transition diagrams).
- solitary confinement — the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place in which he or she is completely isolated from others.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- south orkney islands — an uninhabited group of islands in the S Atlantic, southeast of Cape Horn: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 621 sq km (240 sq miles)
- southern oscillation — a low-latitude fluctuation of atmospheric pressure closely linked with El Niño events, specifically the periods of El Niño warming and La Niña cooling.
- spanish oyster plant — a composite plant, Scolymus hispanicus, of southern Europe, having spiny, thistlelike leaf margins, small yellow flowers, and an edible root.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- special patrol group — a former police unit tasked with counter terrorism in the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- special relationship — the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom
- specialist registrar — a hospital doctor senior to a house officer but junior to a consultant, specializing in medicine (medical specialist registrar), surgery (surgical specialist registrar), or some subspeciality of either
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- spherical coordinate — Usually, spherical coordinates. any of three coordinates used to locate a point in space by the length of its radius vector and the angles this vector makes with two perpendicular polar planes.
- spiral of archimedes — a curve that is the locus of a point that moves outward with uniform speed along a vector, beginning at the origin, while the vector rotates about the origin with uniform angular velocity. Equation (in polar coordinates): r = aθ.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- spread like wildfire — If something, especially news or a rumour, spreads like wildfire, it spreads extremely quickly.
- st. george's channel — a channel between Wales and Ireland, connecting the Irish Sea and the Atlantic. 100 miles (160 km) long; 50–90 miles (81–145 km) wide.
- standstill agreement — law: between company and bidder
- star spangled banner — Stars and Stripes.
- star-spangled banner — Stars and Stripes.
- state enrolled nurse — a nurse with training and examinations enabling him or her to perform many nursing services
- state highway patrol — a state's road traffic police
- strong nuclear force — an interaction between elementary particles responsible for the forces between nucleons in the nucleus. It operates at distances less than about 10–15 metres, and is about a hundred times more powerful than the electromagnetic interaction
- structural isomerism — Chemistry. the relation of two or more compounds, radicals, or ions that are composed of the same kinds and numbers of atoms but differ from each other in structural arrangement (structural isomerism) as CH 3 OCH 3 and CH 3 CH 2 OH, or in the arrangement of their atoms in space and therefore in one or more properties. Compare optical isomerism, stereoisomerism.
- suitland-silver hill — a city in central Maryland, near Washington, D.C.
- supplementary angles — either of two angles that added together produce an angle of 180°.
- surveillance society — a society where surveillance technology is widely used to monitor people's everyday activities
- system international — Système International d'Unités
- systemic circulation — the circulatory system in general.
- take to the cleaners — a person who cleans, especially one whose regular occupation is cleaning offices, buildings, equipment, etc.
- telesales department — the department of a company that deals with telesales
- television broadcast — sth shown on tv
- television programme — a programme broadcast on television
- terrestrial guidance — a method of missile or rocket guidance in which the flight path is controlled by reference to the strength and direction of the earth's gravitational or magnetic field
- the canterbury tales — an uncompleted sequence of tales by Chaucer, written for the most part after 1387.
- the greater antilles — a group of islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico
- the last word in sth — If you say that something is the last word in luxury, comfort, or some other quality, you are emphasizing that it has a great deal of this quality.
- the legal profession — the profession of law
- the whole nine yards — everything that is required; the whole thing