23-letter words containing s, l, e, d
- short-billed marsh wren — sedge wren.
- short-tailed shearwater — any of several long-winged seabirds, often used as food, especially Puffinus tenuirostris (short-tailed shearwater) of Australia and Puffinus griseus (sooty shearwater) which breeds in the Southern Hemisphere and winters in the Northern Hemisphere.
- sidewalk superintendent — a bystander who watches the building, demolition, repair, or other work being done at a construction site.
- sierra madre occidental — the system of mountains in the west of Mexico
- sign on the dotted line — a line on a contract or similar document for a party's signature.
- social democratic party — History/Historical. a political party in Germany advocating a form of social organization based on the economic and political ideology of Karl Marx.
- social education centre — a daycentre, run by a local authority, for people with learning disabilities and sometimes also for people who have physical disabilities or are mentally ill
- sodium tripolyphosphate — a white powder, Na 5 P 3 O 1 0 , used as a water softener, sequestering agent, and food additive.
- software developers kit — (jargon, product) (SDK, or "Software Development Kit") Software provided by a software vendor to allow their products to be used with those of other software vendors.
- somaliland protectorate — official name of the former British Somaliland.
- specialite de la maison — the specialty of the house (used in referring to the most important dish served by a restaurant).
- split-fingered fastball — a pitch, similar to the forkball but thrown with the same arm speed as a fastball, that drops suddenly as it nears the batter.
- st. pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
- standard widget toolkit — (graphics, programming, standard) (SWT) The Eclipse Foundation's framework for developing graphical user interfaces in Java. SWT is written in explicitly standard Java but uses the Java Native Interface to talk to a platform-native GUI library. SWT is the third major attempt to give Java a decent GUI framework, following AWT and Swing. Of the three, SWT is the most consistent with the native GUIs but its programming model is hard to port to non-Windows platforms.
- steal someone's thunder — to strike, drive, inflict, give forth, etc., with loud noise or violent action.
- sustainable development — supporting economy via renewable resources
- swine vesicular disease — a viral disease of swine characterized by vesicular lesions on the feet, legs, snout, and tongue
- talk someone's head off — to communicate or exchange ideas, information, etc., by speaking: to talk about poetry.
- talk/speak of the devil — People say speak of the devil, or in British English talk of the devil, if someone they have just been talking about appears unexpectedly.
- the best of both worlds — advantages of two different things
- there is no holding him — he is so spirited or resolute that he cannot be restrained
- to call a spade a spade — If you say that someone calls a spade a spade, you mean that they speak clearly and directly about things, even embarrassing or unpleasant things.
- to get ahold of oneself — to force oneself to become calm and sensible after a shock or in a difficult situation
- to have your hands full — If you have your hands full with something, you are very busy because of it.
- to hell in a handbasket — to one's doom
- to see the light of day — If something sees the light of day at a particular time, it comes into existence or is made known to the public at that time.
- trans-siberian railroad — a railroad traversing Siberia, from Chelyabinsk in the Ural Mountains to Vladivostok: constructed by the Russian government 1891–1916. over 4000 miles (6440 km) long.
- transcendental analytic — (in transcendental logic) the study of the means by which the mind categorizes data from the sensory manifold.
- transcendental argument — an argument designed to make explicit the conditions under which a certain kind of knowledge is possible, esp those of Kant
- transcendental equation — an equation that involves transcendental functions.
- transcendental function — a function that is not an algebraic function.
- transcendental idealism — the Kantian doctrine that reality consists not of appearances, but of some other order of being whose existence can be inferred from the nature of human reason
- treat someone like dirt — If you say that someone treats you like dirt, you are angry with them because you think that they treat you unfairly and with no respect.
- trellis code modulation — (TCM) A modulation technique with hardware error detection and correction.
- trigonal trisoctahedron — a trisoctahedron whose faces are triangles.
- turn a cold shoulder to — to treat with disdain; snub
- ulster defence regiment — a former reserve regiment of the British Army based in Northern Ireland
- unconditional discharge — the release of a defendant without having to spend time on parole or probation
- united states of brazil — former official name of Brazil.
- urea-formaldehyde resin — any of a group of resins formed by the interaction of urea and formaldehyde under conditions that include heat and pH control: used chiefly in the manufacture of buttons, baking enamels, and for making fabrics wrinkle-resistant.
- van der waals' equation — an equation of state relating the pressure, volume, and absolute temperature of a gas, taking into account the finite size of the molecules and the attractive force between them.
- villiers de l'isle adam — August, Comte de (oɡyst, kɔ̃t də). 1838–89, French poet and dramatist; pioneer of the symbolist movement. His works include Contes cruels (1883) and the play Axel (1885)
- viscount melville sound — an arm of the Arctic Ocean between Victoria and Prince of Wales islands to the S and Melville and Bathurst islands to the N, in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, Canada. 250 miles (400 km) long and 100 miles (160 km) wide.
- visual display terminal — video display terminal. Abbreviation: VDT.
- volumetric displacement — the volume of air per revolution that passes through a mechanical pump when the pressure at the intake and the exhaust is the same as that of the atmosphere
- western lowland gorilla — the largest of the anthropoid apes, Gorilla gorilla, terrestrial and vegetarian, of western equatorial Africa and the Kivu highlands, comprising the subspecies G. g. gorilla (western lowland gorilla) G. g. graueri (eastern lowland gorilla) and G. g. beringei (mountain gorilla) now rare.
- while the going is good — If you say that someone should do something while the going is good, you are advising them to do it while things are going well and they still have the opportunity, because you think it will become much more difficult to do.
- wholly-owned subsidiary — A wholly-owned subsidiary is a company whose shares are all owned by another company.
- willow-leaved jessamine — a Chilean shrub, Cestrum parqui, of the nightshade family, having willowlike leaves and clusters of whitish or yellowish flowers that are very fragrant at night.
- wolfgang amadeus mozart — Wolfgang Amadeus [woo lf-gang am-uh-dey-uh s;; German vawlf-gahng ah-mah-dey-oo s] /ˈwʊlf gæŋ ˌæm əˈdeɪ əs;; German ˈvɔlf gɑŋ ˌɑ mɑˈdeɪ ʊs/ (Show IPA), 1756–91, Austrian composer.