28-letter words containing s, e, r, i, a

scared to death scared stiff — If you are scared to death or scared stiff, you are extremely scared.
second law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
second marquis of rockingham — Charles, 2nd Marquis of Rockingham [rok-ing-uh m] /ˈrɒk ɪŋ əm/ (Show IPA), 1730–82, British statesman: prime minister 1765–66, 1782.
secondary sex characteristic — any of a number of manifestations, as development of breasts or beard, muscularity, distribution of fat tissue, and change of pitch in voice, specific to each sex and incipient at puberty but not essential to reproduction.
self-regulating organization — one of several British organizations set up in 1986 under the auspices of the Securities and Investment Board to regulate the activities of London investment markets
semiconservative replication — replication.
service advertising protocol — (networking) (SAP) A Novell NetWare protocol. SAP follows the spirit of the Xerox Clearinghouse protocol, it permits file, print, and gateway servers to advertise their services and addresses.
sexually transmitted disease — any disease characteristically transmitted by sexual contact, as gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, and chlamydia. Abbreviation: STD.
shared-appreciation mortgage — a type of mortgage that carries a smaller down payment or lower interest rate than usual in return for the lender's sharing in the appreciation of the property at some future date, as at the time of its sale. Abbreviation: SAM.
sign one's own death warrant — A death warrant is an official document which orders that someone is to be executed as a punishment for a crime.
simulation oriented language — (language) (SOL) An ALGOL extension for discrete simulation by Donald Knuth and McNeley.
single sideband transmission — a method of transmitting radio waves in which either the upper or the lower sideband is transmitted, the carrier being either wholly or partially suppressed. This reduces the required bandwidth and improves the signal-to-noise ratio
smooth endoplasmic reticulum — a network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
software productivity centre — (body) (SPC) A non-profit organisation based in Vancouver, BC, Canada with the mandate to assist software developers to improve their software engineering process.
special power of appointment — authority to appoint persons from a particular class to take an estate or interest in property
special theory of relativity — the state or fact of being relative.
spectral luminous efficiency — a measure of the efficiency of radiation of a given wavelength in producing a visual sensation. It is equal to the ratio of the radiant flux at a standard wavelength to that at the given wavelength when the standard wavelength is chosen so that the maximum value of this ratio is unity
standard operating procedure — a set of fixed instructions or steps for carrying out usually routine operations. Abbreviation: SOP.
state university of new york — (body) (SUNY) The public university system of New York State, USA, with campuses throughout the state.
strictly decreasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is less than the image of the smaller point.
strictly increasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is greater than the image of the smaller point.
sudden infant death syndrome — death from the sudden cessation of breathing (apnea) of a seemingly healthy infant, almost always during sleep, sometimes traceable to a chronic oxygen deficiency. Abbreviation: SIDS.
super video graphics adapter — Super Video Graphics Array
super video graphics adaptor — Super Video Graphics Array
supplemental security income — income provided by the U.S. government to needy aged, blind, and disabled persons. Abbreviation: SSI.
systemic lupus erythematosus — an autoimmune inflammatory disease of the connective tissues, occurring mainly among middle-aged women, chiefly characterized by skin eruptions, joint pain, recurrent pleurisy, and kidney disease. Abbreviation: SLE.
systems administrators guild — (body, job) (SAGE) A special technical group of the USENIX Association.
systems network architecture — (networking) (SNA) IBM's proprietary high level networking protocol standard, used by IBM and IBM compatible mainframes. Also referred to as "Blue Glue", SNA is a bletcherous protocol once widely favoured at commercial shops. The official IBM definition is "that which binds blue boxes together." It may be relevant that Blue Glue is also a 3M product commonly used to hold down carpets in dinosaur pens.
take your eyes off something — When you take your eyes off the thing you have been watching or looking at, you stop looking at it.
tannu tuva people's republic — former name of Tuva Autonomous Republic.
television interface adaptor — (hardware, graphics) (TIA) The graphics chip in the Atari 2600, also used as a sound chip for some arcade game.
the everglades national park — the Florida park established to preserve the flora and fauna of the Everglade swamps
the last word/the final word — If someone has the last word or the final word in a discussion, argument, or disagreement, they are the one who wins it or who makes the final decision.
the line of least resistance — If you take the line of least resistance in a situation, you do what is easiest, even though you think that it may not be the right thing to do. In American English, you usually talk about the path of least resistance.
the long and the short of it — the essential points or facts
the medical research council — a government body that uses public funds to finance research in medicine
the world owes them a living — If you say that someone thinks that the world owes them a living, you are criticizing them because they think it is their right to have a comfortable life without having to make any effort at all.
the wrong side of the tracks — the unfashionable or poor district or stratum of a community
tissue plasminogen activator — an anticlotting enzyme, naturally occurring in small amounts in the blood.
to beat someone's brains out — To beat someone's brains out or bash their brains in means to hit their head very hard, so that they are badly injured or killed.
to come to a screeching halt — (of a motor vehicle) to stop suddenly, causing the brakes or tyres to produce a high-pitched sound
to get off to a flying start — If someone or something gets off to a flying start, or makes a flying start, they start very well, for example in a race or a new job.
to give somebody a thick ear — to hit sb on the ear or head
to know something for a fact — If you say that you know something for a fact, you are emphasizing that you are completely certain that it is true.
to leave a lot to be desired — If you say that something leaves a lot to be desired, you mean that it is not as good as it should be.
to make a clean breast of it — If you make a clean breast of something, you tell someone the truth about yourself or about something wrong that you have done.
to set your face against sth — You can say that someone has set their face against something to indicate that they are opposed to it, especially when you want to suggest that they are wrong.
to set/put sb's mind at rest — To put someone's mind at rest or set their mind at rest means to stop them worrying about something.
tree transformation language — (functional programming) (TXL) A hybrid functional language and rule-based language developed by J.R. Cordy <[email protected]> et al of Queen's University, Canada in 1988. TXL is suitable for performing source to source analysis and transformation and for rapid prototyping of new languages and language processors. It uses structural transformation based on term rewriting. TXL has been particularly successful in software engineering tasks such as design recovery, refactoring, and reengineering. Most recently it has been applied to artificial intelligence tasks such as recognition of hand-written mathematics, and to transformation of structured documents in XML. TXL takes as input an arbitrary context-free grammar in extended BNF-like notation, and a set of show-by-example transformation rules to be applied to inputs parsed using the grammar. TXL supports the notion of agile parsing, the ability to tailor the grammar to each particular task using "grammar overrides".
united states postal service — an independent federal agency created in 1971 to replace the Post Office Department as the division of the federal government responsible for postal services. Abbreviation: USPS.

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