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14-letter words containing m, o, c, s

  • school of mind — (in Chinese philosophy) a Neo-Confucian school asserting the original unity of all things, to be grasped through the perfect attainment of jen.
  • school uniform — standard outfit worn by pupils
  • schoolmistress — a woman who presides over or teaches in a school.
  • scintillometer — a device for detecting and measuring radioactivity, having a crystal scintillator, a photoelectric cell sensitive to the light from scintillations, and an amplifier.
  • scout movement — the group of people who set up the Scout Association and those who currently are involved with it, considered with their organized action
  • scratch monkey — (humour)   As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
  • screening room — a room where films are screened for a private audience
  • second baseman — the player whose position is second base.
  • second chamber — the parliament of the Netherlands, consisting of an upper chamber (First Chamber) and a lower chamber (Second Chamber)
  • secondary beam — a beam of particles of one kind selected from the group of particles produced when a beam of particles from an accelerator (primary beam) strikes a target.
  • sedimentologic — of or relating to sedimentology
  • self-communion — (often initial capital letter). Also called Holy Communion. Ecclesiastical. the act of receiving the Eucharistic elements. the elements of the Eucharist. the celebration of the Eucharist. the antiphon sung at a Eucharistic service.
  • self-composure — calmness and self-possession
  • self-condemned — to express an unfavorable or adverse judgment on; indicate strong disapproval of; censure.
  • self-dominance — rule; control; authority; ascendancy.
  • self-mockingly — in a self-mocking manner
  • semi-automatic — partly automatic.
  • semi-dominance — incomplete dominance.
  • semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
  • semi-objective — something that one's efforts or actions are intended to attain or accomplish; purpose; goal; target: the objective of a military attack; the objective of a fund-raising drive.
  • semi-socialism — a theory or system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., in the community as a whole.
  • semicommercial — of, relating to, or characterized by limited marketing of an experimental product
  • semiconducting — of, relating to, or having the characteristics of a semiconductor.
  • semiofficially — in a semiofficial manner
  • semiologically — in a semiological manner; in a way that pertains to semiology
  • semito-hamitic — a former name for the Afro-Asiatic family of languages
  • sequestrectomy — the removal of dead spicules or portions, especially of bone.
  • service a room — If you service a room, you clean it and change the towels and bed linen in it.
  • service module — (often initial capital letters) U.S. Aerospace. the section of an Apollo spacecraft containing the principal propulsion system, electrical system, water, and other supplies.
  • servomechanism — an electronic control system in which a hydraulic, pneumatic, or other type of controlling mechanism is actuated and controlled by a low-energy signal.
  • sex chromosome — a chromosome, differing in shape or function from other chromosomes, that determines the sex of an individual.
  • shalach manoth — the practice of giving gifts to one another or to the needy on Purim.
  • ship's company — company (def 11).
  • shooting match — a contest in marksmanship.
  • shouting match — a loud, often abusive quarrel or argument.
  • showbiz column — a column about the entertainment industry
  • showplace home — a historic house
  • simaroubaceous — belonging to the Simaroubaceae, the quassia family of plants.
  • simchath torah — a Jewish festival, celebrated on the 23rd day of Tishri, being the 9th day of Sukkoth, that marks the completion of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah in the synagogue and the beginning of the new cycle.
  • simplification — to make less complex or complicated; make plainer or easier: to simplify a problem.
  • slalom descent — a winding descent
  • smart sanction — a sanction intended to affect only a particular area of a country's activities or economy
  • smoke detector — an electronic fire alarm that is activated by the presence of smoke.
  • smoked haddock — haddock that has been cured by treating with smoke
  • smoker's cough — a chronic cough caused by smoking.
  • smoking jacket — a loose-fitting jacket for men, often of a heavy fabric and trimmed with braid, worn indoors, especially as a lounging jacket.
  • social climber — a person who attempts to gain admission into a group with a higher social standing.
  • social dumping — the practice of allowing employers to lower wages and reduce employees' benefits in order to attract and retain employment and investment
  • social realism — a style of painting, especially of the 1930s in the U.S., in which the scenes depicted typically convey a message of social or political protest edged with satire.
  • social-compact — 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.
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