15-letter words containing n, o, s, u
- snowy mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, part of the Australian Alps: famous hydroelectric scheme
- snubfin dolphin — Australian dolphin with a small dorsal fin
- so much/so many — You use so much and so many when you are saying that there is a definite limit to something but you are not saying what this limit is.
- sodium arsenite — a white or grayish-white, water-soluble, poisonous powder, NaAsO 2 , used chiefly in arsenical soaps for hides, as an insecticide, and as a weed-killer.
- sodium benzoate — a white crystalline soluble compound used as an antibacterial and antifungal agent in preserving food (E211), as an antiseptic, and in making dyes and pharmaceuticals. Formula: (C6H5COO)Na
- sodium monoxide — a white powder, Na 2 O, that reacts violently with water to produce sodium hydroxide.
- soft-focus lens — a lens designed to produce an image that is uniformly very slightly out of focus: typically used for portrait work
- sojourner truth — Sojourner [soh-jur-ner,, soh-jur-ner] /ˈsoʊ dʒɜr nər,, soʊˈdʒɜr nər/ (Show IPA), (Isabella Van Wagener) 1797?–1883, U.S. abolitionist, orator, and women's-rights advocate, born a slave.
- solution mining — removal of a soluble mineral by dissolving it and leaching it out, as in the Frasch process.
- sonnet sequence — a group of sonnets composed by one poet and having a unifying theme or subject.
- sostenuto pedal — a pedal on a grand piano that raises the dampers, allowing the tone to be sustained for those strings struck at the time the pedal is depressed.
- soul-destroying — Activities or situations that are soul-destroying make you depressed, because they are boring or because there is no hope of improvement.
- sound as a bell — in perfect condition
- sound deadening — a process or material that reduces the resonance or volume of sound
- sound recordist — recordist.
- sound symbolism — a nonarbitrary connection between phonetic features of linguistic items and their meanings, as in the frequent occurrence of close vowels in words denoting smallness, as petite and teeny-weeny.
- sound-and-light — combining sound effects or music with unusual lighting displays: to promote a product with a spectacular sound-and-light presentation.
- sounding rocket — a rocket equipped with instruments for making meteorological observations in the upper atmosphere.
- source document — a document that has been or will be transcribed to a word processor or to the memory bank of a computer
- source language — the language in which a text appears that is to be translated into another language. Compare target language (def 1).
- south caucasian — a family of languages including Georgian, Mingrelian, and others that are spoken on the south slopes of the Caucasus and adjacent areas.
- south china sea — a part of the W Pacific, bounded by SE China, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and the Philippines.
- south glamorgan — a county in SE Wales. 161 sq. mi. (416 sq. km).
- south kingstown — a town in S central Rhode Island.
- southeast asian — the countries and land area of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
- southend-on-sea — a seaport in SE Essex, in SE England, on Thames estuary.
- southern blight — a disease of peanuts, tomatoes, and other plants, caused by a fungus, Sclerotium rolfsii, affecting the roots and resulting in rapid wilting.
- southern gothic — a literary genre depicting life in the southern US and featuring grotesque themes and imagery
- southern lights — aurora australis.
- southern paiute — See under Paiute (def 2).
- souvanna phouma — Prince, 1901–84, Laotian statesman: premier 1951–54, 1956–58, 1960, and 1962–75.
- spanish customs — irregular practices among a group of workers to gain increased financial allowances, reduced working hours, etc
- spawning ground — a place where fish deposit their eggs for fertilization
- spinous process — a spinelike process of a bone, especially the dorsal projection from the center of the arch of a vertebra.
- spiny cocklebur — a cocklebur, Xanthium spinosum, introduced into North America from Europe.
- splanchnopleure — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
- spontaneousness — coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.
- spotted sunfish — a sunfish, Lepomis punctatus, inhabiting streams from South Carolina to Florida, having the body marked with longitudinal rows of spots.
- squadron leader — air-force officer
- squirrel monkey — either of two small, long-tailed monkeys, Saimiri oerstedii of Central America and S. sciureus of South America, having a small white face with black muzzle and gold, brown, or greenish fur: S. oerstedii is endangered.
- stable equation — a differential equation each solution of which tends to zero as the independent variable increases to infinity. Compare transient (def 6).
- stamping ground — a habitual or favorite haunt.
- stand-up comedy — telling jokes to an audience
- state education — education provided by the state; education which is not private
- status quo ante — the state of affairs existing prior to a given event
- steering column — the shaft that connects the steering wheel to the steering gear assembly of an automotive vehicle.
- stomping ground — a habitual or favorite haunt.
- storm insurance — insurance cover against damage caused by windstorms
- strontium oxide — a white insoluble solid substance used in making strontium salts and purifying sugar. Formula: SrO
- structural iron — iron shaped for use in construction.