16-letter words containing s, o, r
- robin's-egg blue — a pale green to a light greenish-blue color.
- rochelle powders — (not in technical use) Seidlitz powders.
- rocket scientist — a specialist in rocketry.
- roosevelt island — Formerly Welfare Island, Blackwells Island. an island in the East River, New York City: residential community. 1½ miles (2½ km) long.
- root mean square — the square root of the arithmetic mean of the squares of the numbers in a given set of numbers. Abbreviation: rms.
- 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.
- rotation of axes — a process of replacing the axes in a Cartesian coordinate system with a new set of axes making a specified angle with and having the same origin as the original axes.
- round-shouldered — having the shoulders bent forward, giving a rounded form to the upper part of the back.
- royal commission — (in Britain) a body set up by the monarch on the recommendation of the prime minister to gather information about the operation of existing laws or to investigate any social, educational, or other matter. The commission has prescribed terms of reference and reports to the government on how any change might be achieved
- run rings around — a typically circular band of metal or other durable material, especially one of gold or other precious metal, often set with gems, for wearing on the finger as an ornament, a token of betrothal or marriage, etc.
- run-time support — run-time system
- russian orthodox — of or relating to the Russian Orthodox Church
- russian roulette — a game of high risk in which each player in turn, using a revolver containing one bullet, spins the cylinder of the revolver, points the muzzle at the head, and pulls the trigger.
- saccharification — to convert (starch) into sugar.
- saint peter port — a port and resort in the Channel Islands: the capital of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, on the E coast of the island of Guernsey. Pop: 28 310 (2001)
- saint-john perse — (Alexis Saint-Léger Léger) 1887–1975, French diplomat and poet: Nobel Prize in literature 1960.
- sales conference — meeting of salespeople
- sandstone quarry — a quarry from which sand is extracted
- sangre de cristo — a mountain range in S Colorado and N New Mexico: a part of the Rocky Mountains. Highest peak, Blanca Peak, 14,390 feet (4385 meters).
- saorstat eireann — Irish name of Irish Free State.
- saratoga springs — a city in E New York: health resort; horse races.
- saturation level — carrying capacity.
- saturation point — the point at which a substance will receive no more of another substance in solution, chemical combination, etc.
- savannah sparrow — a North American sparrow, Passerculus sandwichensis, having brown and white plumage with a yellow stripe over each eye.
- save as you earn — (in Britain) a savings scheme which offers a tax-free bonus and allows employees to buy shares in the company they work for at a fixed price
- savonarola chair — a chair of the Renaissance having a number of transverse pairs of curved legs, crossing beneath the seat and rising to support the arms and back.
- saxo grammaticus — c1150–1206? Danish historian and poet.
- scar tissue code — (humour, programming) Old code that is commented out but still included in the current release.
- scarborough lily — a plant, Vallota speciosa, of the amaryllis family, native to southern Africa, having clusters of funnel-shaped, scarlet flowers.
- schlieren method — a method for detecting regions of differing densities in a clear fluid by photographing a beam of light passed obliquely through it.
- schneider trophy — a trophy for air racing between seaplanes of any nation, first presented by Jacques Schneider (1879–1928) in 1913; won outright by Britain in 1931
- school inspector — an official whose job is to inspect schools and to report on their quality and conditions
- school librarian — a librarian who works in or is in charge of a school library
- schoolgirl crush — an infatuation that a young girl has, usually for an older man such as a teacher or an actor, which is seen as superficial and unlikely to last for long
- schoolteacherish — showing characteristics thought to be typical of a schoolteacher, as strictness and primness.
- sclerenchymatous — supporting or protective tissue composed of thickened, dry, and hardened cells.
- score points off — to gain an advantage at someone else's expense
- scottish borders — a council area in SE Scotland, on the English border: created in 1996, it has the same boundaries as the former Borders Region: it is mainly hilly, with agriculture (esp sheep farming) the chief economic activity. Administrative centre: Newtown St Boswells. Pop: 108 280 (2003 est). Area: 4734 sq km (1827 sq miles)
- scottish terrier — one of a Scottish breed of small terriers having short legs and a wiry, steel-gray, brindled, black, sandy, or wheaten coat.
- scratch together — to assemble with difficulty
- scribbling block — scratch pad.
- scrovegni chapel — Arena Chapel.
- seal of approval — royal stamp of endorsement
- seat of learning — People sometimes refer to a university or a similar institution as a seat of learning.
- second messenger — any of various intracellular chemical substances, as cyclic AMP, that transmit and amplify the messages delivered by a first messenger to specific receptors on the cell surface.
- second world war — World War II.
- second-story man — a burglar who enters through an upstairs window.
- secondary accent — a stress accent weaker than primary accent but stronger than lack of stress.
- secondary cancer — a cancerous growth in some part of the body away from the site of the original tumour
- secondary colour — a colour formed by mixing two primary colours