15-letter words containing s, g, n
- snapping turtle — either of two large, edible, freshwater turtles of the family Chelydridae, of North and Central America, having a large head and powerful hooked jaws, especially the common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina.
- sneezing powder — a powder used to make people sneeze as a practical joke
- social climbing — advancement of one's social status
- social drinking — the practice of drinking alcohol occasionally and usually only in social situations
- social spending — the money that is spent on welfare payments
- social standing — a person's status or social class in society
- social-drinking — a person who drinks alcoholic beverages usually in the company of others and is in control of his or her drinking.
- solution mining — removal of a soluble mineral by dissolving it and leaching it out, as in the Frasch process.
- song of solomon — a book of the Bible. Abbreviation: Sol.
- soul-destroying — Activities or situations that are soul-destroying make you depressed, because they are boring or because there is no hope of improvement.
- sound deadening — a process or material that reduces the resonance or volume of sound
- sound-and-light — combining sound effects or music with unusual lighting displays: to promote a product with a spectacular sound-and-light presentation.
- sounding rocket — a rocket equipped with instruments for making meteorological observations in the upper atmosphere.
- source language — the language in which a text appears that is to be translated into another language. Compare target language (def 1).
- south glamorgan — a county in SE Wales. 161 sq. mi. (416 sq. km).
- south kingstown — a town in S central Rhode Island.
- southern blight — a disease of peanuts, tomatoes, and other plants, caused by a fungus, Sclerotium rolfsii, affecting the roots and resulting in rapid wilting.
- southern gothic — a literary genre depicting life in the southern US and featuring grotesque themes and imagery
- southern lights — aurora australis.
- spark generator — an alternating-current power source with a condenser discharging across a spark gap.
- sparkling water — soda water (def 1).
- spawning ground — a place where fish deposit their eggs for fertilization
- speaking as sth — You can say 'speaking as a parent' or 'speaking as a teacher', for example, to indicate that the opinion you are giving is based on your experience as a parent or as a teacher.
- speaking of sth — You can say speaking of something that has just been mentioned as a way of introducing a new topic which has some connection with that thing.
- speech training — training designed to improve spoken skills, such as voice projection
- speeding ticket — notice of traffic violation
- spelling reform — an attempt to change the spelling of English words to make it conform more closely to pronunciation.
- spermatogenesis — the origin and development of spermatozoa.
- spherical angle — an angle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spinal ganglion — a ganglion on the dorsal root of each spinal nerve, containing the cell bodies of sensory nerves.
- spirit leveling — leveling according to the indications of a spirit level.
- sporting chance — an even or fair opportunity for a favorable outcome in an enterprise, as winning in a game of chance or in any kind of contest: They gave the less experienced players a sporting chance by handicapping the experts.
- spread sampling — the selection of a corpus for statistical analysis by selecting a number of short passages at random throughout the work and considering their aggregation
- spring mattress — a mattress containing an arrangement of spiral springs
- spring training — a program of physical exercise, practice, and exhibition games followed by a baseball team in the late winter and early spring, before the start of the regular season.
- spring-cleaning — a complete cleaning of a place, as a home, done traditionally in the spring of the year.
- stacking swivel — a metal swivel attached to the stock of a military rifle for use in hooking three rifles together to form a stack.
- stage direction — an instruction written into the script of a play, indicating stage actions, movements of performers, or production requirements.
- stamping ground — a habitual or favorite haunt.
- standard lining — a system for aligning type so that all fonts of the same point size have a common baseline.
- standing charge — fixed energy costs
- standing orders — Military. (formerly) a general order always in force in a command and establishing uniform procedures for it; standard operating procedure.
- start something — to cause a disturbance or trouble
- starting blocks — the rigid blocks adjustable at an angle and mounted on a track against which a runner's shoes are placed to aid in starting
- starting handle — a crank used to start the motor of an automobile.
- starting pistol — a pistol used to give the signal to start a race
- starting salary — an employee's initial rate of pay
- starting stalls — a line of stalls in which horses are enclosed at the start of a race and from which they are released by the simultaneous springing open of retaining barriers at the front of each stall
- steam generator — steam-producing power plant
- steam reforming — a process in which methane from natural gas is heated, with steam, usually with a catalyst, to produce a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen used in organic synthesis and as a fuel