20-letter words containing o, i, l, s, a, n
- snowflake generation — the generation of people who became adults in the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations
- snows of kilimanjaro — a short story (1936) by Ernest Hemingway.
- societal development — the formation and transformation of social life, customs, institutions, etc.
- soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
- solitary confinement — the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place in which he or she is completely isolated from others.
- sound-and-light show — a nighttime spectacle or performance, at which a building, historic site, etc., is illuminated and the historic significance is imparted to spectators by means of narration, sound effects, and music.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- south atlantic ocean — the part of the Atlantic Ocean extending S from the Equator to the Antarctic continent.
- south orkney islands — an uninhabited group of islands in the S Atlantic, southeast of Cape Horn: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 621 sq km (240 sq miles)
- southern oscillation — a low-latitude fluctuation of atmospheric pressure closely linked with El Niño events, specifically the periods of El Niño warming and La Niña cooling.
- spanish oyster plant — a composite plant, Scolymus hispanicus, of southern Europe, having spiny, thistlelike leaf margins, small yellow flowers, and an edible root.
- spatial technologies — (company) Distributors of the ACIS solid modelling engine.
- special relationship — the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- spherical coordinate — Usually, spherical coordinates. any of three coordinates used to locate a point in space by the length of its radius vector and the angles this vector makes with two perpendicular polar planes.
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- stained glass window — a window made of coloured glass, often showing religious pictures and usually seen in churches
- subscription library — a commercial lending library
- surveillance society — a society where surveillance technology is widely used to monitor people's everyday activities
- system international — Système International d'Unités
- systemic circulation — the circulatory system in general.
- television broadcast — sth shown on tv
- television programme — a programme broadcast on television
- the last word in sth — If you say that something is the last word in luxury, comfort, or some other quality, you are emphasizing that it has a great deal of this quality.
- the legal profession — the profession of law
- the whole nine yards — everything that is required; the whole thing
- there is no call for — If you say that there is no call for someone to behave in a particular way, you are criticizing their behaviour, usually because you think it is rude.
- three-dimensionality — having, or seeming to have, the dimension of depth as well as width and height.
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to hit the headlines — Someone or something that hits the headlines or grabs the headlines gets a lot of publicity from the media.
- townsend's solitaire — a brownish, slender-billed songbird, Myadestes townsendi, of western North America.
- transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
- troilus and cressida — a satiric comedy (1598–1602?) by Shakespeare.
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- ultimate constituent — an element of a construction that cannot be further divided into grammatical constituents: the morphemes of an utterance are usually considered to be its ultimate constituents.
- unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
- voluntary euthanasia — the act of killing someone painlessly, esp to relieve suffering from an incurable illness, with their consent
- western civilization — European culture, thought
- whole-life insurance — a type of insurance with a savings element that is guaranteed to pay out on death provided premiums have been paid as required by the policy
- whyte classification — a system for classifying steam locomotives according to the total number of wheels on the front trucks, drivers, and rear trucks, in that order. For example, a Pacific locomotive is designated as 4-6-2.
- william westmoreland — William Childs [chahyldz] /tʃaɪldz/ (Show IPA), 1914–2005, U.S. army officer: commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam and Thailand 1964–68.
- wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
- winter olympic games — an international contest of winter sports, esp skiing, held every four years
- with a grain of salt — to season with salt.
- with a pinch of salt — without wholly believing; sceptically
- with all one's heart — Anatomy. a hollow, pumplike organ of blood circulation, composed mainly of rhythmically contractile smooth muscle, located in the chest between the lungs and slightly to the left and consisting of four chambers: a right atrium that receives blood returning from the body via the superior and inferior vena cavae, a right ventricle that pumps the blood through the pulmonary artery to the lungs for oxygenation, a left atrium that receives the oxygenated blood via the pulmonary veins and passes it through the mitral valve, and a left ventricle that pumps the oxygenated blood, via the aorta, throughout the body.
- with all one's might — If you do something with all your might, you do it using all your strength and energy.
- working relationship — a relationship with a colleague, boss or employee
- yu-shiang whole fish — /yoo-shyang hohl fish/ An obsolete name for the Greek character gamma (extended SAIL ASCII code 9, Unicode glyph 0x0263) which with a loop in its tail looks like a little fish swimming down the page. The term is actually the name of a Chinese dish in which a fish is cooked whole (not parsed) and covered with Yu-Shiang (or Yu-Hsiang) sauce. Used primarily by people on the MIT LISP Machine, which could display this character on the screen. Tends to elicit incredulity from people who hear about it second-hand.