14-letter words containing s, t, r, o, m
- rostral column — a memorial column having sculptures representing the rams of ancient ships.
- saccharomycete — a single-celled yeast of the family Saccharomycetaceae, having no mycelium.
- sacred monster — a celebrity whose eccentricities or indiscretions are easily forgiven by admirers.
- saigo takamori — 1828–77, Japanese samurai, who led (1868) the coup that restored imperial government. In 1877 he reluctantly led a samurai rebellion, committing suicide when it failed
- salt dome trap — A salt dome trap is an area where oil has been trapped underground by salt pushing upward.
- salvation army — an international Christian organization founded in England in 1865 by William Booth, organized along quasi-military lines and devoted chiefly to evangelism and to providing social services, especially to the poor.
- schafer method — a method of artificial respiration in which the patient is placed face downward, pressure then being rhythmically applied with the hands to the lower part of the thorax.
- schlockmeister — a person who deals in or sells inferior or worthless goods; junk dealer.
- scholar's mate — a simple mate by the queen on the f7 square, achievable by white's fourth move
- schoolmistress — a woman who presides over or teaches in a school.
- scintillometer — a device for detecting and measuring radioactivity, having a crystal scintillator, a photoelectric cell sensitive to the light from scintillations, and an amplifier.
- scratch monkey — (humour) As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
- self-adornment — something that adds attractiveness; ornament; accessory: the adornments and furnishings of a room.
- self-formation — the act or process of forming or the state of being formed: the formation of ice.
- self-important — having or showing an exaggerated opinion of one's own importance; pompously conceited or haughty.
- self-promotion — advancement in rank or position.
- semi-nocturnal — active at night (opposed to diurnal): nocturnal animals.
- semistarvation — the state of being nearly starved.
- sequestrectomy — the removal of dead spicules or portions, especially of bone.
- sergeant major — U.S. Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps. a noncommissioned officer serving as chief administrative assistant in a unit headquarters.
- sharptail mola — a fish, Masturus lanceolatus, related to the ocean sunfish but having a pointed tail.
- short-tempered — having a quick, hasty temper; irascible.
- shortened form — an abbreviated form of a multisyllable word; clipped form.
- sidereal month — Also called calendar month. any of the twelve parts, as January or February, into which the calendar year is divided.
- simchath torah — a Jewish festival, celebrated on the 23rd day of Tishri, being the 9th day of Sukkoth, that marks the completion of the annual cycle of the reading of the Torah in the synagogue and the beginning of the new cycle.
- simone martini — Simone [see-maw-ne] /siˈmɔ nɛ/ (Show IPA), 1283–1344, Italian painter.
- simple protein — a protein that yields only amino acids and no other major products when hydrolyzed (contrasted with conjugated protein).
- simpson desert — an uninhabited arid region in central Australia, mainly in the Northern Territory. Area: about 145 000 sq km (56 000 sq miles)
- situation room — a room at a military or political headquarters where the latest information on a military or political situation is channeled.
- slide trombone — a musical wind instrument consisting of a cylindrical metal tube expanding into a bell and bent twice in a U shape, usually equipped with a slide (slide trombone)
- smart sanction — a sanction intended to affect only a particular area of a country's activities or economy
- smoke detector — an electronic fire alarm that is activated by the presence of smoke.
- smooth-running — operating in a flowing and effective manner, without difficulties or obstructions
- smothered mate — checkmate delivered by a knight when the king's mobility is restricted by his own pieces.
- sodium citrate — a white, crystalline or granular, water-soluble, odorless solid, Na 3 C 6 H 5 O 7 ⋅2H 2 O, having a cool, saline taste: used in photography, in soft drinks, and in medicine chiefly to prevent the coagulation of blood.
- sodium nitrate — a crystalline, water-soluble compound, NaNO 3 , that occurs naturally as soda niter: used in fertilizers, explosives, and glass, and as a color fixative in processed meats.
- sodium nitrite — Chemistry. a yellowish or white crystalline compound, NaNO 2 , soluble in water, slightly soluble in alcohol and ether: used in the manufacture of dyes and as a color fixative.
- soft ice-cream — a softer and lighter-textured ice cream that contains more air than standard ice-cream. It was developed in Britain in the 20th century.
- soft margarine — a soft, spreadable margarine that is made with more liquid oils and less hydrogenated oils than hard, block margarine
- solid geometry — the geometry of solid figures; geometry of three dimensions.
- somali current — a current of the Indian Ocean, flowing northward along the coast of Somalia in summer and southwestward the rest of the year.
- somar software — (company) The distributors of Somar DumpAcl and other utilities for Windows NT. Address: Washington, DC, USA.
- somerset house — a building in London, in the Strand, built (1776–86) by Sir William Chambers; formerly housed the General Register Office of births, marriages, and deaths: contains (from 1990) the art collections of the Courtauld Institute
- son et lumiere — sound-and-light show.
- south american — a continent in the S part of the Western Hemisphere. About 6,900,000 sq. mi. (17,871,000 sq. km).
- southern yemen — a former name of Yemen (def 1).
- space platform — space station.
- spatiotemporal — pertaining to space-time.
- spectator pump — a woman's spectator shoe, closed at the front and back, usually having a medium or medium-high heel.
- spermatic cord — the cord by which a testis is suspended in the scrotum, containing the vas deferens and the blood vessels and nerves of the testis.