16-letter words containing s, e, n, c
- self-subsistence — the state or fact of subsisting.
- self-sufficiency — able to supply one's own or its own needs without external assistance: The nation grows enough grain to be self-sufficient.
- self-vindicating — to clear, as from an accusation, imputation, suspicion, or the like: to vindicate someone's honor.
- self-vindication — the act of vindicating.
- self-vulcanizing — to treat (rubber) with sulfur and heat, thereby imparting strength, greater elasticity, durability, etc.
- semantic tableau — a method of demonstrating the consistency or otherwise of a set of statements by constructing a diagrammatic representation of all the circumstances that satisfy the set of statements
- semiconservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- senate committee — a committee formed from the upper chamber of the legislature in, for example, the US, Canada, Australia, etc
- send to coventry — to ostracize or ignore
- seneca snakeroot — any of various plants whose roots have been regarded as a remedy for snakebites, as the herb Aristolochia serpentaria (Virginia snakeroot) having a medicinal rhizome and rootlets, and the white-flowered Polygala senega (Seneca snakeroot) having a medicinal root.
- senior executive — someone in a senior position in a business, who makes decisions and puts them into action
- sensationalistic — subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
- sense perception — perception by the senses rather than by the intellect.
- series resonance — the resonance that results when circuit elements are connected with their inductance and capacitance in series, so that the impedance of the combination falls to a minimum at the resonant frequency
- service contract — law: between employer and employee
- service engineer — someone who maintains and repairs equipment
- service entrance — an entrance for the use of servants, delivery people, or the like.
- service industry — business providing a service
- sesquicentennial — pertaining to or marking the completion of a period of 150 years.
- session musician — a studio musician, esp one who works freelance
- settlement price — The settlement price is the average price of a financial instrument at the end of a trading day.
- severance motion — an application made to a judge or court for the division into separate parts of a joint estate, contract, etc
- sexual selection — a special type of natural selection in which the sexes acquire distinct forms either because the members of one sex choose mates with particular features or because in the competition for mates among the members of one sex only those with certain traits succeed.
- shakedown cruise — extortion, as by blackmail or threats of violence.
- sheepskin jacket — a short jacket made of the skin of a sheep with the wool still attached to it
- shipping channel — a navigational pathway that a ship uses to travel from one place to another
- shirring elastic — elastic used for shirring
- shoestring catch — a catch of a ball on the fly, made close to the ground while running.
- shopping channel — television station used to sell goods
- shopping complex — a shopping centre
- sicilian vespers — a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.
- sickness benefit — Sickness benefit is money that you receive regularly from the government when you are unable to work because of illness.
- silk-cotton tree — any of several spiny trees belonging to the genus Ceiba, of the bombax family, having palmately compound leaves and seeds surrounded by silk cotton, especially C. pentandra, from which kapok is obtained.
- silver-lace vine — a hardy, twining, woody plant, Polygonum auberti, of the buckwheat family, native to western China and Tibet, having greenish-white, fragrant flowers in drooping clusters.
- simon boccanegra — an opera (1857) by Giuseppe Verdi.
- simonyi, charles — Charles Simonyi
- simply-connected — (of a set or domain) having a connected complement.
- single occupancy — a type of travel accommodation, as at a hotel, for one person in a room.
- single precision — using one word rather than two or more to represent a number.
- sir isaac newton — Sir Isaac, 1642–1727, English philosopher and mathematician: formulator of the law of gravitation.
- sit on the fence — to be unable or unwilling to commit oneself
- situation comedy — a comedy drama, especially a television series made up of discrete episodes about the same group of characters, as members of a family.
- situation ethics — a view of ethics that deprecates general moral principles while emphasizing the source of moral judgments in the distinctive characters of specific situations.
- slap in the face — smack on the cheek
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- smack in the eye — a snub or setback
- smack one's lips — If you smack your lips, you open and close your mouth noisily, especially before or after eating, to show that you are eager to eat or enjoyed eating.
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- social economics — the study of the interrelation between economics and social behavior.
- social evolution — the gradual development of society and social forms, institutions, etc., usually through a series of peaceful stages. Compare revolution (def 2).