15-letter words containing o, s, t, e, a
- short and sweet — having little length; not long.
- short of breath — If you are short of breath, you find it difficult to breathe properly, for example because you are ill. You can also say that someone suffers from shortness of breath.
- short-eared owl — a streaked, buffy brown, cosmopolitan owl, Asio flammeus, having very short tufts of feathers on each side of the head.
- shorthand notes — notes written in shorthand
- shortwave radio — a radio that transmits or receives shortwaves.
- shot in the arm — a discharge of a firearm, bow, etc.
- show to a table — When you show a customer to a table in a restaurant, you take them to the table where you want them to sit and help them sit down.
- shut one's face — to be silent
- silent majority — the U.S. citizens who supported President Nixon's policies but who were not politically vocal, outspoken, or active: considered by him to constitute a majority.
- simple equation — linear equation
- simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
- simple majority — less than half of the total votes cast but more than the minimum required to win, as when there are more than two candidates or choices.
- sinistrodextral — moving or extending from the left to the right.
- sinoatrial node — a small mass of tissue in the right atrium functioning as pacemaker of the heart by giving rise to the electric impulses that initiate heart contractions.
- sinorespiratory — of, relating to, or affecting the paranasal sinuses and the respiratory tract.
- sistine madonna — a Madonna painted by Raphael for the Church of St. Sixtus at Piacenza, Italy.
- slashdot effect — a temporary surge in the numbers visiting a website and consequent service slowdown or even server crash that sometimes arises as a result of a new link being set up from a more popular website
- sled cultivator — go-devil (def 5).
- sleight of hand — skill in feats requiring quick and clever movements of the hands, especially for entertainment or deception, as jugglery, card or coin magic, etc.; legerdemain.
- smoking-related — (of a disease, illness, etc) caused by smoking tobacco, etc
- snaggle toothed — a tooth growing out beyond or apart from others.
- snaggle-toothed — a tooth growing out beyond or apart from others.
- snowball effect — a process of continuously accelerating change in size, importance, etc
- social benefits — the social welfare provision made available to those in need
- social democrat — a person who advocates a gradual transition to socialism or a modified form of socialism by and under democratic political processes.
- social distance — the extent to which individuals or groups are removed from or excluded from participating in one another's lives.
- social heritage — the entire inherited pattern of cultural activity present in a society.
- social movement — a group of diffusely organized people or organizations striving toward a common goal relating to human society or social change, or the organized activities of such a group: The push for civil rights was a social movement that peaked in the 1950s and 1960s.
- social register — a directory or list of people prominent in the fashionable society of a given area
- social security — (usually initial capital letters) a program of old-age, unemployment, health, disability, and survivors insurance maintained by the U.S. federal government through compulsory payments by specific employer and employee groups.
- society islands — a group of islands in the S Pacific: administratively part of French Polynesia; consists of the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands; became a French protectorate in 1843 and a colony in 1880. Pop: 214 445 (2002). Area: 1595 sq km (616 sq miles)
- socratic method — the use of questions, as employed by Socrates, to develop a latent idea, as in the mind of a pupil, or to elicit admissions, as from an opponent, tending to establish a proposition.
- 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 chlorate — a colorless, water-soluble solid, NaClO 3 , cool and salty to the taste, used chiefly in the manufacture of explosives and matches, as a textile mordant, and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
- sodium citrates — the sodium salts of citric acid (monosodium citrate, disodium citrate, trisodium citrate)
- sodium ethylate — a white, hygroscopic powder, C 2 H 5 ONa, that is decomposed by water into sodium hydroxide and alcohol: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- sodium silicate — a substance having the general formula, Na2O.xSiO2, where x varies between 3 and 5, existing as an amorphous powder or present in a usually viscous aqueous solution
- sodium stearate — Sodium stearate is a salt of stearic acid used as a surfactant (= a substance that reduces the surface tension of a liquid and allows it to foam) in order to aid the solubility of hydrophobic substances in oral medicines.
- sodium sulphate — a solid white substance that occurs naturally as thenardite and is usually used as the white anhydrous compound (salt cake) or the white crystalline decahydrate (Glauber's salt) in making glass, detergents, and pulp. Formula: Na2SO4
- soft-shell clam — an edible clam, Mya arenaria, inhabiting waters along both coasts of North America, having an oval, relatively thin, whitish shell.
- soft-shell crab — a crab, especially the blue crab, that has recently molted and therefore has a soft, edible shell.
- software method — Software Methodology
- solar collector — any of numerous devices or systems designed to capture and use solar radiation for heating air or water and for producing steam to generate electricity.
- soldier's heart — cardiac neurosis.
- somatic therapy — any of a group of treatments presumed to act on biological factors leading to mental illness.
- somerset island — an island in the Arctic Ocean in Nunavut, Canada, NW of Baffin Island. 9594 sq. mi. (24,848 sq. km).
- sooner or later — within a short period after this or that time, event, etc.: We shall know soon after he calls.
- sophisticatedly — (of a person, ideas, tastes, manners, etc.) altered by education, experience, etc., so as to be worldly-wise; not naive: a sophisticated young socialite; the sophisticated eye of an experienced journalist.
- 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.