16-letter words containing n, o, s, c
- self-consequence — self-important character or quality; self-importance.
- self-constituted — constituted as such by oneself or itself
- self-consumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- self-containment — the state of being self-contained.
- self-cultivation — the act or art of cultivating.
- self-deprecation — belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest.
- self-description — a statement, picture in words, or account that describes; descriptive representation.
- self-destruction — the destruction or ruination of oneself or one's life.
- self-enforcement — of or having the capability of enforcement within oneself or itself; self-regulating.
- self-explication — the act of explicating.
- self-lubrication — the process of becoming lubricated without external factors
- self-proclaiming — to announce or declare in an official or formal manner: to proclaim war.
- self-pronouncing — having the pronunciation indicated, especially by diacritical marks added on original spellings rather than by phonetic symbols: a self-pronouncing dictionary.
- self-reproducing — to make a copy, representation, duplicate, or close imitation of: to reproduce a picture.
- self-restriction — something that restricts; a restrictive condition or regulation; limitation.
- self-vindication — the act of vindicating.
- semiconservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- senate committee — a committee formed from the upper chamber of the legislature in, for example, the US, Canada, Australia, etc
- send to coventry — to ostracize or ignore
- seneca snakeroot — any of various plants whose roots have been regarded as a remedy for snakebites, as the herb Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia snakeroot) having a medicinal rhizome and rootlets, and the white-flowered Polygala senega (Seneca snakeroot) having a medicinal root.
- senior executive — someone in a senior position in a business, who makes decisions and puts them into action
- sensationalistic — subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
- sense perception — perception by the senses rather than by the intellect.
- 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
- session musician — a studio musician, esp one who works freelance
- severance motion — an application made to a judge or court for the division into separate parts of a joint estate, contract, etc
- sexual selection — a special type of natural selection in which the sexes acquire distinct forms either because the members of one sex choose mates with particular features or because in the competition for mates among the members of one sex only those with certain traits succeed.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- sharia-compliant — (of a product or service) produced or offered in accordance with the doctrines of the sharia
- shipping company — business that sends goods overseas
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- shopping complex — a shopping centre
- shortfin corvina — See under corvina.
- silk-cotton tree — any of several spiny trees belonging to the genus Ceiba, of the bombax family, having palmately compound leaves and seeds surrounded by silk cotton, especially C. pentandra, from which kapok is obtained.
- simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- simply-connected — (of a set or domain) having a connected complement.
- single occupancy — a type of travel accommodation, as at a hotel, for one person in a room.
- single precision — using one word rather than two or more to represent a number.
- sir isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- sit on the fence — to be unable or unwilling to commit oneself
- situation comedy — a comedy drama, especially a television series made up of discrete episodes about the same group of characters, as members of a family.
- situation ethics — a view of ethics that deprecates general moral principles while emphasizing the source of moral judgments in the distinctive characters of specific situations.
- 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.
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- sliding friction — frictional resistance to relative movement of surfaces on loaded contact
- smack one's lips — If you smack your lips, you open and close your mouth noisily, especially before or after eating, to show that you are eager to eat or enjoyed eating.
- 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.