16-letter words containing n, e, s, t, c
- special interest — special-interest group (def 1).
- specious present — a short time span in which change and duration are alleged to be directly experienced.
- speech community — the aggregate of all the people who use a given language or dialect.
- speech synthesis — computer-generated audio output that imitates human speech
- spiritual incest — marriage or a sexual relationship between persons related by spiritual affinity or with a person under a solemn vow of chastity
- spreading center — a linear zone in the sea floor along which magma rises and from which adjacent crustal plates are moving apart.
- spreading factor — a substance, as hyaluronidase, that promotes the diffusion of a material through body tissues
- stab in the back — to pierce or wound with or as if with a pointed weapon: She stabbed a piece of chicken with her fork.
- staffing officer — someone who recruits, hires, and ensures the interests of staff and employees in an organization
- stage production — a play or show which is performed on stage
- stamp collecting — Stamp collecting is the hobby of building up a collection of stamps.
- stamp collection — the act of collecting postage stamps as a hobby
- standing cypress — a plant, Ipomopsis rubra, of the southern U.S., having feathery leaves and clusters of red and yellow flowers.
- stannic chloride — a colorless fuming and caustic liquid, SnCl 4 , soluble in water and alcohol, that converts with water to a crystalline solid: used for electrically conductive and electroluminescent coatings and in ceramics.
- stannic sulphide — an insoluble solid compound of tin usually existing as golden crystals or as a yellowish-brown powder: used as a pigment. Formula: SnS2
- state's evidence — evidence given by an accomplice in a crime who becomes a voluntary witness against the other defendants: The defendants' case was lost when one of them turned state's evidence.
- state-controlled — controlled by the government
- statutory change — a change in the law
- steal a march on — to walk with regular and measured tread, as soldiers on parade; advance in step in an organized body.
- steric hindrance — the prevention or retardation of inter- or intramolecular interactions as a result of the spatial structure of a molecule.
- stevenson screen — a shelter for meteorological instruments, consisting of a raised white louvred box
- stick in the mud — someone who avoids new activities, ideas, or attitudes; old fogy.
- stick-in-the-mud — someone who avoids new activities, ideas, or attitudes; old fogy.
- sticking plaster — an adhesive cloth or other material for covering and closing superficial wounds, holding bandages in place, etc.
- stilton (cheese) — a rich, crumbly cheese with veins of blue-green mold
- stinging capsule — a nematocyst.
- stock controller — someone employed to monitor and manage goods and stock so that new stock can be ordered as required and the right numbers and quantities made available all the time
- stock management — the monitoring and control of goods and stock so that new stock can be ordered as required and the right numbers and quantities made available at all times
- stocking machine — a type of knitting machine
- stocking stuffer — a small, usually inexpensive gift that is placed with others in a Christmas stocking.
- stockton-on-tees — a seaport in Cleveland, in NE England, near the mouth of the Tees River.
- stone-cold sober — If someone is stone-cold sober, they are not drunk at all.
- stonecrop family — the plant family Crassulaceae, characterized by succulent herbaceous plants and shrubs with simple, fleshy leaves, clusters of small flowers, and dry, dehiscent fruit, and including hen-and-chickens, houseleek, kalanchoe, live-forever, orpine, sedum, and stonecrop.
- strait-lacedness — the state or quality of being strait-laced
- strange particle — any elementary particle with a strangeness quantum number other than zero.
- street christian — (especially in the 1960s) a Christian whose religious life centers more in social or communal groups than in institutional churches.
- strike a balance — compromise
- string orchestra — an orchestra consisting only of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses
- student teaching — the act of teaching in a school for a limited period under supervision as part of a course to qualify as a teacher
- studentification — the renting of particular accommodation exclusively to students
- subjectification — to make subjective.
- subsistence crop — a food plant which is grown by a farmer for consumption by himself and his family, leaving little or nothing to be marketed
- subsistence wage — the lowest wage upon which a worker and his or her family can survive
- substance abuser — a person who takes an excessive amount of drugs in a manner that is detrimental to health
- succession state — any of a number of usually new states that are established in or expand over the territory formerly ruled by one large state
- summer complaint — an acute condition of diarrhea, occurring during the hot summer months chiefly in infants and children, caused by bacterial contamination of food and associated with poor hygiene.
- super-injunction — an instruction or order issued by a court imposing restrictions on reporting, including any reference to the restriction itself
- superfecundation — the fertilization of two or more ova discharged at the same ovulation by successive acts of sexual intercourse.
- superunification — a theory intended to describe the electromagnetic force, the strong force, the weak force, and gravity as a single, unified force.
- surface integral — the limit, as the norm of the partition of a given surface into sections of area approaches zero, of the sum of the product of the areas times the value of a given function of three variables at some point on each section.