19-letter words containing s, e, c, h, i
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudo-hieroglyphic — noting or pertaining to a script dating from the second millennium b.c. that appears to be syllabic and to represent the Phoenician language and that is inscribed on objects found at Byblos.
- pseudopsychological — of or relating to psychology.
- psychic determinism — the theory that all aspects of a person's psychological makeup arise from specific causes or forces, as previous experiences or instinctual drives, which may be conscious or unconscious.
- psychoendocrinology — the study of the relationship between the endocrine system and various symptoms or types of mental illness.
- psychological novel — a novel that focuses on the complex mental and emotional lives of its characters and explores the various levels of mental activity.
- psychotechnological — of or relating to psychotechnology
- psychrometric chart — a chart for calculating values of relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew point from psychrometer readings.
- puerperal psychosis — a mental disorder sometimes occurring in women after childbirth, characterized by deep depression, delusions of the child's death, and homicidal feelings towards the child
- quick-change artist — a person adept at changing from one thing to another, as an entertainer who changes costumes quickly during a performance.
- raise one's hackles — one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
- rayleigh scattering — the scattering of light by particles that are very small in relation to the wavelength of the light, and in which the intensity of the scattered light varies inversely with the fourth power of the wavelength.
- regular icosahedron — an icosahedron in which each of the faces is an equilateral triangle
- releasing mechanism — a hypothetical control complex in the central nervous system of animals that triggers the appropriate behavioral response to a releaser.
- research fellowship — the position or office of someone who conducts academic research into a subject at a university, etc
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- rhetorical question — a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.
- rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
- saccharofarinaceous — pertaining to or consisting of sugar and meal.
- samuel de champlain — Samuel de [sam-yoo-uh l duh;; French sa-my-el duh] /ˈsæm yu əl də;; French sa müˈɛl də/ (Show IPA), 1567–1635, French explorer in the Americas: founder of Quebec; first colonial governor 1633–35.
- sandwich generation — the generation of people still raising their children while having to care for their aging parents.
- scattersite housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- seleucia tracheotis — an ancient city in SE Asia Minor, on the River Calycadnus (modern Goksu Nehri): captured by the Turks in the 13th century; site of present-day Silifke (Turkey)
- sell like hot cakes — a pancake or griddlecake.
- semidetached binary — a pair of stars that are so close together that mass transfer occurs from one to the other
- sharp-focus realism — photorealism.
- shopping facilities — shops or other retail services
- simple carbohydrate — a carbohydrate, as glucose, that consists of a single monosaccharide unit.
- sissinghurst castle — a restored Elizabethan mansion near Cranbrook in Kent: noted for the gardens laid out in the 1930s by Victoria Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson
- sleepy hollow chair — an armchair of the mid-19th century, sometimes on rockers, having a single piece forming a high upholstered back and a concave upholstered seat.
- sodium hypochlorite — a pale-green, crystalline compound, NaOCl, unstable in air, soluble in cold water, decomposes in hot water: used as a bleaching agent for paper and textiles, in water purification, in household use, and as a fungicide.
- solid-state physics — the branch of physics that deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, especially solids; the study of the electromagnetic, structural, and thermodynamic properties of solids.
- son-of-a-bitch stew — (in the Old West) a stew often prepared by chuck-wagon cooks for working cowboys, containing tripe and often also the heart, liver, brains, kidney, etc., of a slaughtered steer.
- south pacific ocean — the part of the Pacific Ocean extending S from the Equator to the Antarctic continent.
- spanish west africa — a former overseas territory of Spain in NW Africa: divided in 1958 into the overseas provinces of Ifni and Spanish Sahara
- special partnership — limited partnership.
- specific characters — the persistent features that distinguish one species from all others
- sphere of influence — any area in which one nation wields dominant power over another or others.
- spherical astronomy — the branch of astronomy dealing with the determination of the positions of celestial bodies on the celestial sphere.
- stochastic variable — a random variable.
- substitution cipher — a cipher that replaces letters of the plain text with another set of letters or symbols.
- superhigh frequency — any frequency between 3000 and 30,000 megahertz. Abbreviation: SHF.
- surface effect ship — a large, ship-size air cushion vehicle operated over water.
- sweetheart neckline — a neckline on a woman's garment, as a dress, with a high back and a low-cut front with two curved edges resembling the conventionalized shape of a heart.
- switchblade (knife) — a large jackknife that snaps open when a release button on the handle is pressed
- sympathetic contact — behavior toward an individual based on the individual's personal makeup rather than on his or her group membership.
- synchronous machine — an alternating-current machine in which the average speed of normal operation is exactly proportional to the frequency of the system to which it is connected.
- synthetic detergent — any synthetic substance, other than soap, that is an effective cleanser and functions equally well as a surface-active agent in hard or soft water.
- take (the) occasion — to use the opportunity (to do something)