15-letter words containing s, c, r, a, p
- shrimp cocktail — prawns and lettuce in Mary Rose sauce
- side impact bar — A side impact bar is a long beam in a car door that is designed to protect passengers during a crash.
- simple fraction — a ratio of two integers.
- simple fracture — a fracture in which the bone does not pierce the skin.
- snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
- socialist party — a U.S. political party advocating socialism, formed about 1900 chiefly by former members of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Labor Party.
- somatic therapy — any of a group of treatments presumed to act on biological factors leading to mental illness.
- space character — a keyed space in text or data
- spanish america — the Spanish-speaking countries south of the U.S.: Mexico, Central America (with the exception of Belize), South America (with the exceptions of Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname), and most of the West Indies.
- spanish morocco — French Maroc. Spanish Marruecos. a kingdom in NW Africa: formed from a sultanate that was divided into two protectorates (French Morocco and Spanish Morocco) and an international zone. 172,104 sq. mi. (445,749 sq. km). Capital: Rabat. Compare Tangier Zone.
- sparcstation 10 — (computer) A SPARCStation with a 4-way associative data cache and a five-way associative instruction cache. The 10/31, 10/41 and 10/51 also have a secondary cache not present on earlier SPARCStations.
- sparcstation 20 — (computer) A SPARCStation based on the HyperSPARC processor. The 20 is compatible with the earlier SPARCstation 10. It has a clock rate of 100MHz and delivers a SPECfp92 of 127.6. The SPARCstation 20 Model 71 and 712MP uses the 75MHz SuperSPARC processors that give a 35% and 14% boost to SPECint92 and SPECfp92 respectively compared to the 61/612MP.
- special feature — an article differing from the normal format and focusing on a particular topic
- special library — a library maintained by an organization, as a business, association, or government agency, to collect materials and provide information of special relevance to the work of the organization.
- special partner — a partner whose liability for the firm's debts is limited to the amount that partner has invested in the firm.
- specific charge — the ratio of the charge on a particle to the mass of the particle.
- speckle pattern — the visual appearance of a star as viewed through a large telescope, with irregularities caused by the distorting effect of local turbulence in the earth's atmosphere.
- spectator sport — any sport that can be watched by spectators, as football or basketball, usually for a fee.
- spectral series — a series of lines in the spectrum of light emitted by excited atoms of an element, each line being related to the others in the series by a simple numerical equation and identified with a particular energy level of an atom of the element.
- spectrochemical — of, relating to, or utilizing the techniques of spectrochemistry.
- speech training — training designed to improve spoken skills, such as voice projection
- speed indicator — an instrument for counting the number of revolutions of a gasoline engine.
- spermatoblastic — relating to a spermatoblast
- spherical angle — an angle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spinach-rhubarb — an Ethiopian plant, Rumex abyssinicus, of the buckwheat family, having leaves that are sometimes used as spinach and leafstalks sometimes used as rhubarb.
- spirochaetaemia — the presence of spirochaetes in the blood
- splanchnopleure — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
- sporting chance — an even or fair opportunity for a favorable outcome in an enterprise, as winning in a game of chance or in any kind of contest: They gave the less experienced players a sporting chance by handicapping the experts.
- spring-cleaning — a complete cleaning of a place, as a home, done traditionally in the spring of the year.
- sprinkler dance — a celebratory dance in which participants extend one arm and shake it to imitate the action of a rotating water sprinkler
- static pressure — the pressure exerted by a fluid that is not moving or flowing.
- stereotypically — in a stereotypical manner
- straining piece — (in a queen-post roof) a horizontal beam uniting the tops of the two queen posts, and resisting the thrust of the roof.
- streptobacillus — any of various bacilli that form in chains.
- stretch a point — a sharp or tapering end, as of a dagger.
- stretcher party — a group of stretcher bearers and the stretchers they are carrying
- sub-corporation — an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. See also municipal corporation, public corporation.
- sulphurous acid — an unstable acid produced when sulphur dioxide dissolves in water: used as a preservative for food and a bleaching agent. Formula: H2SO3
- sumatra camphor — borneol.
- superbureaucrat — an important or highly powerful bureaucrat
- superexcitation — the act of exciting.
- superficialness — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
- superplasticity — the phenomenon, exhibited by certain metals and alloys usually at high temperatures, of stretching to extreme lengths without breaking
- superspecialist — a highly skilled specialist
- surface-ripened — (of cheese) ripened on the surface by molds or other microorganisms.
- surgical spirit — Surgical spirit is a liquid which is used to clean wounds or surgical instruments. It consists mainly of alcohol.
- thalassographic — relating to thalassography
- the paralympics — a sporting event, modelled on the Olympic Games, held solely for disabled competitors
- tricuspid valve — the valve, consisting of three triangular flaps of tissue between the right auricle and ventricle of the heart, that keeps blood from flowing back into the auricle.
- turk's-cap lily — either of two lilies, Lilum martagon or L. superbum, having nodding flowers with the perianth segments rolled backward.