16-letter words containing s, e, n, c
- unsystematically — having, showing, or involving a system, method, or plan: a systematic course of reading; systematic efforts.
- up to one's neck — If you say that someone is in some sort of trouble or criminal activity up to their neck, you mean that they are deeply involved in it.
- upside-down cake — a cake that is baked on a layer of fruit, then turned before serving so that the fruit is on top.
- upsilon particle — the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
- vancouver island — an island of SW Canada, off the SW coast of British Columbia: separated from the Canadian mainland by the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound, and from the US mainland by Juan de Fuca Strait; the largest island off the W coast of North America. Chief town: Victoria. Pop: 706 243 (2001). Area: 32 137 sq km (12 408 sq miles)
- vasoconstrictive — causing vasoconstriction.
- velcro fastening — a fastening made of Velcro
- verneuil process — a process for making synthetic rubies, sapphires, spinels, etc., by the fusion at high temperatures of powdered compounds.
- vertical tasting — a tasting of different vintages of one particular wine.
- viceregal assent — the formal signing of an act of parliament by a governor general, by which it becomes law
- victorian values — qualities considered to characterize the Victorian period, including enterprise and initiative and the importance of the family
- vienna secession — thea Viennese movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent. in the arts and architecture, that rejected prevailing academic styles in favor of these of art nouveau
- vincent's angina — a disease characterized by ulceration of the mucosa of the tonsils, pharynx, and mouth, by the presence of abundant bacilli and spirochetes, and by the development of a membrane.
- visiting teacher — a teacher in a public school system, assigned to give home instruction to sick or disabled pupils.
- visual interface — (tool, text) (vi) /V-I/, /vi:/, *never* /siks/ A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD release. vi became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favourite outside of MIT until the rise of Emacs after about 1984. It tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has often heard the editor's name pronounced /vi:l/). Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even some Emacs fans resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of Emacs). See holy wars.
- voluntary muscle — muscle whose action is normally controlled by an individual's will; mainly skeletal muscle, composed of parallel bundles of striated, multinucleate fibers.
- voluntary sector — the part of the economy that consists of non-profit-making organizations, as opposed to the public and private sectors
- walking distance — distance that can easily be walked
- war of secession — American Civil War.
- ward christensen — (person) The inventor of XMODEM and of the BBS. Ward did physics in college and programmed mainframes for IBM. Ward and friend Randy Suess set up their BBS on first on 1978-02-16 in Chicago. It ran on an S-100 computer with 64k RAM and two single-sided 8" 250kB diskettes.
- watch one's step — a movement made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position, accompanied by a shifting of the weight of the body in the direction of the new position, as in walking, running, or dancing.
- well-compensated — to recompense for something: They gave him ten dollars to compensate him for his trouble.
- well-constructed — to build or form by putting together parts; frame; devise.
- well-disciplined — having or exhibiting discipline; rigorous: paintings characterized by a disciplined technique.
- western sandwich — a sandwich with a western omelet for a filling.
- when it comes to — with regard to
- white rhinoceros — an African rhinoceros, Diceros simus, having two horns on the nose
- whole-tone scale — a scale progressing entirely by whole tones, as C, D, E, F♯, G♯, A♯, C.
- wiener schnitzel — Viennese Cookery. a breaded veal cutlet, variously seasoned or garnished.
- wild honeysuckle — pinxter flower.
- winchester rifle — a type of magazine rifle, first made in about 1866.
- windscreen wiper — A windscreen wiper is a device that wipes rain from a vehicle's windscreen.
- with clean hands — innocently
- yeoman's service — good, useful, or workmanlike service: His trusty sword did him yeoman's service.
- zenith telescope — a telescope mounted to point only at the zenith, used at some observatories for measuring time by the stars.