15-letter words containing s, h, o, t, a, n
- the smart money — If you say that the smart money is on a particular person or thing, you mean that people who know a lot about it think that this person will be successful, or this thing will happen.
- thorndike's law — the principle that all learnt behaviour is regulated by rewards and punishments, proposed by Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949), US psychologist
- thousand island — of or relating to the Thousand Islands or their inhabitants
- tie one's hands — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- to change hands — When something changes hands, its ownership changes, usually because it is sold to someone else.
- to err is human — If you say that to err is human, you mean that it is natural for human beings to make mistakes.
- toughened glass — glass that has been made stronger using chemical or thermal treatments so that it will not break easily
- towers of hanoi — (games) A classic computer science problem, invented by Edouard Lucas in 1883, often used as an example of recursion. "In the great temple at Benares, says he, beneath the dome which marks the centre of the world, rests a brass plate in which are fixed three diamond needles, each a cubit high and as thick as the body of a bee. On one of these needles, at the creation, God placed sixty-four discs of pure gold, the largest disc resting on the brass plate, and the others getting smaller and smaller up to the top one. This is the Tower of Bramah. Day and night unceasingly the priests transfer the discs from one diamond needle to another according to the fixed and immutable laws of Bramah, which require that the priest on duty must not move more than one disc at a time and that he must place this disc on a needle so that there is no smaller disc below it. When the sixty-four discs shall have been thus transferred from the needle on which at the creation God placed them to one of the other needles, tower, temple, and Brahmins alike will crumble into dust, and with a thunderclap the world will vanish." The recursive solution is: Solve for n-1 discs recursively, then move the remaining largest disc to the free needle. Note that there is also a non-recursive solution: On odd-numbered moves, move the smallest sized disk clockwise. On even-numbered moves, make the single other move which is possible.
- training school — a school that provides training in some art, profession, or vocation.
- trainspotterish — obsessed with trivial details, esp of a subject generally considered uninteresting
- transhistorical — occurring throughout all human history
- trout fisherman — a fisherman who catches trout
- ultrasonography — a diagnostic imaging technique utilizing reflected high-frequency sound waves to delineate, measure, or examine internal body structures or organs.
- under one's hat — a shaped covering for the head, usually with a crown and brim, especially for wear outdoors.
- unseaworthiness — constructed, outfitted, manned, and in all respects fitted for a voyage at sea.
- unsophisticated — not sophisticated; simple; artless.
- vanishing point — a point of disappearance, cessation, or extinction: His patience had reached the vanishing point.
- venetian school — any of various groups of artists identified with Venice throughout the history of Italian art but most notably the painters of the 18th century, as Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Francesco Guardi, and Antonio Canaletto.
- venus hairstone — a variety of rutilated quartz, used as a gemstone.
- washington lily — a lily, Lilium washingtonianum, of the western coast of the U.S., having whorled leaves and fragrant, purple-spotted white flowers.
- washington palm — a palm tree, Washingtonia filifera, of California and Florida, having large fan-shaped leaves and small black fruits
- weather station — an installation equipped and used for meteorological observation.
- wentworth scale — a scale for specifying the sizes (diameters) of sedimentary particles, ranging from clay particles (less than 1⁄256 mm) to boulders (over 256 mm)
- whaling station — a place where the carcases of whales were processed
- what's cooking? — what's happening?
- whip into shape — to bring by vigorous action into the proper or desired condition
- white cast iron — cast iron having most or all of its carbon in the form of cementite and exhibiting a silvery fracture.
- white mountains — a mountain range in the US, chiefly in N New Hampshire: part of the Appalachians. Highest peak: Mount Washington, 1917 m (6288 ft)
- white snakeroot — a North American plant, Eupatorium urticaefolium, the roots or rhizomes of which have been used as a remedy for snakebite
- winter holidays — a period of rest from work or studies taken in winter
- witch of agnesi — a plane curve symmetrical about the y- axis and asymptotic to the x- axis, given by the equation x 2 y =4 a 2 (2 a − y).
- worcester china — porcelain articles made in Worcester (England) from 1751 in a factory that became, in 1862, the Royal Worcester Porcelain Company