12-letter words containing p, o, t, s
- retropulsion — an abnormal tendency to walk backwards: a symptom of Parkinson's disease
- retropulsive — of or relating to retropulsion
- reupholstery — the materials used to cushion and cover furniture.
- ribbon strip — ribbon (def 8).
- rostropovich — Mstislav (Leopoldovich) [mis-tuh-slahv lee-uh-pohl-duh-vich;; Russian mstyi-slahf lyi-uh-pawl-duh-vyich] /ˈmɪs təˌslɑv ˌli əˈpoʊl də vɪtʃ;; Russian mstyɪˈslɑf lyɪ əˈpɔl də vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), 1927–2007, Soviet cellist and conductor (husband of Galina Vishnevskaya).
- rotary press — a printing press in which the type or plates to be printed are fastened upon a rotating cylinder and are impressed on a continuous roll of moving paper.
- rustproofing — the process of making metal rustproof.
- saddle point — a point at which a function of two variables has partial derivatives equal to zero but at which the function has neither a maximum nor a minimum value.
- safe-deposit — providing safekeeping for valuables: a safe-deposit vault.
- saint joseph — a city in NW Missouri, on the Missouri River.
- saint-tropez — a town in SE France, on the French Riviera: beach resort.
- sales report — a periodical report made by a salesperson to a manager giving details of amounts sold, existing and new accounts, etc
- salpingotomy — incision of a Fallopian tube.
- sample point — a possible result of an experiment, represented as a point.
- sankt pölten — a city in NE Austria, the capital of Lower Austria state. Pop: 49 121 (2001)
- saprophytism — living and feeding on dead organic matter
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- schizophytic — of or relating to a schizophyte
- 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.
- scoptophilia — the obtaining of sexual pleasure by looking at nude bodies, erotic photographs, etc.
- scratchproof — resistant to scratches.
- scrupulosity — having scruples, or moral or ethical standards; having or showing a strict regard for what one considers right; principled: scrupulous about defending human rights.
- 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".
- self-concept — the idea or mental image one has of oneself and one's strengths, weaknesses, status, etc.; self-image.
- self-support — the supporting or maintaining of oneself or itself without reliance on outside aid.
- semideponent — (of a Latin verb) active in meaning but passive in form in the perfect tense
- 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.
- septentrions — the seven stars of the Plough
- septic shock — condition caused by blood poisoning
- seropositive — showing a significant level of serum antibodies, or other immunologic marker in the serum, indicating previous exposure to the infectious agent being tested.
- seropurulent — composed of or containing both serum and pus
- serpentiform — shaped like a snake.
- serpentinous — of the nature of serpentine; containing or consisting of serpentine
- servitorship — the office or position of a servitor; the condition of being a servitor
- sex-positive — explicitly stated, stipulated, or expressed: a positive acceptance of the agreement.
- share option — A share option is an opportunity for the employees of a company to buy shares at a special price.
- shark patrol — a watch for sharks kept by an aircraft flying over beaches used by swimmers
- sharp tongue — If you say that someone has a sharp tongue, you are critical of the fact that they say things which are unkind though often clever.
- sharpshooter — a person skilled in shooting, especially with a rifle.
- shatterproof — designed or made to resist shattering: shatterproof glass in automobile windows.
- ship's store — a retail store aboard a navy ship that sells toiletries, cigarettes, etc., to the ship's personnel.
- shipping ton — a unit of weight, equivalent to 2000 pounds (0.907 metric ton) avoirdupois (short ton) in the U.S. and 2240 pounds (1.016 metric tons) avoirdupois (long ton) in Great Britain.