16-letter words containing s, m, i, d
- ramsden eyepiece — an eyepiece consisting of two plano-convex crown-glass lenses of equal focal length, placed with the convex sides facing each other and with a separation between the lenses of about two-thirds of the focal length of each.
- rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
- residence permit — permission allowing someone to legally reside in a country
- residential home — a home with social-work supervision for people who need more than just housing accommodation, such as esp the elderly, and also children in care or mentally handicapped adults
- richard stallman — (person) Richard M. Stallman. Founder of the GNU project. He resigned from the AI lab at MIT so he would be free to produce free software which he could then distribute on his own terms. He went on to establish the Free Software Foundation to support the production of free software and ensure its free distribution. E-mail: <[email protected]>.
- richmond heights — a city in E Missouri, near St. Louis.
- roskind grammars — (tool) Yacc-based parsers for C and C++ by Jim Roskind. It does not use the %prec and %assoc YACC features so conflicts are never hidden. The C grammar has only one shift-reduce conflict, the C++ grammar has a few more. With byacc it can produce graphical parse trees automatically. The C grammar conforms to ANSI C and the C++ grammar supports cfront 2.0 constructs.
- sado-masochistic — Something that is sado-masochistic is connected with the practice of sado-masochism.
- same-day service — (humour, operating system) An ironic term used to describe long response time, particularly with respect to MS-DOS system calls (which ought to require only a tiny fraction of a second to execute). Such response time is a major incentive for programmers to write programs that are not well-behaved. See also PC-ism.
- sapodilla family — the plant family Sapotaceae, characterized by chiefly tropical trees and shrubs having milky juice, simple leaves, small flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry, and including the buckthorn (genus Bumelia), sapodilla, star apple, and trees that are the source of gutta-percha and balata.
- schlieren method — a method for detecting regions of differing densities in a clear fluid by photographing a beam of light passed obliquely through it.
- sedimentary rock — rock formed from compacted minerals
- self-determinism — a theory that every present state or condition of the self is a result of previous states or conditions of the self.
- self-discernment — the faculty of discerning; discrimination; acuteness of judgment and understanding.
- self-dramatizing — exaggerating one's own qualities, role, situation, etc., for dramatic effect or as an attention-getting device; presenting oneself dramatically.
- semi-independent — (of a political entity) having substantial self-government in regard to local matters but subordinate in such external matters as foreign policy; semiautonomous.
- semidomesticated — living in a state of partial domestication.
- sendero luminoso — Spanish. a Maoist guerrilla movement active in Peru since 1980.
- short ski method — a way of learning to ski, using short skis
- show-me attitude — a sceptical frame of mind
- sidestream smoke — secondhand smoke.
- silver medallist — a competitor who comes second in a contest or race and is awarded a medal of silver
- simply-connected — (of a set or domain) having a connected complement.
- 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.
- snakebite remedy — hard liquor.
- social darwinism — a 19th-century theory, inspired by Darwinism, by which the social order is accounted as the product of natural selection of those persons best suited to existing living conditions and in accord with which a position of laissez-faire is advocated.
- social democracy — a political ideology advocating a gradual transition to socialism or a modified form of socialism by and under democratic political processes.
- sodium bisulfate — a colorless crystalline compound, NaHSO 4 , soluble in water: used in dyeing, in the manufacture of cement, paper, soap, and an acid-type cleaner.
- sodium bisulfite — Sodium bisulfite is a crystalline compound used as an antioxidant and stabilizing agent.
- 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 cyclamate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, NaC 6 NH 1 2 SO 3 , that has been used as a sweetening agent: banned by the FDA in 1970.
- sodium hydroxide — a white, deliquescent, water-soluble solid, NaOH, usually in the form of lumps, sticks, chips, or pellets, that upon solution in water generates heat: used chiefly in the manufacture of other chemicals, rayon, film, soap, as a laboratory reagent, and in medicine as a caustic.
- sodium methylate — a white, free-flowing, flammable powder, CH 3 ONa, decomposed by water to sodium hydroxide and methyl alcohol: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- sodium pentothal — the sodium salt of thiopental sodium.
- sodium perborate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaBO 2 ⋅3H 2 O or NaBO 3 ⋅4H 2 O, used chiefly as a bleaching agent and antiseptic.
- sodium phosphate — Also called monobasic sodium phosphate. a white, crystalline, slightly hygroscopic, water-soluble powder, NaH 2 PO 4 , used chiefly in dyeing and in electroplating.
- soft commodities — nonmetal commodities such as cocoa, sugar, and grains, bought and sold on a futures market
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.
- speak one's mind — give one's frank opinion
- standoff missile — a missile capable of striking a distant target after launch by an aircraft outside the range of missile defences
- state-maintained — publicly funded
- stick in the mud — someone who avoids new activities, ideas, or attitudes; old fogy.
- stick-in-the-mud — someone who avoids new activities, ideas, or attitudes; old fogy.
- stop-limit order — stop order.
- studio apartment — an apartment consisting of one main room, a kitchen or kitchenette, and a bathroom. Compare efficiency apartment.
- subordinationism — the doctrine that the first person of the Holy Trinity is superior to the second, and the second superior to the third.
- summation method — a method for associating a sum with a divergent series.
- sun-dried tomato — tomato dried in the sun
- swedenborgianism — of or relating to Emanuel Swedenborg, his religious doctrines, or the body of followers adhering to these doctrines and constituting the Church of the New Jerusalem, or New Church.