16-letter words containing s, a, n
- carrot and stick — If an organization has a carrot and stick approach or policy, they offer people things in order to persuade them to do something and punish them if they refuse to do it.
- case insensitive — case sensitivity
- case sensitivity — (text) Whether a text matching operation distinguishes upper-case (capital) letters from lower case (is "case sensitive") or not ("case insensitive"). Case in file names should be preserved (for readability) but ignored when matching (so the user doesn't have to get it right). MS-DOS does not preserve case in file names, Unix preserves case and matches are case sensitive. Any decent text editor will allow the user to specify whether or not text searches should be case sensitive. Case sensitivity is also relevant in programming (most programming languages distiguish between case in the names of identifiers), and addressing (Internet domain names are case insensitive but RFC 822 local mailbox names are case sensitive). Case insensitive operations are sometimes said to "fold case", from the idea of folding the character code table so that upper and lower case letters coincide. The alternative "smash case" is more likely to be used by someone who considers this behaviour a misfeature or in cases where one case is actually permanently converted to the other. "MS-DOS will automatically smash case in the names of all the files you create".
- cash on delivery — If you pay for goods cash on delivery, you pay for them in cash when they are delivered. The abbreviation C.O.D. is also used.
- cash transaction — a piece of business, for example an act of buying or selling something
- cassini division — the gap or dark region between the two main outer rings of Saturn: it has a width of about 4,700 km (2,920 mi)
- cassius longinus — Gaius (ˈɡaɪəs). died 42 bc, Roman general: led the conspiracy against Julius Caesar (44); defeated at Philippi by Antony (42)
- casting director — the person in charge of choosing of actors for a production
- castor-oil plant — a tall euphorbiaceous Indian plant, Ricinus communis, cultivated in tropical regions for ornament and for its poisonous seeds, from which castor oil is extracted
- cataractogenesis — The formation of a cataract.
- catch oneself on — to realize that one's actions are mistaken
- catch sb napping — If someone is caught napping, something happens when they are not prepared for it, although they should have been.
- category listing — A category listing is a list of different product categories such as menswear, womenswear, and childrenswear.
- cause and effect — You use cause and effect to talk about the way in which one thing is caused by another.
- cause-and-effect — noting a relationship between actions or events such that one or more are the result of the other or others.
- cavity resonator — a conducting surface enclosing a space in which an oscillating electromagnetic field can be maintained, the dimensions of the cavity determining the resonant frequency of the oscillations. It is used in microwave devices for frequencies exceeding 300 megahertz
- cayenne software — (company) The company formed when CADRE merged with Bachman Information Systems in July 1996.
- centennial state — Colorado (used as a nickname).
- cesarean section — Also called Cesarean section, C-section. an operation by which a fetus is taken from the uterus by cutting through the walls of the abdomen and uterus.
- chalon-sur-saône — an industrial city in E central France, on the Saône River. Pop: 50 124 (1999)
- chance one's arm — to attempt to do something although the chance of success may be slight
- chancellorsville — hamlet in NE Va. (now called Chancellor): site of a Civil War battle (May, 1863) won by Confederate forces
- channel crossing — a crossing of the English Channel
- channel islander — a person who comes from one of the Channel Islands
- chanson de geste — one of a genre of Old French epic poems celebrating heroic deeds, the most famous of which is the Chanson de Roland
- character string — a series of characters that can be manipulated as a group, but do not necessarily represent anything
- characterisation — (British spelling) Alternative form of characterization.
- charles chandler — Charles Frederick, 1836–1925, U.S. scientist, educator, and public-health expert.
- charles coughlin — Charles Edward ("Father Coughlin") 1891–1979, U.S. Roman Catholic priest, activist, radio broadcaster, and editor, born in Canada.
- chase the dragon — to smoke opium or heroin
- chattel personal — an item of movable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc
- chattering class — well-educated members of the upper-middle or upper class who freely express especially liberal opinions or judgments on current issues and events.
- chauvinistically — a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic, especially one devoted to military glory.
- chemical weapons — toxic chemicals used as weapons
- chichagof island — an island of Alaska, in the Alexander Archipelago. Area: 5439 sq km (2100 sq miles)
- children's panel — (in Scotland) a group of representatives of relevant agencies, with the power to deal with a child under sixteen who is in criminal or family trouble. Its hearings are private and replace most of the functions of juvenile courts
- chilean firebush — South American shrub with scarlet flowers
- chinese calendar — the former calendar of China, in which the year consisted of 12 lunar months with an intercalary month added seven times every 19 years to reconcile the lunar year of 354 days with the solar year of 365 days, time being reckoned in 60-year cycles with the first cycle dating from 2637 b.c.
- chinese cinnamon — cassia (def 1).
- chinese fan palm — a fan palm, Livistona chinensis, of southern Japan, having very large, deeply cleft leaves and bluish-green, ovalish fruit.
- chinese pavilion — crescent (def 6).
- chinese shar-pei — Shar-Pei.
- chinese snowball — a Chinese shrub, Viburnum macrocephalum, of the honeysuckle family, having scurfy, hairy twigs, hairy leaves, and white flowers in large, showy, globelike clusters.
- chinese windlass — differential windlass
- chinese wisteria — a high-climbing Chinese vine, Wisteria sinensis, of the legume family, having hanging clusters of fragrant, bluish-violet flowers and long, velvety pods.
- chinese-pavilion — a shape resembling a segment of a ring tapering to points at the ends.
- chipping sparrow — a common North American sparrow, Spizella passerina, having brown-and-grey plumage and a white eye stripe
- chondrodysplasia — (medicine) A genetic disorder characterized by short-limbed dwarfism.
- chorioamnionitis — Inflammation of the fetal membranes (amnion and chorion) due to a bacterial infection, most often associated with prolonged labour.
- christian action — an inter-Church movement formed in 1946 to promote Christian ideals in society at large