16-letter words containing n, a, r, i, s
- semi-hibernation — Zoology. to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormant condition, as bears and certain other animals. Compare estivate.
- semiconservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- semiprofessional — actively engaged in some field or sport for pay but on a part-time basis: semiprofessional baseball players.
- semisubterranean — half below the surface of the ground: the semisubterranean houses of some Indian tribes.
- separate opinion — an opinion written by a judge separately from other judges, which can either agree or disagree with the opinion written by the majority of judges
- series resonance — the resonance that results when circuit elements are connected with their inductance and capacitance in series, so that the impedance of the combination falls to a minimum at the resonant frequency
- service contract — law: between employer and employee
- service entrance — an entrance for the use of servants, delivery people, or the like.
- severance motion — an application made to a judge or court for the division into separate parts of a joint estate, contract, etc
- seward peninsula — a peninsula in W Alaska, on Bering Strait.
- sexual relations — sexual intercourse; coitus.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- shared ownership — (in Britain) a form of house purchase whereby the purchaser buys a proportion of the dwelling, usually from a local authority or housing association, and rents the rest
- sharia-compliant — (of a product or service) produced or offered in accordance with the doctrines of the sharia
- shemini atzereth — a Jewish festival celebrated on the 22nd day of Tishri, being the 8th day of Sukkoth: marked by a memorial service for the dead and prayers for rain in Israel.
- shifting spanner — an adjustable spanner
- shirring elastic — elastic used for shirring
- shit-eating grin — a sly, knowing, or self-satisfied grin
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shooting gallery — a place equipped with targets and used for practice in shooting.
- shortfin corvina — See under corvina.
- shorthand typing — shorthand and typing
- shorthand typist — A shorthand typist is a person who types and writes shorthand, usually in an office.
- shorthand writer — a person trained to write in shorthand
- shot in the dark — a discharge of a firearm, bow, etc.
- shotgun marriage — a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.
- siberian mammoth — a shaggy-coated mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, that lived in cold regions across Eurasia and North America during the Ice Age, known from fossils, cave paintings, and well-preserved frozen carcasses.
- sicilian vespers — a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.
- signal generator — radio
- silent treatment — an act or instance of maintaining silence or aloofness toward another person, especially as a means of indicating disapproval or rejection.
- silver-lace vine — a hardy, twining, woody plant, Polygonum auberti, of the buckwheat family, native to western China and Tibet, having greenish-white, fragrant flowers in drooping clusters.
- simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- singapore strait — a strait between Singapore Island and the Riau Archipelago at the S end of the Malay Peninsula: shipping channel between the South China Sea and the Malacca Strait. 65 miles (105 km) long and 10 miles (16 km) wide.
- singing telegram — a greetings service in which a person is employed to present greetings by singing to the person celebrating
- single-barrelled — (of a firearm) having a single barrel
- sinus meridianii — an area on the equator of Mars, appearing as a dark region when viewed telescopically from the earth.
- sir isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- size enlargement — Size enlargement is a process in which the particle size of a solid is increased.
- slang dictionary — a specialized dictionary covering the words, phrases, and idioms that reflect the least formal speech of a language. These terms are often metaphorical and playful, and are likely to be evanescent as the spoken language changes from one generation to another. Much slang belongs to specific groups, as the jargon of a particular class, profession, or age group. Some is vulgar. Some slang terms have staying power as slang, but others make a transition into common informal speech, and then into the standard language. An online slang dictionary, such as the Dictionary.com Slang Dictionary, provides immediate information about the meaning and history of a queried term and its appropriateness or lack of appropriateness in a range of social and professional circumstances.
- sleeping draught — any drink containing a drug or agent that induces sleep
- sleeping partner — silent partner.
- slugging average — a measure of the effectiveness of a batter in making base hits, obtained by dividing the total bases reached by hitting by the number of official times at bat and carrying out the result to three decimal places. A batter making 275 total bases in 500 times at bat has a slugging average of .550.
- small/fine print — The small print or the fine print of something such as an advertisement or a contract consists of the technical details and legal conditions, which are often printed in much smaller letters than the rest of the text.
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- smooth breathing — a symbol (') used in the writing of Greek to indicate that the initial vowel over which it is placed is unaspirated.
- snakebite remedy — hard liquor.
- social darwinism — a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.
- social gathering — party, get-together
- social insurance — any of various forms of insurance in which a government is an insurer, especially such insurance that provides assistance to disabled or unemployed workers and to aged persons.