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15-letter words containing p, a, r, l

  • salt-and-pepper — pepper-and-salt.
  • samuel prescott — Samuel, 1751–77, U.S. patriot during the American Revolution: rode with Paul Revere and William Dawes to warn Colonists that British troops were marching from Boston, April 18, 1775.
  • saprophytically — any organism that lives on dead organic matter, as certain fungi and bacteria.
  • seafood platter — a plate of assorted seafood, served in a restaurant
  • seleucia pieria — an ancient port in Syria, on the River Orontes: the port of Antioch, of military importance during the wars between the Ptolemies and Seleucids; largely destroyed by earthquake in 526; site of present-day Samandaǧ (Turkey)
  • self-absorption — preoccupation with oneself or one's own affairs.
  • self-persuasion — the act of persuading or seeking to persuade.
  • self-proclaimed — to announce or declare in an official or formal manner: to proclaim war.
  • separate school — (in Canada) a school for a large religious minority financed by its rates and administered by its own school board but under the authority of the provincial department of education
  • septentrionally — northwards; in the direction of the north
  • shark repellent — any tactic used by a corporation to prevent a takeover by a corporate raider.
  • ship's articles — a type of contract by which sailors agree to the conditions, payment, etc, for the ship in which they are going to work
  • shoulder weapon — a firearm that is fired while being held in the hands with the butt of the weapon braced against the shoulder.
  • shrimp cocktail — prawns and lettuce in Mary Rose sauce
  • sidereal period — the period of revolution of a body about another with respect to one or more distant stars
  • simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
  • simple fracture — a fracture in which the bone does not pierce the skin.
  • simple interval — an interval of an octave or less.
  • 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.
  • singapore sling — a cocktail of gin, cherry brandy, sugar, and water.
  • slab plastering — coarse plastering, as between the studs in a half-timbered wall.
  • slumpflationary — of or relating to slumpflation
  • snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
  • snapping turtle — either of two large, edible, freshwater turtles of the family Chelydridae, of North and Central America, having a large head and powerful hooked jaws, especially the common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina.
  • socialist party — a U.S. political party advocating socialism, formed about 1900 chiefly by former members of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Labor Party.
  • spanish trefoil — alfalfa.
  • sparkling water — soda water (def 1).
  • special feature — an article differing from the normal format and focusing on a particular topic
  • special library — a library maintained by an organization, as a business, association, or government agency, to collect materials and provide information of special relevance to the work of the organization.
  • special partner — a partner whose liability for the firm's debts is limited to the amount that partner has invested in the firm.
  • speckle pattern — the visual appearance of a star as viewed through a large telescope, with irregularities caused by the distorting effect of local turbulence in the earth's atmosphere.
  • spectral series — a series of lines in the spectrum of light emitted by excited atoms of an element, each line being related to the others in the series by a simple numerical equation and identified with a particular energy level of an atom of the element.
  • spectrochemical — of, relating to, or utilizing the techniques of spectrochemistry.
  • spermatoblastic — relating to a spermatoblast
  • spherical angle — an angle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
  • spiral notebook — a notebook held together by a coil of wire passed through small holes punched at the back edge of the covers and individual pages
  • spirits of salt — a solution of hydrochloric acid in water
  • splanchnopleure — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
  • spraddle-legged — moving with or having the legs wide apart: a spraddle-legged walk.
  • spratly islands — a widely-scattered group of uninhabited islets and reefs in the S South China Sea, the subject of territorial claims wholly or in part by six neighbouring nations
  • spread sampling — the selection of a corpus for statistical analysis by selecting a number of short passages at random throughout the work and considering their aggregation
  • spread-eagleism — boastfulness or bombast, especially in the display of patriotic or nationalistic pride in the U.S.; flag-waving.
  • spring-cleaning — a complete cleaning of a place, as a home, done traditionally in the spring of the year.
  • sprinkler dance — a celebratory dance in which participants extend one arm and shake it to imitate the action of a rotating water sprinkler
  • staphylorrhaphy — repair of a cleft palate by means of staphyloplasty and suturing
  • starting pistol — a pistol used to give the signal to start a race
  • stereotypically — in a stereotypical manner
  • stirrup leather — the strap that holds the stirrup of a saddle.
  • strephosymbolia — a condition of perceiving objects as their mirror image and, specifically, having difficulty in distinguishing letters in words
  • streptobacillus — any of various bacilli that form in chains.
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