12-letter words containing p, a, s, o
- salpiglossis — any solanaceous plant of the Chilean genus Salpiglossis, some species of which are cultivated for their bright funnel-shaped flowers
- salpingotomy — incision of a Fallopian tube.
- sample point — a possible result of an experiment, represented as a point.
- sancho panza — Sancho, Sancho Panza.
- sankt pölten — a city in NE Austria, the capital of Lower Austria state. Pop: 49 121 (2001)
- sapindaceous — belonging to the Sapindaceae, the soapberry family of plants.
- saprobiology — the branch of ecology that studies decaying organic matter or environments, especially saprophytes that derive nourishment in this way.
- saprophagous — (of an organism) feeding on dead or decaying animal matter.
- saprophytism — living and feeding on dead organic matter
- sarcophagous — carnivorous.
- sarrusophone — a metal double-reed wind instrument with a conical bore, related to the oboe and used especially in military bands.
- satanophobia — a morbid fear of the devil or Satan
- saw palmetto — a shrublike palmetto, Serenoa repens, of the palm family, native to the southern U.S., having green or blue leafstalks set with spiny teeth.
- scalp lotion — A scalp lotion is a liquid medication for the treatment of scalp conditions and disorders.
- scapegallows — a criminal who escapes death by hanging or the gallows
- scapegoating — the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself.
- scapegoatism — the act or practice of assigning blame or failure to another, as to deflect attention or responsibility away from oneself.
- scapulomancy — divination of the future by observation of the cracking of a mammal's scapula that has been heated by a fire or hot instrument.
- scatophagous — feeding on dung or excrement
- scatter plot — a graphic representation of bivariate data as a set of points in the plane that have Cartesian coordinates equal to corresponding values of the two variates.
- scenographic — the art of representing objects in accordance with the rules of perspective.
- schizocarpic — a dry, dehiscent fruit that at maturity splits into two or more one-seeded carpels.
- school prawn — a common olive-green prawn, Metapenaeus macleayi
- schopenhauer — Arthur [ahr-too r] /ˈɑr tʊər/ (Show IPA), 1788–1860, German philosopher.
- scolopaceous — (of birds or other animals) like a snipe, a shore bird with a straight beak
- scopes trial — John Thomas, 1901–70, U.S. high-school teacher whose teaching of the Darwinian theory of evolution became a cause célèbre (Scopes Trial or Monkey Trial) in 1925.
- scopophiliac — the obtaining of sexual pleasure by looking at nude bodies, erotic photographs, etc.
- scoptophilia — the obtaining of sexual pleasure by looking at nude bodies, erotic photographs, etc.
- scouring pad — a small pad, as of steel wool or plastic mesh, used for scouring pots, pans, etc.
- scrapbooking — hobby: collaging
- scraperboard — scratchboard.
- scratchproof — resistant to scratches.
- scrophularia — a member of a genus of flowering plants which have a square stem and are known as figworts
- scsi adaptor — (hardware) (Or "host adaptor") A device that communicates between a computer and its SCSI peripherals. The SCSI adaptor is usually assigned SCSI ID 7. It is often a separate card that is connected to the computer's bus (e.g. PCI, ISA, PCMCIA) though increasinly, SCSI adaptors are built in to the motherboard. Apart from being cheaper, busses like PCI are too slow to keep up with the newer SCSI standards like Ultra SCSI and Ultra-Wide SCSI. There are several varieties of SCSI (and their connectors) and an adaptor will not support them all. The performance of SCSI devices is limited by the speed of the SCSI adaptor and its connection to the computer. An adaptor that plugs into a parallel port is unlikely to be as fast as one incorporated into a motherboard. Fast adaptors use DMA or bus mastering. Some SCSI adaptors include a BIOS to allow PCs to boot from a SCSI hard disk, if their own BIOS supports it. Note that it is not a "SCSI controller" - it does not control the devices, and "SCSI interface" is redundant - the "I" of "SCSI" stands for "interface".
- sea of japan — the sea between mainland Asia and Japan
- sea scorpion — scorpionfish.
- season creep — the gradual changing in the length of the seasons, as demonstrated by earlier flowering of plants, etc, thought by many to be caused by climate change
- seismography — the scientific measuring and recording of the shock and vibrations of earthquakes.
- selenography — the branch of astronomy that deals with the charting of the moon's surface.
- semi-popular — regarded with favor, approval, or affection by people in general: a popular preacher.
- semitropical — subtropical.
- separate out — filter, sift
- sepher torah — a scroll of the Torah, typically of parchment, from which the designated Parashah is chanted or read on the prescribed days.
- sexual spore — a spore formed after the fusion of gametes and an asexual spore is the result of asexual reproduction
- shadow price — the calculated price of a good or service for which no market price exists
- shadowgraphy — the production of a shadowgraph
- shamrock-pea — a trailing plant, Parochetus communis, of the legume family, native to Asia and east Africa, having shamrocklike leaves with a brown crescent at the base and pea-shaped, pink and blue flowers.
- shank's pony — one's own legs, especially as a means of moving from one place to another: The only way we can get there is by shanks' mare.
- share option — A share option is an opportunity for the employees of a company to buy shares at a special price.
- sharecropper — a tenant farmer who pays as rent a share of the crop.