20-letter words containing n, e, i, g
- ring of the nibelung — Richard Wagner's tetralogy of music dramas: Das Rheingold (completed 1869), Die Walküre (completed 1870), Siegfried (completed 1876), and Götterdämmerung (completed 1876): the cycle was first performed at Bayreuth, 1876.
- ring-necked parakeet — a small brightly coloured long-tailed tropical parrot, Psittacula krameri, often kept as a pet
- ring-necked pheasant — a gallinaceous Asian bird, Phasianus colchicus, having a white band around its neck, introduced into Great Britain, North America, and the Hawaiian Islands.
- ringing off the hook — If your phone is ringing off the hook, so many people are trying to telephone you that it is ringing constantly.
- rough-winged swallow — either of two New World swallows of the genus Stelgidopteryx, having outer primary feathers with small barblike hooks on the margins.
- royal british legion — an organization founded in 1921 to provide services and assistance for former members of the armed forces
- royal leamington spa — a city in Warwickshire, central England: health resort.
- ruby-crowned kinglet — an olive-gray, American kinglet, Regulus calendula, the male of which has an erectile, ruby crest.
- saint george's cross — the Greek cross as used in the flag of Great Britain.
- saint mary magdalene — a woman of Magdala (ˈmæɡdələ ) in Galilee whom Jesus cured of evil spirits (Luke 8:2) and who is often identified with the sinful woman of Luke 7:36–50. In Christian tradition she is usually taken to have been a prostitute. Feast day: July 22
- salmonella poisoning — an illness caused by ingestion of a salmonella bacterium
- sanitary engineering — a branch of civil engineering dealing with matters affecting public health, as water supply or sewage disposal.
- sarcastic fringehead — any fish of the genus Neoclinus, characterized by a row of fleshy processes on the head, as N. blanchardi (sarcastic fringehead) of California coastal waters.
- satellite navigation — navigation using data received from satellites
- scatter site housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- schrodinger equation — the wave equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also called Schrödinger wave equation. Compare wave equation (def 2).
- seating arrangements — the seating plan for a formal occasion
- self-belaying system — (in climbing) equipment used to pay out rope as required and thus enable a climber to self-belay
- self-differentiating — to form or mark differently from other such things; distinguish.
- send someone packing — to dismiss or get rid of (someone) peremptorily
- sensitivity training — a form of group therapy designed to develop understanding of oneself and others through free, unstructured discussion.
- sergeant first class — a noncommissioned officer ranking next above a staff sergeant and below a first or master sergeant.
- serve a person right — to pay a person back, esp for wrongful or foolish treatment or behaviour
- set the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- setting-up exercises — gymnastic exercises for better posture, suppleness, etc
- seven against thebes — (used with a plural verb) Classical Mythology. seven heroes, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Eteoclus, Hippomedon, Parthenopaeus, Polynices, and Tydeus, who led an expedition against Thebes to depose Eteocles in favor of his brother Polynices: the expedition failed, but the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven against Thebes, conquered the city ten years later.
- sex change operation — a surgical operation designed to change a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex
- shank of the evening — the latter part of the afternoon
- shoulder-length hair — hair that reaches a person's shoulders
- sing for your supper — If someone has to sing for their supper, they have to do a job before they are allowed to do something they want to do.
- single point mooring — monobuoy.
- size-weight illusion — a standard sense illusion that a small object is heavier than a large object of the same weight
- slip through the net — If criminals slip through the net, they avoid being caught by the system or trap that was meant to catch them.
- 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
- soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
- software engineering — the process of writing computer programs
- spatial technologies — (company) Distributors of the ACIS solid modelling engine.
- spike someone's guns — a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.
- squatter sovereignty — (used contemptuously by its opponents) popular sovereignty (def 2).
- st.-germain-des-pres — an area in Paris, on the Left Bank.
- stained glass window — a window made of coloured glass, often showing religious pictures and usually seen in churches
- standstill agreement — law: between company and bidder
- string correspondent — stringer (def 6).
- sunday-go-to-meeting — most presentable; best: Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
- surface-active agent — any substance that when dissolved in water or an aqueous solution reduces its surface tension or the interfacial tension between it and another liquid.
- synchronized skating — the art or sport of teams of up to twenty skaters holding onto each other and moving in patterns in time to music
- synoptic meteorology — a branch of meteorology analyzing data collected simultaneously over a wide region, for the purpose of weather forecasting.
- systemic linguistics — a school of linguistics of British origin that emphasizes the social functions of language and describes grammar in terms of hierarchically organized structures and of systems of mutually exclusive choices available to the speaker under specified conditions.
- take something amiss — to be annoyed or offended by something
- television programme — a programme broadcast on television