16-letter words containing s, l, a, v, e, n
- sicilian vespers — a general massacre of the French in Sicily by the local population, begun at the sound of the vesper bell on Easter Monday, 1282.
- silver-lace vine — a hardy, twining, woody plant, Polygonum auberti, of the buckwheat family, native to western China and Tibet, having greenish-white, fragrant flowers in drooping clusters.
- slave-making ant — an ant of a species that raids the colonies of other ant species, carrying off larvae and pupae to be reared as slaves.
- 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.
- social evolution — the gradual development of society and social forms, institutions, etc., usually through a series of peaceful stages. Compare revolution (def 2).
- sparking voltage — the minimum voltage required to produce a spark across a given spark gap.
- splanchnic nerve — Anatomy. any of several nerves to the viscera and blood vessels of the chest and pelvic areas.
- swedish vallhund — a small sturdy dog of a Swedish breed with a long body and pricked pointed ears
- take one's leave — to go away; depart
- texas revolution — a revolutionary movement, 1832–36, in which U.S. settlers asserted their independence from Mexico and established the republic of Texas.
- the unobservable — something that cannot be observed
- tinnevelly senna — any plant, shrub, or tree belonging to the genus Cassia, of the legume family, having pinnate leaves and large clusters of flowers.
- transverse colon — the middle portion of the colon, lying across the upper abdominal cavity between the ascending colon on the right and the descending colon on the left.
- transverse flute — the normal orchestral flute, as opposed to the recorder (or fipple flute)
- travel insurance — insurance which covers losses that may be incurred while travelling, such as medical expenses, flight cancellations, lost luggage, etc
- unconversational — of, relating to, or characteristic of conversation: a conversational tone of voice.
- ungava peninsula — a peninsula in NW Ungava region, in N Quebec, in E Canada.
- universalization — to make universal.
- valles marineris — a canyon on Mars, 3100 miles (5000 km) in length, named after the Mariner spacecraft.
- 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)
- vauxhall gardens — a public garden at Vauxhall, laid out in 1661; a fashionable meeting place and site of lavish entertainments. Closed in 1859
- vegetable sponge — loofah (def 2).
- velcro fastening — a fastening made of Velcro
- venereal disease — sexually transmitted disease. Abbreviation: VD.
- vertical tasting — a tasting of different vintages of one particular wine.
- vestibular nerve — the part of the auditory nerve in the inner ear that carries sensory information related to body equilibrium.
- 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
- video journalism — the techniques, methods, etc., of preparing and broadcasting informational, social, political, and other nonfiction subjects via news and documentary programs.
- 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.
- visual magnitude — Astronomy. magnitude (def 5a).
- visual-magnitude — size; extent; dimensions: to determine the magnitude of an angle.
- 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