15-letter words containing p, a, s, n
- speed indicator — an instrument for counting the number of revolutions of a gasoline engine.
- spermatogenesis — the origin and development of spermatozoa.
- spherical angle — an angle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spheroidization — the conversion of grains into spheroids
- spill the beans — the edible nutritious seed of various plants of the legume family, especially of the genus Phaseolus.
- spinach-rhubarb — an Ethiopian plant, Rumex abyssinicus, of the buckwheat family, having leaves that are sometimes used as spinach and leafstalks sometimes used as rhubarb.
- spinal ganglion — a ganglion on the dorsal root of each spinal nerve, containing the cell bodies of sensory nerves.
- 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
- spit and polish — great care in maintaining smart appearance and crisp efficiency: The commander was concerned more with spit and polish than with the company's morale.
- 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.
- spontaneousness — coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.
- sport one's oak — to shut this door as a sign one does not want visitors
- sporting chance — an even or fair opportunity for a favorable outcome in an enterprise, as winning in a game of chance or in any kind of contest: They gave the less experienced players a sporting chance by handicapping the experts.
- spotted cowbane — a North American water hemlock, Cicuta maculata, of the parsley family, having a purple-mottled stem, white flowers, and deadly poisonous, tuberlike roots.
- 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
- spring mattress — a mattress containing an arrangement of spiral springs
- spring training — a program of physical exercise, practice, and exhibition games followed by a baseball team in the late winter and early spring, before the start of the regular season.
- 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
- stamping ground — a habitual or favorite haunt.
- stand-up comedy — telling jokes to an audience
- starting pistol — a pistol used to give the signal to start a race
- steamed pudding — a traditional pudding containing fat, sugar, eggs, flour, and other ingredients, which is steamed
- step on the gas — accelerate, drive faster
- step-and-repeat — noting or pertaining to a process by which successive photo-offset plates are produced automatically or semiautomatically with great precision: used especially in making plates for multicolor printing.
- stephen hawking — Stephen William, born 1942, English mathematician and theoretical physicist.
- stop at nothing — to be prepared to do anything; be unscrupulous or ruthless
- straining piece — (in a queen-post roof) a horizontal beam uniting the tops of the two queen posts, and resisting the thrust of the roof.
- stretch a point — a sharp or tapering end, as of a dagger.
- sub-corporation — an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. See also municipal corporation, public corporation.
- sublapsarianism — infralapsarianism.
- suboptimization — a situation which is less than optimal
- subprofessional — being below professional standards: subprofessional health care.
- sulphinpyrazone — a uricosuric drug with molecular formula C23H20N2O3S, used in the treatment of chronic gout
- superabundantly — very or too abundantly
- superexaltation — extreme or supreme exaltation; the act of superexalting; the process or condition of being superexalted
- superexcitation — the act of exciting.
- superficialness — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
- supergiant star — Astronomy. an exceptionally luminous star whose diameter is more than 100 times that of the sun, as Betelgeuse or Antares.
- superindividual — greater than the individual
- superior planet — any of the five planets whose orbits are outside the orbit of the earth, namely, the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
- supernaturalism — supernatural character or agency.
- supernaturalist — supernatural character or agency.
- supernaturality — the quality or state of being supernatural; supernaturalism.
- supernaturalize — to make supernatural; give supernatural character or qualities to.
- superordination — Logic. the relation between a universal proposition and a particular proposition of the same quality containing the same terms in the same order.
- supplementation — the act or process of supplementing.
- surface-ripened — (of cheese) ripened on the surface by molds or other microorganisms.
- sycophantically — a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite.