17-letter words containing o, n, s, p
- social enterprise — a business organization that works to benefit society as a whole
- sodium propionate — a transparent, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 3 H 5 NaO 2 , used in foodstuffs to prevent mold growth, and in medicine as a fungicide.
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- south sea company — a British joint stock company that traded in South America in the 18th century. The South Sea Company took over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks, and a financial crash in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble)
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- southern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, including the Dodecanese, lying off the SW coast of Turkey
- spaghettification — the theoretical stretching of an object as it encounters extreme differences in gravitational forces, especially those associated with a black hole.
- span of attention — attention span.
- spatial summation — the act or process of summing.
- speak one's piece — a separate or limited portion or quantity of something: a piece of land; a piece of chocolate.
- special constable — a person recruited for temporary or occasional police duties, esp in time of emergency
- special education — education that is modified or particularized for those with singular needs, as disabled or maladjusted people, slow learners, or gifted children.
- special schooling — the system of educating children with special needs in schools designed to meet their needs
- speech correction — the reeducation of speech habits that deviate from accepted speech standards.
- speed restriction — the maximum speed allowed for road vehicles, trains, or other vehicles
- spenserian sonnet — a sonnet employing the rhyme scheme abab, bcbc, cdcd, ee.
- sperrin mountains — a mountain range in NW Northern Ireland
- spherical polygon — a closed figure formed by arcs of great circles on a spherical surface.
- spin one's wheels — a circular frame or disk arranged to revolve on an axis, as on or in vehicles or machinery.
- spiny-headed worm — any of a small group of endoparasites of the phylum Acanthocephala, as larvae parasitic in insects and crustaceans and as adults in various vertebrates.
- spit in the ocean — a variety of poker in which four cards are dealt face down to each player and one card, forming the fifth for all hands, is dealt face up in the center of the table, the exposed card and others of its denomination being wild cards.
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- split one's sides — to laugh very heartily
- split personality — multiple personality.
- spondylolisthesis — the forward displacement of a vertebra.
- spongy parenchyma — the lower layer of the ground tissue of a leaf, characteristically containing irregularly shaped cells with relatively few chloroplasts and large intercellular spaces.
- spoonbill catfish — flathead catfish.
- spot announcement — a brief radio or television announcement, usually an advertisement, made by an individual station during or after a network program.
- spot-illustration — a rounded mark or stain made by foreign matter, as mud, blood, paint, ink, etc.; a blot or speck.
- spotted sandpiper — a North American sandpiper, Actitis macularia, that has brownish-gray upper parts and white underparts, and is spotted with black in the summer.
- spread your wings — if you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience
- spring cankerworm — the striped, green caterpillar of any of several geometrid moths: a foliage pest of various fruit and shade trees, as Paleacrita vernata (spring cankerworm) and Alsophila pometaria (fall cankerworm)
- stand-up comedian — performer: tells jokes
- steamboat springs — a town in NW Colorado: ski resort.
- steamship company — a company which has a fleet of steamships
- stenothermophilic — growing best within a narrow temperature range.
- stir one's stumps — to move or become active
- storm in a teacup — a violent fuss or disturbance over a trivial matter
- subscription rate — the price charged for a subscription
- suction lipectomy — the removal of fatty tissue by making a small incision in the skin, loosening the fat layer, and withdrawing it by suction.
- super-nationalism — an extreme or fanatical loyalty or devotion to a nation.
- superaerodynamics — the branch of aerodynamics that deals with gases at very low densities.
- superalimentation — nourishment; nutrition.
- supercolumniation — the placing of one order of columns above another.
- superconductivity — the phenomenon of almost perfect conductivity shown by certain substances at temperatures approaching absolute zero. The recent discovery of materials that are superconductive at temperatures hundreds of degrees above absolute zero raises the possibility of revolutionary developments in the production and transmission of electrical energy.
- supernova remnant — an expanding shell of gas, with accompanying strong radio and x-ray emissions, produced by a supernova.
- superregeneration — regeneration in which a signal is alternately amplified and quenched at a frequency slightly above the audible range to achieve high sensitivity with a single tube.
- superstitiousness — of the nature of, characterized by, or proceeding from superstition: superstitious fears.
- supervision order — an order by a juvenile court requiring a named probation officer or local-authority social worker to advise, assist, and befriend a child or young person who is the subject of care proceedings, over a period of up to three years
- support mechanism — any formal system or method of providing support or assistance