16-letter words containing s, d, e, a, t
- assisted passage — a scheme whereby a government encourages people to emigrate or return home by agreeing to pay for their ticket
- assisted suicide — suicide committed with the assistance of a physician by a person terminally ill or in unmanageable pain
- associate degree — An associate degree is a college degree that is awarded to a student who has completed a two-year course of study.
- associated state — a nation with limited sovereignty, especially a former colony that now assumes responsibility for domestic affairs but continues to depend on the colonial ruler for defense and foreign policy.
- aston dark space — the dark region between the cathode and the cathode glow in a vacuum tube, occurring when the pressure is low.
- at daggers drawn — If you say that two people are at daggers drawn, you mean they are having an argument and are still very angry with each other.
- at the sharp end — If you say that someone is at the sharp end of a particular activity or type of work, you mean that they are involved in the most difficult or dangerous aspects of it.
- 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
- atmospheric tide — a movement of atmospheric masses caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon and by daily solar heating.
- 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.
- auditory vesicle — the pouch that is formed by the invagination of an ectodermal placode and that develops into the internal ear.
- average adjuster — a person who calculates average claims, esp for marine insurance
- back-seat driver — If you refer to a passenger in a car as a back-seat driver, they annoy you because they constantly give you advice.
- 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.
- baron tweedsmuir — the title of Scottish novelist John Buchan
- bartholomeu dias — Bartholomeu [bahr-too-loo-me-oo] /ˌbɑr tʊ lʊˈmɛ ʊ/ (Show IPA), c1450–1500, Portuguese navigator: discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope.
- basic dichromate — an orange-red, amorphous, water-insoluble powder, Bi 2 O 3 ⋅2CrO 3 , used chiefly as a pigment in paints.
- 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 daughter — an illegitimate daughter
- be as good as to — would you please
- bearing pedestal — an independent support for a bearing, usually incorporating a bearing housing
- bearish tendency — a tendency for share prices to fall
- belted-bias tire — a motor-vehicle tire of the same construction as a bias-ply tire but with an added belt of steel or a strong synthetic material under the tread.
- benzoate of soda — sodium benzoate
- bertrand russell — (person) (1872-1970) A British mathematician, the discoverer of Russell's paradox.
- best-before date — a date on packaged food indicating how long it is safe to keep it
- bias-belted tire — belted-bias tire.
- birthday present — a gift given to someone on their birthday
- black nightshade — a poisonous solanaceous plant, Solanum nigrum, a common weed in cultivated land, having small white flowers with backward-curved petals and black berry-like fruits
- bootstrap loader — (operating system) A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
- boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
- braking distance — the distance a vehicle travels from the point at which its brakes are applied to the point at which it comes to a stop
- brave west winds — the strong west and west-northwest winds blowing between latitudes 40° S and 60° S.
- bright's disease — chronic inflammation of the kidneys; chronic nephritis
- brittle diabetes — uncontrolled insulin disorder
- bundled software — software sold as part of a package with computers or other hardware or software
- canine distemper — distemper1 (def 1a).
- carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
- cardinal virtues — the most important moral qualities, traditionally justice, prudence, temperance, and fortitude
- cascade particle — the least massive member of the xi particle family.
- castellated beam — a rolled metal beam the web of which is first divided by a lengthwise zigzag cut, then welded together so as to join the peaks of both halves, thus increasing its depth and strength.
- casting director — the person in charge of choosing of actors for a production
- catch a few zeds — to have a nap
- 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.
- 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
- chase the dragon — to smoke opium or heroin
- chest of drawers — A chest of drawers is a low, flat piece of furniture with drawers in which you keep clothes and other things.