16-letter words containing t, e, l, s
- summa theologica — a philosophical and theological work (1265–74) by St. Thomas Aquinas, consisting of an exposition of Christian doctrine.
- summational tone — a musical sound sometimes heard when two loud notes are sounded together, higher in pitch than either
- summer complaint — an acute condition of diarrhea, occurring during the hot summer months chiefly in infants and children, caused by bacterial contamination of food and associated with poor hygiene.
- summer lightning — distant sheet lightning without audible thunder, which typically occurs on a summer evening
- sumo (wrestling) — a highly stylized Japanese form of wrestling engaged in by large, extremely heavy men
- superficialities — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
- supernationalism — an extreme or fanatical loyalty or devotion to a nation.
- surface integral — the limit, as the norm of the partition of a given surface into sections of area approaches zero, of the sum of the product of the areas times the value of a given function of three variables at some point on each section.
- susceptibilities — emotional sensibilities; feelings
- sustaining pedal — a pedal on a piano that when depressed with the foot raises the dampers and permits the strings to vibrate and sustain the tone.
- sutherland falls — a waterfall in New Zealand, on SW South Island. 1904 feet (580 meters) high.
- sutton coldfield — a town in central England, in Birmingham unitary authority, West Midlands; a residential suburb of Birmingham. Pop: 105 452 (2001)
- swash plate pump — a collar or face plate on a shaft that is inclined at an oblique angle to the axis of rotation and imparts reciprocating motion to push rods parallel to the shaft axis
- sweet almond oil — almond oil (def 1).
- sweeten the pill — If someone does something to sweeten the pill or sugar the pill, they do it to make some unpleasant news or an unpleasant measure more acceptable.
- symmetry element — any of four points, lines, or planes of a crystal: a center of symmetry, a reflection plane, a rotation axis, or a rotation-inversion axis.
- systems analysis — the evaluation of an activity to identify its desired objectives and determine procedures for efficiently attaining them.
- tablets of stone — Stone is used in expressions such as set in stone and tablets of stone to suggest that an idea or rule is firm and fixed, and cannot be changed.
- taimyr peninsula — a peninsula in the N Russian Federation in Asia, between the Kara and Laptev seas.
- take holy orders — to become ordained
- take one's heels — the back part of the human foot, below and behind the ankle.
- take one's leave — to go away; depart
- take one's lumps — a piece or mass of solid matter without regular shape or of no particular shape: a lump of coal.
- take one's place — to take up one's usual or specified position
- teachers college — a four-year college offering courses for the training of primary and secondary school teachers and granting the bachelor's degree and often advanced degrees.
- technical school — college of further and vocational education
- telescopic sight — a telescope mounted on a rifle, etc, used for sighting
- telespectroscope — a combination of a telescope and a spectroscope, used for spectroscopic analysis of radiation from stars and other celestial bodies
- tell one's beads — a small, usually round object of glass, wood, stone, or the like with a hole through it, often strung with others of its kind in necklaces, rosaries, etc.
- tensile strength — the resistance of a material to longitudinal stress, measured by the minimum amount of longitudinal stress required to rupture the material.
- tequendama falls — a waterfall in central Colombia, on the Bogota River, SW of Bogota. 515 feet (157 meters) high.
- terminal illness — A terminal illness cannot be cured, and causes death.
- texas revolution — a revolutionary movement, 1832–36, in which U.S. settlers asserted their independence from Mexico and established the republic of Texas.
- thallium sulfate — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous solid, Tl 2 SO 4 , used chiefly as an insecticide and rodenticide.
- the barren lands — a region of tundra in N Canada, extending westwards from Hudson Bay: sparsely inhabited, chiefly by Inuit
- the black forest — a hilly wooded region of SW Germany, in Baden-Württemberg: a popular resort area
- the boys in blue — The police are sometimes referred to as the boys in blue.
- the christ child — a very reverential way of referring to Jesus Christ as a child, used particularly when referring to art
- the creole state — a nickname for Louisiana
- the dust settles — If you say that something will happen when the dust settles, you mean that a situation will be clearer after it has calmed down. If you let the dust settle before doing something, you let a situation calm down before you try to do anything else.
- the eastern bloc — (formerly) the Soviet bloc
- the first couple — the US president and their spouse
- the first family — a President's family
- the gospel truth — the unquestionable truth
- the lion's share — the largest portion
- the marseillaise — the French national anthem. Words and music were composed in 1792 by C. J. Rouget de Lisle as a war song for the Rhine army of revolutionary France
- the mendip hills — a range of limestone hills in SW England, in N Somerset: includes the Cheddar Gorge and numerous caves. Highest point: 325 m (1068 ft)
- the missing link — a hypothetical extinct animal or animal group, formerly thought to be intermediate between the anthropoid apes and man
- the oil industry — the industry that produces and delivers petroleum and petroleum products
- the public purse — money from or controlled by the government