16-letter words containing o, b, t, a
- sandlot baseball — a form of baseball played by children on an area of vacant ground
- santiago de cuba — a region in Ecuador, E of the Andes: the border long disputed by Peru.
- scotch blackface — one of a Scottish breed of mountain sheep having a black face and growing long, coarse wool.
- self-abandonment — absence or lack of personal restraint.
- self-approbation — approval; commendation.
- self-elaboration — an act or instance of elaborating.
- self-lubrication — the process of becoming lubricated without external factors
- self-observation — an act or instance of noticing or perceiving.
- self-subjugation — the act, fact, or process of subjugating, or bringing under control; enslavement: The subjugation of the American Indians happened across the country.
- semi-hibernation — Zoology. to spend the winter in close quarters in a dormant condition, as bears and certain other animals. Compare estivate.
- shoot-to-disable — of or relating to shooting by soldiers or police that is intended to disable rather than kill
- siberian mammoth — a shaggy-coated mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, that lived in cold regions across Eurasia and North America during the Ice Age, known from fossils, cave paintings, and well-preserved frozen carcasses.
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- slow metabolizer — A slow metabolizer is someone whose body is slow to break down, absorb, or use a particular substance.
- smooth breathing — a symbol (') used in the writing of Greek to indicate that the initial vowel over which it is placed is unaspirated.
- sodium bisulfate — a colorless crystalline compound, NaHSO 4 , soluble in water: used in dyeing, in the manufacture of cement, paper, soap, and an acid-type cleaner.
- sodium carbonate — Also called soda ash. an anhydrous, grayish-white, odorless, water-soluble powder, Na 2 CO 3 , usually obtained by the Solvay process and containing about 1 percent of impurities consisting of sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soaps, paper, petroleum products, sodium salts, as a cleanser, for bleaching, and in water treatment.
- sodium perborate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaBO 2 ⋅3H 2 O or NaBO 3 ⋅4H 2 O, used chiefly as a bleaching agent and antiseptic.
- soft brown sugar — a type of moist sugar made by coating white sugar with dark molasses
- software library — a collection of programs that are used to develop software
- south sea bubble — the financial crash that occurred in 1720 after the South Sea Company had taken over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks
- southern baptist — a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, founded in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845, that is strictly Calvinistic and active in religious publishing and education.
- spectacled cobra — Indian cobra.
- st. john's-bread — carob (def 2).
- stationary orbit — an orbit lying in, or approximately in, the plane of the equator for which the orbital period is equal to the spin period of the central body
- steamboat gothic — a florid architectural style suggesting the gingerbread-decorated construction of river boats of the Victorian period.
- strawberry blond — reddish blond.
- stroboradiograph — a stroboscopic radiograph.
- subcartilaginous — partially or incompletely cartilaginous.
- subjectification — to make subjective.
- subordinationism — the doctrine that the first person of the Holy Trinity is superior to the second, and the second superior to the third.
- subtropical high — one of several highs, as the Azores and Pacific highs, that prevail over the oceans at latitudes of about 30 degrees N and S. Also called subtropical anticyclone. Compare high (def 37).
- swamp buttonwood — the buttonbush.
- tablets of stone — Stone is used in expressions such as set in stone and tablets of stone to suggest that an idea or rule is firm and fixed, and cannot be changed.
- take the trouble — If you take the trouble to do something, you do something which requires a small amount of additional effort.
- teachable moment — a specific occurrence, situation, or experience that can be used to teach people about something more general: Her death created a teachable moment about prescription drug abuse.
- tell one's beads — a small, usually round object of glass, wood, stone, or the like with a hole through it, often strung with others of its kind in necklaces, rosaries, etc.
- teutoburger wald — a chain of wooded hills in Germany, in Westphalia: Romans defeated by German tribes a.d.
- thalidomide baby — a baby that has physical abnormalities due to the drug thalidomide being taken by the mother while the baby was still a developing fetus
- the amazon basin — the catchment area of the River Amazon
- the best part of — most of
- the black forest — a hilly wooded region of SW Germany, in Baden-Württemberg: a popular resort area
- the eastern bloc — (formerly) the Soviet bloc
- the unobservable — something that cannot be observed
- thrombocytopenia — an abnormal decrease in the number of blood platelets.
- tintinnabulation — the ringing or sound of bells.
- to beat the band — a company of persons or, sometimes, animals or things, joined, acting, or functioning together; aggregation; party; troop: a band of protesters.
- to blaze a trail — If someone blazes a trail, they discover or develop something new.
- to break the ice — If you break the ice at a party or meeting, or in a new situation, you say or do something to make people feel relaxed and comfortable.
- to cut both ways — If you say that something cuts both ways, you mean that it can have two opposite effects, or can have both good and bad effects.