16-letter words containing s, o, r, i
- purchasing power — Also called buying power. the ability to purchase goods and services.
- put one's oar in — to interfere or interrupt
- pyloric stenosis — an abnormal narrowing of the valve at the outlet from the stomach, preventing normal passage of food into the small intestine.
- quarter sessions — an English court of general criminal jurisdiction for crimes less than homicide, held quarterly.
- quasi-commercial — of, relating to, or characteristic of commerce.
- quasi-compulsory — required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
- quasi-democratic — pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
- quasi-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- quasi-stationary — a person or thing that is stationary.
- rack one's brain — If you rack your brains, you try very hard to think of something.
- radiation levels — the levels of the emission or transfer of radiant energy or the levels of the particles emitted in the transfer of radiant energy, esp the particles and gamma rays emitted in nuclear decay
- radio evangelist — a Christian minister who devotes time to preaching on the radio
- radioimmunoassay — a test procedure that integrates immunologic and radiolabeling techniques to measure minute quantities of a substance, as a protein, hormone, or drug, in a given sample of body fluid or tissue.
- radiosymmetrical — radially symmetrical.
- radiotransparent — transparent to radiation; invisible in x-ray photographs and under fluoroscopy (opposed to radiopaque).
- radius of action — the maximum distance that a ship, aircraft, or land vehicle can travel from its base and return without refuelling
- railroad station — railway station, train stop
- rainbow seaperch — an embiotocid fish, Hypsurus caryi, living off the Pacific coast of North America, having red, orange, and blue stripes on the body.
- raise an eyebrow — If something causes you to raise an eyebrow or to raise your eyebrows, it causes you to feel surprised or disapproving.
- rambunctiousness — difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
- reclassification — categorization in a different way
- recording studio — place where music is recorded
- recreational sex — sex for the purpose of pleasure rather than reproduction, without the commitment of a relationship
- 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
- recursion theory — (theory) The study of problems that, in principle, cannot be solved by either computers or humans.
- redistributional — a distribution performed again or anew.
- regional ileitis — a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes scarring and thickening of the intestinal walls and frequently leads to obstruction.
- register tonnage — the volume of a vessel, especially the net tonnage as measured officially and registered for purposes of taxation.
- registration fee — a fee paid to register, enrol or sign up for (a course, etc)
- regius professor — Crown-appointed holder of a university chair
- regular gasoline — unleaded gasoline or petrol, as for fuelling a vehicle, etc
- reinsurance pool — the grouping of insurers that provide partial or complete insurance coverage to other insurers for (a risk on which a policy has already been issued)
- released version — release
- releasing factor — a substance usually of hypothalamic origin that triggers the release of a particular hormone from an endocrine gland.
- religious issues — Questions which seemingly cannot be raised without touching off holy wars, such as "What is the best operating system (or editor, language, architecture, shell, mail reader, news reader)?", "What about that Heinlein guy, eh?", "What should we add to the new Jargon File?" See holy wars; see also theology, bigot. This term is a prime example of ha ha only serious. People actually develop the most amazing and religiously intense attachments to their tools, even when the tools are intangible. The most constructive thing one can do when one stumbles into the crossfire is mumble Get a life! and leave - unless, of course, one's *own* unassailably rational and obviously correct choices are being slammed.
- religious leader — head of a church or order
- relocation costs — payment made by an employer or a government agency to cover removal expenses and other costs incurred by an employee who is required to take up employment elsewhere
- reporting clause — A reporting clause is a clause which indicates that you are talking about what someone said or thought. For example, in 'She said that she was hungry', 'She said' is a reporting clause.
- repossession man — someone employed to take back or repossess property, esp due to nonpayment of money due under a hire-purchase agreement
- representational — of or relating to representation.
- repressurization — the process or act of pressurizing.
- reservation desk — a desk in a hotel, office, etc, where an employee takes bookings for rooms, tickets, etc
- 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
- resonant circuit — A resonant circuit combines an inductor and capacitor to make a circuit that responds to a frequency.
- responsibilities — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- restoring spring — a spring so located that it returns a displaced part to its normal position.
- restricted stock — unregistered stock, as that issued privately as compensation to corporate executives subject to special conditions.
- restriction play — a limited number of opening moves that are predetermined by their chance selection from an accepted list.
- restriction site — the place on a DNA molecule where a restriction enzyme acts.
- retrocessionaire — a reinsurance company that accepts or takes a retrocession.