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15-letter words containing u, n, s, e

  • sleeping beauty — a beautiful princess, the heroine of a popular fairy tale, awakened from a charmed sleep by the kiss of the prince who is her true love.
  • sleeve coupling — a cylinder joining the ends of two lengths of shafting or pipe.
  • sliver building — a very narrow skyscraper designed in response to restriction of the building site or zoning, frequently containing only a single apartment per floor or comparably limited office space.
  • smoke pollution — pollution caused by fuels, etc, that produce smoke when burned
  • smoker's tongue — Pathology. leukoplakia in the mouth caused by irritation due to smoking.
  • snafu principle — /sna'foo prin'si-pl/ [WWII Army acronym for "Situation Normal: All Fucked Up"] "True communication is possible only between equals, because inferiors are more consistently rewarded for telling their superiors pleasant lies than for telling the truth." - a central tenet of Discordianism, often invoked by hackers to explain why authoritarian hierarchies screw up so reliably and systematically. The effect of the SNAFU principle is a progressive disconnection of decision-makers from reality. This lightly adapted version of a fable dating back to the early 1960s illustrates the phenomenon perfectly: In the beginning was the plan, and then the specification; And the plan was without form, and the specification was void. And darkness was on the faces of the implementors thereof; And they spake unto their leader, saying: "It is a crock of shit, and smells as of a sewer." And the leader took pity on them, and spoke to the project leader: "It is a crock of excrement, and none may abide the odor thereof." And the project leader spake unto his section head, saying: "It is a container of excrement, and it is very strong, such that none may abide it." The section head then hurried to his department manager, and informed him thus: "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength." The department manager carried these words to his general manager, and spoke unto him saying: "It containeth that which aideth the growth of plants, and it is very strong." And so it was that the general manager rejoiced and delivered the good news unto the Vice President. "It promoteth growth, and it is very powerful." The Vice President rushed to the President's side, and joyously exclaimed: "This powerful new software product will promote the growth of the company!" And the President looked upon the product, and saw that it was very good. After the subsequent disaster, the suits protect themselves by saying "I was misinformed!", and the implementors are demoted or fired.
  • snapping turtle — either of two large, edible, freshwater turtles of the family Chelydridae, of North and Central America, having a large head and powerful hooked jaws, especially the common snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina.
  • sodium arsenite — a white or grayish-white, water-soluble, poisonous powder, NaAsO 2 , used chiefly in arsenical soaps for hides, as an insecticide, and as a weed-killer.
  • sodium benzoate — a white crystalline soluble compound used as an antibacterial and antifungal agent in preserving food (E211), as an antiseptic, and in making dyes and pharmaceuticals. Formula: (C6H5COO)Na
  • sodium monoxide — a white powder, Na 2 O, that reacts violently with water to produce sodium hydroxide.
  • soft-focus lens — a lens designed to produce an image that is uniformly very slightly out of focus: typically used for portrait work
  • sojourner truth — Sojourner [soh-jur-ner,, soh-jur-ner] /ˈsoʊ dʒɜr nər,, soʊˈdʒɜr nər/ (Show IPA), (Isabella Van Wagener) 1797?–1883, U.S. abolitionist, orator, and women's-rights advocate, born a slave.
  • sonnet sequence — a group of sonnets composed by one poet and having a unifying theme or subject.
  • sostenuto pedal — a pedal on a grand piano that raises the dampers, allowing the tone to be sustained for those strings struck at the time the pedal is depressed.
  • soul-destroying — Activities or situations that are soul-destroying make you depressed, because they are boring or because there is no hope of improvement.
  • sound as a bell — in perfect condition
  • sound deadening — a process or material that reduces the resonance or volume of sound
  • sound recordist — recordist.
  • sounding rocket — a rocket equipped with instruments for making meteorological observations in the upper atmosphere.
  • source document — a document that has been or will be transcribed to a word processor or to the memory bank of a computer
  • source language — the language in which a text appears that is to be translated into another language. Compare target language (def 1).
  • south china sea — a part of the W Pacific, bounded by SE China, Vietnam, the Malay Peninsula, Borneo, and the Philippines.
  • southeast asian — the countries and land area of Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
  • southend-on-sea — a seaport in SE Essex, in SE England, on Thames estuary.
  • southern blight — a disease of peanuts, tomatoes, and other plants, caused by a fungus, Sclerotium rolfsii, affecting the roots and resulting in rapid wilting.
  • southern gothic — a literary genre depicting life in the southern US and featuring grotesque themes and imagery
  • southern lights — aurora australis.
  • southern paiute — See under Paiute (def 2).
  • special student — a student who is not seeking a degree but enrols in a course, esp to gain academic credits
  • spinous process — a spinelike process of a bone, especially the dorsal projection from the center of the arch of a vertebra.
  • spiny cocklebur — a cocklebur, Xanthium spinosum, introduced into North America from Europe.
  • splanchnopleure — the double layer formed by the association of the lower layer of the lateral plate of mesoderm with the underlying entoderm, which develops into the embryonic viscera.
  • spontaneousness — coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.
  • spotted sunfish — a sunfish, Lepomis punctatus, inhabiting streams from South Carolina to Florida, having the body marked with longitudinal rows of spots.
  • squadron leader — air-force officer
  • squirrel monkey — either of two small, long-tailed monkeys, Saimiri oerstedii of Central America and S. sciureus of South America, having a small white face with black muzzle and gold, brown, or greenish fur: S. oerstedii is endangered.
  • stable equation — a differential equation each solution of which tends to zero as the independent variable increases to infinity. Compare transient (def 6).
  • stand-up comedy — telling jokes to an audience
  • standard clause — a clause which is inserted as standard into certain types of contracts or agreements
  • stannic sulfide — a yellowish or brownish, water-insoluble powder, SnS 2 , usually used suspended in lacquer or varnish for gilding and bronzing metals, wood, paper, etc.; mosaic gold.
  • state education — education provided by the state; education which is not private
  • status quo ante — the state of affairs existing prior to a given event
  • steamed pudding — a traditional pudding containing fat, sugar, eggs, flour, and other ingredients, which is steamed
  • steering column — the shaft that connects the steering wheel to the steering gear assembly of an automotive vehicle.
  • storm insurance — insurance cover against damage caused by windstorms
  • strontium oxide — a white insoluble solid substance used in making strontium salts and purifying sugar. Formula: SrO
  • structural gene — cistron.
  • student council — a representative body composed chiefly of students chosen by their classmates to organize social and extracurricular activities and to participate in the government of a school or college.
  • student teacher — a student who is studying to be a teacher and who, as part of the training, observes classroom instruction or does closely supervised teaching in an elementary or secondary school.
  • students' union — The students' union is the students' organization in a university or college which organizes leisure activities, provides welfare services, and represents students' political interests.
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