16-letter words containing s, i, n, u
- shotgun marriage — a wedding occasioned or precipitated by pregnancy.
- shoulder surfing — a form of credit-card fraud in which the perpetrator stands behind and looks over the shoulder of the victim as he or she withdraws money from an automated teller machine, memorizes the card details, and later steals the card
- single occupancy — a type of travel accommodation, as at a hotel, for one person in a room.
- sinus meridianii — an area on the equator of Mars, appearing as a dark region when viewed telescopically from the earth.
- 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.
- sleeping draught — any drink containing a drug or agent that induces sleep
- slubberdegullion — a slovenly or worthless person
- slugging average — a measure of the effectiveness of a batter in making base hits, obtained by dividing the total bases reached by hitting by the number of official times at bat and carrying out the result to three decimal places. A batter making 275 total bases in 500 times at bat has a slugging average of .550.
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- snoqualmie falls — falls of the Snoqualmie River, in W Washington. 270 feet (82 meters) high.
- snorri sturluson — 1179–1241, Icelandic historian and poet.
- social evolution — the gradual development of society and social forms, institutions, etc., usually through a series of peaceful stages. Compare revolution (def 2).
- social exclusion — Social exclusion is the act of making certain groups of people within a society feel isolated and unimportant.
- social inclusion — Social inclusion is the act of making all groups of people within a society feel valued and important.
- social insurance — any of various forms of insurance in which a government is an insurer, especially such insurance that provides assistance to disabled or unemployed workers and to aged persons.
- sociolinguistics — the study of language as it functions in society; the study of the interaction between linguistic and social variables.
- sodium carbonate — Also called soda ash. an anhydrous, grayish-white, odorless, water-soluble powder, Na 2 CO 3 , usually obtained by the Solvay process and containing about 1 percent of impurities consisting of sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soaps, paper, petroleum products, sodium salts, as a cleanser, for bleaching, and in water treatment.
- sodium pentothal — the sodium salt of thiopental sodium.
- soft furnishings — home fabrics
- somatic mutation — a mutation occurring in a somatic cell, resulting in a change in the morphology or some other aspect of one part of an organism (usually a plant). It may be maintained by vegetative propagation but not by sexual reproduction
- sonoluminescence — the emission of a flash of light accompanying the bursting of a bubble in a liquid when sound waves are passed through the liquid.
- sounding balloon — a balloon carrying instruments aloft to make atmospheric measurements, especially a radiosonde balloon.
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.
- south australian — a state in S Australia. 380,070 sq. mi. (984,380 sq. km). Capital: Adelaide.
- south burlington — a town in NW Vermont.
- south carolinian — a state in the SE United States, on the Atlantic coast. 31,055 sq. mi. (80,430 sq. km). Capital: Columbia. Abbreviation: SC (for use with zip code), S.C.
- south huntington — a town in central Long Island, in SE New York.
- south plainfield — a city in N New Jersey.
- south vietnamese — of or relating to the former South Vietnam (now part of Vietnam) or its inhabitants
- southern baptist — a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, founded in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845, that is strictly Calvinistic and active in religious publishing and education.
- spanish bluebell — a bulbous plant, Endymion hispanicus, of the lily family, native to Spain and Portugal, having blue, white, or pink, bell-shaped flowers.
- spanish chestnut — Castanea sativa
- speak in tongues — to engage in glossolalia
- speaking trumpet — a trumpet-shaped instrument used to carry the voice a great distance or held to the ear by a deaf person to aid his hearing
- specious present — a short time span in which change and duration are alleged to be directly experienced.
- speech community — the aggregate of all the people who use a given language or dialect.
- spill one's guts — the alimentary canal, especially between the pylorus and the anus, or some portion of it. Compare foregut, midgut, hindgut.
- spiritual incest — marriage or a sexual relationship between persons related by spiritual affinity or with a person under a solemn vow of chastity
- spiritualization — to make spiritual.
- spiritus vinosus — (in prescriptions) spirits of wine; alcohol.
- spit-and-sawdust — (of a pub) shabby, dirty, and basic
- sports equipment — gear used to play sport
- spring mountains — a mountain range in S Nevada extending to the California border. Highest peak, Charleston Peak. 11,919 feet (3635 meters).
- stage production — a play or show which is performed on stage
- standard annuity — A standard annuity is a retirement investment insurance contract that pays a regular income in return for a lump sum payment.
- stannic sulphide — an insoluble solid compound of tin usually existing as golden crystals or as a yellowish-brown powder: used as a pigment. Formula: SnS2
- state university — a university maintained by the government of a state.
- step out of line — to fail to conform to expected standards, attitudes, etc
- stephen f austin — Alfred, 1835–1913, English poet: poet laureate 1896–1913.