17-letter words containing p, r, s
- september weather — weather characteristic of the month of September, esp in being unpredictable as summer is ending and autumn is beginning
- serendipity berry — miracle fruit (def 2).
- set one's cap for — a close-fitting covering for the head, usually of soft supple material and having no visor or brim.
- severance package — an amount of compensation paid by an organization to an employee who leaves because, through no fault of their own, the job to which they were appointed ceases to exist, as during rationalization, and no comparable job is available to them
- sexual dimorphism — the condition in which the males and females in a species are morphologically different, as with many birds.
- sexual preference — Someone's sexual preference is the same as their sexual orientation.
- shepherd's needle — a European umbelliferous plant, Scandix pectenveneris, with long needle-like fruits
- shetland pullover — a thick woollen sweater made from Shetland wool
- shipping articles — articles of agreement.
- shipping industry — the industry concerned with transporting freight, esp by ship
- shooting practice — practice in shooting for soldiers or other people who shoot guns
- shopping precinct — pedestrian area with shops
- shortcrust pastry — a basic type of pastry that is made with half the quantity of fat to flour, and has a crisp but crumbly texture
- show sb the ropes — If you show someone the ropes, you show them how to do a particular job or task.
- shutter-preferred — of or relating to a semiautomatic exposure system in which the photographer presets the shutter speed and the camera selects the aperture.
- silk-screen print — a type of print made with a stencil and a fine mesh screen. Ink is applied to and forced through the small holes in the screen leaving the covered area free from ink
- simple microscope — a microscope having a single lens.
- single-name paper — commercial paper bearing only the signature of the maker.
- sino-japanese war — the war (1894–95) between China and Japan over the control of Korea that resulted in the nominal independence of Korea and the Chinese cession to Japan of Formosa and the Pescadores.
- six-speed gearbox — a gearbox containing a system of six gears
- slap on the wrist — a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
- sleep deprivation — a condition in which you have not had enough sleep
- sleeper terrorist — a terrorist who is not currently active but assumes a guise in order to be in position, unsuspected, for future terrorist activities
- sleeping problems — difficulties in getting to sleep or in staying asleep
- sleeping quarters — the rooms where people sleep in a large building or complex or on a boat etc
- slip-joint pliers — pliers having a sliding joint, permitting the span of the jaws to be adjusted.
- social enterprise — a business organization that works to benefit society as a whole
- sodium propionate — a transparent, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 3 H 5 NaO 2 , used in foodstuffs to prevent mold growth, and in medicine as a fungicide.
- sodium pyroborate — borax1 .
- sodium-vapor lamp — an electric lamp in which sodium vapor is activated by current passing between two electrodes, producing a yellow, glareless light: used on streets and highways.
- software platform — a major piece of software, as an operating system, an operating environment, or a database, under which various smaller application programs can be designed to run.
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- southern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, including the Dodecanese, lying off the SW coast of Turkey
- spaghetti western — a low-budget western movie shot in Italy or Spain, usually with Italian actors and an American star.
- spanish civil war — the civil war in Spain 1936–39.
- sparc xterminal 1 — (computer) Sun's lowest cost networked Unix desktop, it is board-upgradeable to a SPARC 4. It comes with a choice of frame buffers: 8-bit colour, Turbo GX, or Turbo GX plus. This product was expected to replace the SPARCclassic X. UK availability was planned for March 1995.
- spark photography — photography of fast-moving objects, as bullets, by the light of an electric spark.
- spark transmitter — a transmitting set that generates electromagnetic waves by the oscillatory discharge from a capacitor through an inductor and a spark gap.
- spastic paralysis — a condition in which the muscles affected are marked by tonic spasm and increased tendon reflexes.
- spatial frequency — the measure of fine detail in an optical image in terms of cycles per millimetre
- special messenger — a postal worker who delivers mail by special delivery
- special privilege — exclusive advantage
- spectroheliograph — an apparatus for making photographs of the sun with a monochromatic light to show the details of the sun's surface and surroundings as they would appear if the sun emitted only that light.
- spectrohelioscope — a spectroheliograph.
- spectromicroscope — a microscope with an attached spectroscope.
- spectrophotometer — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
- spectrophotometry — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
- spectroradiometer — an instrument for determining the radiant-energy distribution in a spectrum, combining the functions of a spectroscope with those of a radiometer.
- spectroscopically — an optical device for producing and observing a spectrum of light or radiation from any source, consisting essentially of a slit through which the radiation passes, a collimating lens, and an Amici prism.