18-letter words containing s, t, u
- back to square one — If you are back to square one, you have to start dealing with something from the beginning again because the way you were dealing with it has failed.
- ballistic pendulum — a device consisting of a large mass hung from a horizontal bar by two rods, used to measure the velocity of an object, as a bullet, by retaining the object upon impact, its velocity being a function of the displacement of the mass.
- barbershop quartet — a group of four singers who perform a style of music sung in four-part harmony
- barium thiosulfate — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, poisonous solid, BaS 2 O 3 ⋅H 2 O, used chiefly in the manufacture of explosives, matches, paints, and varnishes.
- battleground-state — a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election: the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.
- be lost in thought — If you are lost in thought, you give all your attention to what you are thinking about and do not notice what is going on around you.
- beefsteak mushroom — an edible bracket fungus, Fistulina hepatica, that grows on trees and can rot the heartwood of living oaks and chestnuts.
- behaviour patterns — the characteristic ways in which a person or animal acts
- best-ball foursome — a match, scored by holes, between two pairs of players, in which the score of the lower scoring member of each pair is taken as their score for the hole.
- bill of quantities — a document drawn up by a quantity surveyor providing details of the prices, dimensions, etc, of the materials required to build a large structure, such as a factory
- bioinstrumentation — the use of instruments, as sensors, to detect and measure certain body functions, as of persons in spaceflight, and transmit the data to a point where it is evaluated
- bird's-nest fungus — any fungus of the family Nidulariaceae, having a nestlike spore-producing body containing egglike spore-filled structures
- blue-plate special — an inexpensive restaurant meal served at a fixed price on a large plate, originally blue
- bomb disposal unit — a unit of the police or armed services specializing in bomb disposal
- boole's inequality — the theorem that the probability of several events occurring is less than or equal to the sum of the probabilities of each event occurring.
- bounty-fed farmers — farmers who benefit from subsidies
- branch instruction — a machine-language or assembly-language instruction that causes the computer to branch to another instruction
- breach of security — an act that violates a country, area, or building's security measures
- briquet's syndrome — somatization disorder.
- broadcasting house — any of a number of buildings in the UK from which the BBC broadcasts or has broadcast
- building materials — materials such as bricks, cement, timber, etc
- built-in self test — (BIST) The technique of designing circuits with additional logic which can be used to test proper operation of the primary (functional) logic.
- bullnose stretcher — bull stretcher (def 1).
- bullnose-stretcher — Also called bullnose stretcher. a brick having one of the edges along its length rounded for laying as a stretcher in a sill or the like.
- burkitt's lymphoma — a cancer characterized by tumors containing lymphoid cells, occurring esp. in children, in the jaw, eyes, and internal organs: it is associated with the Epstein-Barr virus
- burst at the seams — to break, break open, or fly apart with sudden violence: The bitter cold caused the pipes to burst.
- business education — education for general knowledge of business practices.
- butler's sideboard — a sideboard, often with a fall front, having on its top a china cabinet with glazed doors.
- cabernet sauvignon — a black grape originally grown in the Bordeaux area of France, and now throughout the wine-producing world
- call into question — to raise a question or doubt about
- cambrian mountains — a mountain range in Wales, extending from Carmarthenshire in the S to Denbighshire in the N. Highest peak: Aran Fawddwy, 891 m (2970 ft)
- capital punishment — Capital punishment is punishment which involves the legal killing of a person who has committed a serious crime such as murder.
- cartilaginous fish — any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, including the sharks, skates, and rays, having a skeleton composed entirely of cartilage
- cash-for-questions — of, involved in, or relating to a scandal in which some MPs were accused of accepting bribes to ask particular questions in Parliament
- casualty insurance — insurance providing coverage against accident and property damages, as automobile, theft, liability, and explosion insurance, but not including life insurance, fire insurance, or marine insurance.
- catalogue raisonne — a descriptive catalogue, esp one covering works of art in an exhibition or collection
- catskill mountains — a mountain range in SE New York State: resort. Highest peak: Slide Mountain, 1261 m (4204 ft)
- caucasus mountains — a mountain range in SW Russia, running along the N borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: mostly over 2700 m (9000 ft). Highest peak: Mount Elbrus, 5642 m (18 510 ft)
- celestial guidance — the guidance of a spacecraft or missile by reference to the position of one or more celestial bodies
- celestial latitude — the angular distance of a celestial body north or south from the ecliptic
- centre of pressure — the point in a body at which the resultant pressure acts when the body is immersed in a fluid
- centum call second — (unit) (CCS) A unit used (in North America) to quantify the total traffic running in a network. 1 CCS is 100 call-seconds. That means 1 CCS could be 2 calls of 50 seconds duration or 20 calls of 5 seconds duration.
- chambered nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- change the subject — to select a new topic of conversation
- charge of quarters — a member of the armed forces who handles administration in his or her unit, esp after duty hours
- charismatic church — a church that emphasizes communal prayer and the charismatic gifts of speaking in tongues, healing, etc
- chartered surveyor — (in Britain) a surveyor who is registered with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors as having the qualifications, training, and experience to satisfy their professional requirements
- chebyshev equation — Tchebycheff equation.
- chinese revolution — the overthrow of the last Manchu emperor and the establishment of a republic in China (1911–12)
- church of scotland — the established church in Scotland, Calvinist in doctrine and Presbyterian in constitution