22-letter words containing n, s, p
- solomon islands pidgin — the variety of Neo-Melanesian spoken in the Solomon Islands and neighbouring islands
- someone's number is up — someone's time to die or suffer punishment has arrived
- south african republic — former name of Transvaal.
- special drawing rights — the reserve assets of the International Monetary Fund on which member nations may draw in proportion to their contribution to the Fund
- special interest group — (SIG) One of several technical areas, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Well-known SIGs include SIGPLAN (the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages), SIGARCH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Architecture) and SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics).
- special marine warning — a National Weather Service warning of high-wind conditions at sea that are expected to last for up to two hours, and generally result from convective storm systems, as thunderstorms or squall lines. Compare warning (def 3).
- special-interest group — Also called special interest. a body of persons, corporation, or industry that seeks or receives benefits or privileged treatment, especially through legislation.
- speckle interferometry — a photographic technique for clarifying the telescopic images of a star by taking short exposures of the electronic images of the star's speckle pattern and extrapolating properties of the starlight to create a more accurate composite image.
- spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
- speech from the throne — (in Britain and the dominions of the Commonwealth) the speech at the opening of each session of Parliament in which the Government outlines its legislative programme. It is read by the sovereign or his or her representative
- spelling pronunciation — a pronunciation based on spelling, usually a variant of the traditional pronunciation. The spelling pronunciation of waistcoat is [weyst-koht] /ˈweɪstˌkoʊt/ (Show IPA) rather than [wes-kuh t] /ˈwɛs kət/ (Show IPA).
- spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
- spinal accessory nerve — accessory nerve.
- split-dollar insurance — life insurance in which someone helps pay the premiums for another, as when an employer contributes to the premiums of an employee's policy.
- split-screen technique — a cinematic device by which two or more complete images are projected simultaneously onto separate parts of the screen
- spontaneous combustion — the ignition of a substance or body from the rapid oxidation of its own constituents without heat from any external source.
- spontaneous generation — abiogenesis.
- sports injuries clinic — a medical clinic that specializes in treating sports injuries
- st-pierre and miquelon — group of islands in the Atlantic, south of Newfoundland, constituting a political unit of France: includes the islands of St-Pierre (c. 10 sq mi, 26 sq km) & Miquelon & several islets: 93 sq mi (241 sq km); pop. 6,000
- statistical dependence — a condition in which two random variables are not independent. X and Y are positively dependent if the conditional probability, P(X|Y), of X given Y is greater than the probability, P(X), of X, or equivalently if P(X&Y) > P(X).P(Y). They are negatively dependent if the inequalities are reversed
- step on someone's toes — one of the terminal digits of the human foot.
- structured programming — the design and coding of programs by a methodology (top-down) that successively breaks problems into smaller, nested subunits.
- stuffing and stripping — (in marine transport) the packing and unpacking of containers
- subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
- supplementary question — a question asked in Parliament by an MP during Questions to the Prime Minister
- ten-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus pungitius, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having ten spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
- texas independence day — March 2, observed in Texas as the anniversary of the declaration in 1836 of the independence of Texas from Mexico and also as the birthday of Sam Houston.
- the (great) depression — the period of economic depression which began in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s
- the atlantic provinces — certain of the Canadian provinces with coasts facing the Gulf of St Lawrence or the Atlantic: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador
- the caring professions — professions such as nursing and social work that are involved with looking after people who are ill or who need help in coping with their lives
- the houston ship canal — a canal linking Houston to the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
- the maritime provinces — another name for the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, but often excluding Newfoundland and Labrador
- the medical profession — the occupation of working as a doctor of medicine
- the opposition benches — the area of a parliament where members of the party opposed to the ruling party or government sit
- the pennsylvania dutch — a group of German-speaking people in E Pennsylvania, descended from 18th-century settlers from SW Germany and Switzerland
- the-leaning-tower-pisa — a round, marble campanile in Pisa, Italy, begun in 1174 and now 17 feet (5.2 meters) out of the perpendicular in its height of 179 feet (54 meters).
- there is no comparison — If you say there is no comparison between one thing and another, you mean that you think the first thing is much better than the second, or very different from it.
- threespine stickleback — a widely distributed stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, occurring in marine, brackish, or fresh waters throughout the northern hemisphere.
- throw on the scrapheap — to discard or get rid of as useless
- tip the scales/balance — If something tips the scales or tips the balance, it gives someone a slight advantage.
- to drop someone a line — If you drop someone a line, you write to them.
- to keep your eyes open — If you keep your eyes open or keep an eye out for someone or something, you watch for them carefully.
- to open the floodgates — If events open the floodgates to something, they make it possible for that thing to happen much more often or much more seriously than before.
- to overplay one's hand — If someone overplays their hand, they act more confidently than they should because they believe that they are in a stronger position than they actually are.
- to play fast and loose — If you say that someone is playing fast and loose, you are expressing disapproval of them for behaving in a deceitful, immoral, or irresponsible way.
- to swallow one's pride — If you swallow your pride, you decide to do something even though you think it will cause you to lose some respect.
- trade descriptions act — In Britain, the Trade Descriptions Act or the Trades Descriptions Act is a law designed to prevent companies from presenting their goods or services in a dishonest or misleading way.
- transient program area — (operating system) (TPA) The region of memory CP/M set aside for user programs.
- transition probability — the probability of going from a given state to the next state in a Markov process.
- transition temperature — Physics. a temperature at which a substance undergoes some abrupt change in its properties, as when it passes from the normal to the superconducting state.