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16-letter words containing s, a, n

  • athanasian creed — a profession of faith widely used in the Western Church which, although formerly attributed to Athanasius, probably originated in Gaul between 381 and 428 ad
  • atomic mass unit — a unit of mass used to express atomic and molecular weights that is equal to one twelfth of the mass of an atom of carbon-12. It is equivalent to 1.66 × 10–27 kg
  • attendance sheet — an official document for listing those attending a meeting, class, course, etc
  • atwood's machine — a device consisting of two unequal masses connected by a string passed over a pulley, used to illustrate the laws of motion.
  • auckland islands — a group of six uninhabited islands, south of New Zealand. Area: 611 sq km (234 sq miles)
  • audience figures — the number of people regularly watching a television programme or listening to a radio programme
  • aulnay-sous-bois — a town in N central France, a suburb NE of Paris.
  • aung san suu kyi — born 1945, Burmese politician; cofounder (1988) and general secretary (1988–91 and from 1995) of the National League for Democracy: Nobel peace prize 1991; released (2010) from a lengthy house arrest; elected to the Burmese House of Representatives in 2012
  • australian crawl — a stroke in which the feet are kicked like paddles while the arms reach forward and pull back through the water
  • australian rules — a game resembling rugby football, played in Australia between teams of 18 men each on an oval pitch, with a ball resembling a large rugby ball. Players attempt to kick the ball between posts (without crossbars) at either end of the pitch, scoring six points for a goal (between the two main posts) and one point for a behind (between either of two outer posts and the main posts). They may punch or kick the ball and run with it provided that they bounce it every ten yards
  • austro-hungarian — of or relating to the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867–1918)
  • authoritarianism — Authoritarianism is the state of being authoritarian or the belief that people with power, especially the State, have the right to control other people's actions.
  • autofluorescence — (biology, microscopy) Self-induced fluorescence.
  • autotransformers — Plural form of autotransformer.
  • autotransfusions — Plural form of autotransfusion.
  • avail oneself of — to make use of to one's advantage
  • avalon peninsula — a large peninsula of Newfoundland, between Trinity and Placentia Bays. Area: about 10 000 sq km (4000 sq miles)
  • aversion therapy — a method of suppressing an undesirable habit, such as excessive smoking, by causing the subject to associate an unpleasant effect, such as an electric shock or nausea, with the habit
  • axminster carpet — a type of patterned carpet with a cut pile
  • azuero peninsula — a peninsula in SW Panama, bordered on the E by the Gulf of Panama.
  • background music — music of any kind that is played while some other activity is going on, so that people do not actively attend to it
  • background noise — any type of noise that is not the sound that you are specifically listening to or monitoring
  • backus-naur form — (language, grammar)   (BNF, originally "Backus Normal Form") A formal metasyntax used to express context-free grammars. Backus Normal Form was renamed Backus-Naur Form at the suggestion of Donald Knuth. BNF is one of the most commonly used metasyntactic notations for specifying the syntax of programming languages, command sets, and the like. It is widely used for language descriptions but seldom documented anywhere (how do you document a metasyntax?), so that it must usually be learned by osmosis (but see RFC 2234). Consider this BNF for a US postal address: ::= ::= | "." ::= [] | ::= [] ::= "," This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part followed by a last name followed by an optional "jr-part" (Jr., Sr., or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs, covering the case of people who use multiple first and middle names and/or initials). A street address consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note that many things (such as the format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These lexical details are presumed to be obvious from context or specified somewhere nearby. There are many variants and extensions of BNF, possibly containing some or all of the regexp wild cards such as "*" or "+". EBNF is a common one. In fact the example above isn't the pure form invented for the ALGOL 60 report. "[]" was introduced a few years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognised. ABNF is another extension.
  • bahasa indonesia — the official language of Indonesia: developed from the form of Malay formerly widely used as a trade language in SE Asia
  • balance transfer — the act of transferring debt from one credit card to another, assuming that the second card has better terms or interest rates than the first
  • balearic islands — a group of islands in the W Mediterranean, consisting of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza, Formentera, Cabrera, and 11 islets: a province of Spain. Capital: Palma, on Majorca. Pop: 1 071 500 (2003 est). Area: 5012 sq km (1935 sq miles)
  • balkan mountains — a mountain range extending across Bulgaria from the Black Sea to the eastern border. Highest peak: Mount Botev, 2376 m (7793 ft)
  • balkan peninsula — a large peninsula in SE Europe, between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas
  • balsamic vinegar — Balsamic vinegar is a type of vinegar which tastes sweet and is made from grape juice.
  • banana republics — any of the small countries in the tropics, especially in the Western Hemisphere, whose economies are largely dependent on fruit exports, tourism, and foreign investors.
  • band-pass filter — a filter that transmits only those currents having a frequency lying within specified limits
  • banned substance — In sport, banned substances are drugs that competitors are not allowed to take because they could artificially improve their performance.
  • bare necessities — only the essentials
  • bargain basement — If you refer to something as a bargain basement thing, you mean that it is cheap and not very good quality.
  • bargain-basement — very low-priced.
  • bargaining scope — the range of topics within the scope of a particular set of negotiations leading to a collective agreement
  • baron tweedsmuir — the title of Scottish novelist John Buchan
  • basal anesthesia — anesthesia induced as a preliminary to further and deeper anesthesia
  • basement complex — the undifferentiated assemblage of rock (basement rock) underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.
  • basilar membrane — a membrane inside the cochlea that vibrates in response to sound
  • basque provinces — an autonomous region of N Spain, comprising the provinces of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya: inhabited mainly by Basques, who retained virtual autonomy from the 9th to the 19th century. Pop: 1 840 700 (2003 est). Area: about 7250 sq km (2800 sq miles)
  • bastard culverin — a 16th-century cannon, smaller than a culverin, firing a shot of between 5 and 8 pounds (11 and 17.6 kg).
  • bastard mahogany — an Australian tree, Eucalyptus botryoides, of the myrtle family, having lance-shaped leaves and furrowed bark.
  • bastard pointing — an imitation of tuck pointing, having a fillet made from the mortar of the joint.
  • batch processing — manufacturing products or treating materials in batches, by passing the output of one process to subsequent processes
  • batesian mimicry — mimicry in which a harmless species is protected from predators by means of its resemblance to a harmful or inedible species
  • be of assistance — Someone or something that is of assistance to you is helpful or useful to you.
  • be one's own man — to be independent or free
  • bear one's cross — a structure consisting essentially of an upright and a transverse piece, used to execute persons in ancient times.
  • bearing pedestal — an independent support for a bearing, usually incorporating a bearing housing
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