23-letter words containing l, o, r, a
- short-tailed shearwater — any of several long-winged seabirds, often used as food, especially Puffinus tenuirostris (short-tailed shearwater) of Australia and Puffinus griseus (sooty shearwater) which breeds in the Southern Hemisphere and winters in the Northern Hemisphere.
- sierra madre occidental — the system of mountains in the west of Mexico
- silicone breast implant — silicone filled bags that are implanted into a woman in order to increase the size of her breasts
- small-scale integration — SSI.
- social democratic party — History/Historical. a political party in Germany advocating a form of social organization based on the economic and political ideology of Karl Marx.
- social education centre — a daycentre, run by a local authority, for people with learning disabilities and sometimes also for people who have physical disabilities or are mentally ill
- social insurance number — a nine-digit number used by the federal government to identify a citizen
- social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
- socialist international — an international association of largely anti-Communist Social Democratic Parties, founded in Frankfurt in 1951
- sodium tripolyphosphate — a white powder, Na 5 P 3 O 1 0 , used as a water softener, sequestering agent, and food additive.
- software developers kit — (jargon, product) (SDK, or "Software Development Kit") Software provided by a software vendor to allow their products to be used with those of other software vendors.
- somaliland protectorate — official name of the former British Somaliland.
- squamous cell carcinoma — a carcinoma that arises from squamous epithelium in the skin and sometimes in the mucous membranes.
- st. pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
- standard widget toolkit — (graphics, programming, standard) (SWT) The Eclipse Foundation's framework for developing graphical user interfaces in Java. SWT is written in explicitly standard Java but uses the Java Native Interface to talk to a platform-native GUI library. SWT is the third major attempt to give Java a decent GUI framework, following AWT and Swing. Of the three, SWT is the most consistent with the native GUIs but its programming model is hard to port to non-Windows platforms.
- steal someone's thunder — to strike, drive, inflict, give forth, etc., with loud noise or violent action.
- stereospecific catalyst — a catalyst for stereospecific chemical reactions
- sterling software, inc. — (company) A software company which was bought out by Computer Associates International, Inc.
- stimulus generalization — generalization (def 4a).
- stimulus-generalization — the act or process of generalizing.
- straight bill of lading — a bill of lading that is issued to a specified consignee for the delivery of the goods and that cannot be endorsed to another party.
- structural anthropology — a school of anthropology founded by Claude Lévi-Strauss and based loosely on the principles of structural linguistics.
- structural unemployment — unemployment caused by basic changes in the overall economy, as in demographics, technology, or industrial organization.
- suprasegmental phonemes — phonemes or features of speech, as pitch, stress, and juncture, that may extend over and modify series of segmental phonemes
- survival of the fittest — (not in technical use) natural selection.
- symbolic interactionism — a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings.
- system control language — (language) (SCL) The command language for the VME/B operating system on the ICL2900. SCL was block structured and supported strings, lists of strings ("superstrings"), integer, Boolean, and array types. You could trigger a block whenever a condition on a variable value occured. It supported macros and default arguments. Commands were treated like procedure calls.
- tennessee walking horse — an American breed of horse, marked by its stamina and trained to move at a fast running walk
- thank one's lucky stars — any of the heavenly bodies, except the moon, appearing as fixed luminous points in the sky at night.
- the kingdom of lorraine — an early medieval kingdom on the Meuse, Moselle, and Rhine rivers: later a duchy
- the library of congress — the official library of the United States in Washington, DC. It houses extensive collections in all subject areas and formats, important historical documents, and is also a depository for copyrighted materials.
- the metropolitan police — the police organization that is responsible for Greater London, excluding the City of London
- the royal naval reserve — the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom
- the scottish parliament — the devolved national legislature of Scotland, located in Edinburgh
- the thrill of the chase — If you talk about the thrill of the chase, you are referring to the excitement that people feel when they are trying hard to get something.
- there'll be hell to pay — If you say there'll be hell to pay, you are emphasizing that there will be serious trouble.
- throw down the gauntlet — a medieval glove, as of mail or plate, worn by a knight in armor to protect the hand.
- to add insult to injury — You say to add insult to injury when mentioning an action or fact that makes an unfair or unacceptable situation even worse.
- to carry all before you — If a person or team carries all before them, they succeed very easily.
- to have a police record — If you say that somebody has a police record, you mean that they have committed a crime or crimes and the police have a record of this.
- to have feelings for sb — to be emotionally or sexually attracted to
- to have your hands full — If you have your hands full with something, you are very busy because of it.
- to keep your nose clean — If you keep your nose clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble.
- to make your skin crawl — If something makes your skin crawl or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel shocked or disgusted.
- to outstay your welcome — If you say that someone outstays their welcome or overstays their welcome, you mean that they stay somewhere longer than they are wanted or expected to.
- to play for high stakes — to gamble on something very important
- to pluck up the courage — If you pluck up the courage to do something that you feel nervous about, you make an effort to be brave enough to do it.
- to rest on your laurels — If someone is resting on their laurels, they appear to be satisfied with the things they have achieved and have stopped putting effort into what they are doing.
- to turn over a new leaf — If you say that you are going to turn over a new leaf, you mean that you are going to start to behave in a better or more acceptable way.
- to win the popular vote — to get a majority as regards the votes cast by individual voters