18-letter words containing s, e, l, a
- sexual intercourse — genital contact, especially the insertion of the penis into the vagina followed by orgasm; coitus; copulation.
- sexual orientation — one's natural preference in sexual partners; predilection for homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.
- shatterproof glass — glass designed to resist shattering
- shepherd satellite — a small moon orbiting near a planetary ring, whose gravitational pull helps confine the ring and the ring's extent.
- short-tailed shrew — a grayish-black shrew, Blarina brevicauda, common in eastern North America, that has a tail less than half the length of the body.
- shugart technology — Seagate Technology
- sickle cell anemia — a chronic hereditary blood disease, occurring primarily among Africans or persons of African descent, in which abnormal hemoglobin causes red blood cells to become sickle-shaped and nonfunctional, characterized by enlarged spleen, chronic anemia, lethargy, weakness, joint pain, and blood clot formation.
- sickle-cell anemia — Sickle-cell anemia is an inherited illness in which the red blood cells become curved, causing a number of health problems.
- sierra blanca peak — a mountain in S New Mexico: highest peak in the Sacramento Mountains. 11,997 feet (3651 meters).
- significance level — (in the statistical test of a hypothesis) the maximum probability of a Type I error for all distributions consistent with the null hypothesis.
- sildenafil citrate — a white crystalline powder, C 22 H 30 N 6 O 4 S, that temporarily normalizes erectile function of the penis by blocking an enzyme known to inhibit the production of a chemical that causes erections: used in the form of a pill to treat impotence.
- silver certificate — a former paper currency first issued in 1878 by the U.S. federal government for circulation, equal to and redeemable for silver to a stated value.
- simple enumeration — a procedure for arriving at empirical generalizations by haphazard accumulation of positive instances.
- sindbad the sailor — (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments), a wealthy citizen of Baghdad who relates the adventures of his seven wonderful voyages.
- sit up like jackie — to sit bolt upright, esp cheekily
- sleeping policeman — a bump built across roads, esp in housing estates, to deter motorists from speeding
- slobodan milosevic — Slobodan [sloh-buh-dain] /ˈsloʊ bəˌdɛən/ (Show IPA), 1941–2006, Yugoslav and Serbian politician: president of Serbia 1989–97, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1997–2000, accused of war crimes 2001.
- slow on the uptake — slow to understand or learn
- slow-motion replay — a showing again in slow motion of a sequence of action, esp of part of a sporting contest immediately after it happens
- small outline dimm — (storage) (SO-DIMM) A smaller kind of DIMM with 72 pins (supporting 32-bit transfers) or 144 pins (64-bit transfers). Regular DIMMs have 168 pins and support 64-bit transfers. Being roughly half the size of the regular DIMM, SO-DIMMs are often used in notebook computers.
- small pastern bone — the part of the foot of a horse, cow, etc., between the fetlock and the hoof.
- snakes and ladders — Snakes and ladders is a British children's game played with a board and dice. When you go up a ladder, you progress quickly. When you go down a snake, you go backwards.
- social engineering — the application of the findings of social science to the solution of actual social problems.
- social environment — the environment developed by humans as contrasted with the natural environment; society as a whole, especially in its relation to the individual.
- societal marketing — marketing that takes into account society's long-term welfare
- sociotechnological — of, relating to, or signifying the combination or interaction of social and technological factors.
- soda-lime feldspar — plagioclase.
- sodium thiosulfate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, Na 2 S 2 O 3 ⋅5H 2 O, used as a bleach and in photography as a fixing agent.
- soft touch sealing — Soft touch sealing is a copolymer seal for a tank, with characteristics designed for softness, used instead of a metal seal to help avoid fire when sparks are generated.
- software backplane — (programming, tool) A CASE framework from Atherton.
- sole-charge school — a rural school with only one teacher
- solemn (high) mass — a highly ceremonial Mass with parts of the text sung by the celebrant, with a deacon and subdeacon assisting at the ceremonies, and with choir singing and organ music
- solid-fuel heating — heating that uses solid fuel, such as coal or coke
- solitary sandpiper — a North American sandpiper, Tringa solitaria, of inland wetlands, having a brownish-gray, white-spotted back and whitish underparts.
- solvent extraction — Solvent extraction is the separation of a particular substance from a mixture by dissolving that substance in a solvent that will dissolve it, but which will not dissolve any other substance in the mixture.
- speak for yourself — If you say 'Speak for yourself' when someone has said something, you mean that what they have said is only their opinion or applies only to them.
- special assessment — a tax levied by a local government on private property to pay the cost of local public improvements, as sidewalk construction or sewage disposal, that are of general benefit to the property taxed.
- special collection — a collection of materials segregated from a general library collection according to form, subject, age, condition, rarity, source, or value.
- special prosecutor — (formerly) an independent counsel.
- special relativity — the state or fact of being relative.
- specialist teacher — a teacher with expertise in working with children with special educational needs, such as dyslexia
- spectroheliography — the process of obtaining an image of the sun in light of a particular wavelength, such as calcium or hydrogen, showing the distribution of the element over the surface and in the solar atmosphere, using a spectroheliograph
- spectropolarimeter — an instrument for determining the extent to which plane-polarized light of various wavelengths is rotated by certain solutions, consisting of a combination of a spectroscope and a polarimeter.
- spectropolariscope — an instrument combining the functions of a spectroscope with those of a polariscope.
- spherical geometry — the branch of geometry that deals with figures on spherical surfaces.
- spherical triangle — a triangle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spinal anaesthesia — anaesthesia of the lower half of the body produced by injecting an anaesthetic beneath the arachnoid membrane surrounding the spinal cord
- spotted flycatcher — a European woodland songbird, Muscicapa striata, with a greyish-brown streaked plumage: family Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers)
- st. james's palace — a palace in London, England: the royal residence from the time of Henry VIII until the accession of Victoria.
- st. lawrence river — a river in SE Canada, flowing NE from Lake Ontario, forming part of the boundary between New York and Ontario, and emptying into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 760 miles (1225 km) long.