18-letter words containing s, o, l, v

live by one's wits — the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure. Synonyms: drollery, facetiousness, waggishness, repartee.
lives of the poets — a collection (1779–81), by Samuel Johnson, of biographical and critical essays on 52 English poets.
logical positivism — a philosophical movement that stresses the function of philosophy as a method of criticizing and analyzing science and that rejects all transcendental metaphysics, statements of fact being held to be meaningful only if they have verifiable consequences in experience and in statements of logic, mathematics, or philosophy itself, and with such statements of fact deriving their validity from the rules of language.
logical positivist — an exponent or follower of logical positivism
love-lies-bleeding — an amaranth, especially Amaranthus caudatus, having spikes of crimson flowers.
lowell observatory — the astronomical observatory, situated in Flagstaff, Arizona, at which Pluto was discovered in 1930.
maksutov telescope — a reflecting telescope in which coma and spherical aberration are reduced to a minimum by a combination of a spherical mirror and a meniscus lens placed inside the radius of curvature of the mirror.
margaret of valois — ("Queen Margot") 1533–1615, 1st wife of Henry IV of France: queen of Navarre; patron of science and literature (daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici).
mental reservation — an unexpressed doubt or qualification about a situation, person, etc.
move the goalposts — to change the aims of an activity to ensure the desired results
negative cash flow — the situation when income is less than payments
neovascularization — the development of new blood vessels, especially in tissues where circulation has been impaired by trauma or disease.
non-conversational — able or ready to converse; given to conversation.
non-self-governing — governed by itself or having self-government, as a state or community; independent.
northern transvaal — province of South Africa, in the N part: 47,599 sq mi (123,280 sq km); pop. 5,202,000; cap. Pietersburg
nova scotia salmon — an Atlantic salmon, especially from the waters off Nova Scotia, cured in the local manner.
nueva san salvador — Santa Tecla.
objective idealism — a form of idealism asserting that the act of experiencing has a reality combining and transcending the natures of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer.
offensive material — any published or broadcast content (such as articles, photographs, films, or websites) that is likely to be upsetting, insulting, or objectionable to some or most people
on everyone's lips — being much discussed
one false move and — You use one false move to introduce the very bad or serious consequences which will result if someone makes a mistake, even a very small one.
optical disc drive — optical disk drive
optical disk drive — (hardware) (Or "optical disc drive", "optical storage") A generic term for any device that reads and/or writes optical media, i.e. compact discs, DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs or future media that uses light (from a small laser) to read data off a removable, rotating disk. At least one such drive is commonly installed in most personal computers to allow them to play and/or record audio and video media and load and store data such as program installers. The floppy disk has been replaced by optical media due to its vastly greater capacity, e.g. 50,000 megabytes for a dual-layer blu-ray disc compared with 1.5 megabytes for a floppy (over 30,000 times as much).
overspecialization — excessive specialization, as in a field of study.
passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
physical inventory — To carry out a physical inventory is to count all the stock on hand.
positively charged — having a positive charge
post-revolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
postviral syndrome — debilitating condition occurring as a sequel to viral illness
prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
provascular tissue — procambium.
psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
quevedo y villegas — Francisco Gómez de. 1580–1645, Spanish poet and writer, noted for his satires and the picaresque novel La historia de la vida del Buscón (1626)
reverse angle shot — Movies. reverse shot.
reverse psychology — (in nontechnical use) a method of getting another person to do what one wants by pretending not to want it or to want something else or something more.
revolutionary wars — American Revolution.
russian revolution — Also called February Revolution. the uprising in Russia in March, 1917 (February Old Style), in which the Czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established.
school-leaving age — the minimum age that children are legally allowed to leave school - in Britain and the United States, this is 16
seasonal variation — season-related variation
selective abortion — the aborting of particular embryos for medical or social reasons
set priority level — (SPL) The way traditional Unix kernels implement mutual exclusion by running code at high interrupt priority levels and thus blocking lower level interrupts.
seven-league boots — mythical boots that allowed the wearer to travel seven leagues (a former unit of measurement), ie a great length, at each step
silvery cinquefoil — any of several plants belonging to the genus Potentilla, of the rose family, having yellow, red, or white five-petaled flowers, as P. reptans (creeping cinquefoil) of the Old World, or P. argentea (silvery cinquefoil) of North America.
silvery spleenwort — a fern, Diplazium pycnocarpon, of eastern North America, having fronds from 20 to 30 inches (50.8 to 76.2 cm) long on yellowish-green stalks.
slobodan milosevic — Slobodan [sloh-buh-dain] /ˈsloʊ bəˌdɛən/ (Show IPA), 1941–2006, Yugoslav and Serbian politician: president of Serbia 1989–97, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1997–2000, accused of war crimes 2001.
social environment — the environment developed by humans as contrasted with the natural environment; society as a whole, especially in its relation to the individual.
sodium-vapour lamp — a type of electric lamp consisting of a glass tube containing neon and sodium vapour at low pressure through which an electric current is passed to give an orange light. They are used in street lighting
solvent extraction — Solvent extraction is the separation of a particular substance from a mixture by dissolving that substance in a solvent that will dissolve it, but which will not dissolve any other substance in the mixture.
split-level cooker — a cooker that is designed with a separate oven and hob so that they can be fitted wherever is most convenient in the kitchen

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