17-letter words containing s, n, u
- sequential access — of or relating to a storage medium, as magnetic tape, in which records must be accessed by reading or writing from the beginning of the file.
- sequential-access — of or relating to a storage medium, as magnetic tape, in which records must be accessed by reading or writing from the beginning of the file.
- settlement houses — the act or state of settling or the state of being settled.
- sexual generation — the gametophyte generation in the alternation of generations in plants that produces a zygote from male and female gametes.
- sexual harassment — unwelcome sexual advances made by an employer or superior, especially when compliance is made a condition of continued employment or advancement.
- sexual preference — Someone's sexual preference is the same as their sexual orientation.
- sheltered housing — accommodation designed esp for the elderly or infirm consisting of a group of individual premises, often with some shared facilities and a caretaker
- shetland pullover — a thick woollen sweater made from Shetland wool
- shipping industry — the industry concerned with transporting freight, esp by ship
- shirt-tail cousin — a distant cousin
- shoot one's cuffs — to expose one's shirt cuffs beyond the coat sleeves
- shouting distance — hailing distance.
- show in (or out) — to usher into (or out of) a given place
- sign in (or out) — to sign a register on arrival (or departure)
- silent revolution — a social or political revolution that takes place with little warning and without great fuss or unrest
- silk manufacturer — a person or business that is involved in the manufacture of silk thread and fabric
- single supplement — A single supplement is an additional sum of money that a hotel charges for one person to stay in a room meant for two people.
- sinus of valsalva — any of the pouches of the aorta and the pulmonary artery opposite the flaps of the semilunar valves into which blood returning to the heart flows, closing the valves.
- sir arthur harden — Sir Arthur, 1865–1940, English biochemist: Nobel Prize 1929.
- situational irony — irony involving a situation in which actions have an effect that is opposite from what was intended, so that the outcome is contrary to what was expected.
- situations vacant — Situations Vacant is the title of a column or page in a newspaper where jobs are advertised.
- sixty-fourth note — a note having one sixty-fourth of the time value of a whole note; hemidemisemiquaver.
- skin of our teeth — a play (1942) by Thornton Wilder.
- sleeping quarters — the rooms where people sleep in a large building or complex or on a boat etc
- sliding vane pump — A sliding vane pump is a pump in which the vanes (=flat parts) are the main sealing element between the suction and discharge areas.
- smoothing circuit — a circuit used to remove ripple from the output of a direct current power supply
- snowmass mountain — a mountain in W central Colorado, in the Elk Mountains, in the S Rocky Mountains: ski resorts. 14,092 feet (4295 meters).
- social accounting — the analysis of the economy by sectors leading to the calculation and publication of economic statistics, such as gross national product and national income
- socially included — benefiting from social inclusion
- socratic elenchus — the drawing out of the consequences of a position in order to show them to be contrary to some accepted position
- sodium propionate — a transparent, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 3 H 5 NaO 2 , used in foodstuffs to prevent mold growth, and in medicine as a fungicide.
- sound effects man — a man who produces sounds artificially or reproduces them from a recording, etc, to create a theatrical effect, such as the bringing together of two halves of a hollow coconut shell to simulate a horse's gallop. Such sound effects are used in plays, films, etc
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- south farmingdale — a town on central Long Island, in SE New York.
- south frigid zone — the part of the earth's surface between the Antarctic Circle and the South Pole.
- south lanarkshire — a council area of S Scotland, comprising the S part of the historical county of Lanarkshire: included within Strathclyde Region from 1975 to 1996: has uplands in the S and part of the Glasgow conurbation in the N: mainly agricultural. Administrative centre: Hamilton. Pop: 303 010 (2003 est). Area: 1771 sq km (684 sq miles)
- south sea company — a British joint stock company that traded in South America in the 18th century. The South Sea Company took over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks, and a financial crash in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble)
- south sea islands — the islands in the S Pacific that constitute Oceania
- southampton water — an inlet of the English Channel in S England
- southern rhodesia — a former name (until 1964) of Zimbabwe (def 1).
- southern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, including the Dodecanese, lying off the SW coast of Turkey
- southern studfish — See under studfish.
- southern triangle — the constellation Triangulum Australe.
- spanish influenza — the pandemic respiratory infection that spread throughout the world during 1917–18.
- spatial frequency — the measure of fine detail in an optical image in terms of cycles per millimetre
- spatial summation — the act or process of summing.
- special education — education that is modified or particularized for those with singular needs, as disabled or maladjusted people, slow learners, or gifted children.
- spectrum analyser — an instrument that splits an input waveform into its frequency components, which are then displayed
- spectrum analysis — the determination of the constitution or condition of bodies and substances by means of the spectra they produce.
- sperrin mountains — a mountain range in NW Northern Ireland