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15-letter words containing u, n, s, p, r, a

  • put years on sb — If you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has put years on someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much older.
  • quasi-permanent — existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change.
  • queen's pattern — a pattern of ceramic decoration consisting of bands of swirling radial lines, white on blue alternating with red on white.
  • query expansion — (information science)   Adding search terms to a user's search. Query expansion is the process of a search engine adding search terms to a user's weighted search. The intent is to improve precision and/or recall. The additional terms may be taken from a thesaurus. For example a search for "car" may be expanded to: car cars auto autos automobile automobiles. The additional terms may also be taken from documents that the user has specified as being relevant; this is the basis for the "more like this" feature of some search engines. The extra terms can have positive or negative weights.
  • renal corpuscle — Malpighian body (sense 2)
  • running repairs — repairs, as to a machine or vehicle, that are minor and can be made with little or no interruption in the use of the item
  • salisbury plain — a plateau in S England, N of Salisbury: the site of Stonehenge.
  • schopenhauerian — Arthur [ahr-too r] /ˈɑr tʊər/ (Show IPA), 1788–1860, German philosopher.
  • schopenhauerism — the philosophy of Schopenhauer, who taught that only the cessation of desire can solve the problems arising from the universal impulse of the will to live.
  • secondary group — a group of people with whom one's contacts are detached and impersonal.
  • self-persuasion — the act of persuading or seeking to persuade.
  • shoulder weapon — a firearm that is fired while being held in the hands with the butt of the weapon braced against the shoulder.
  • slumpflationary — of or relating to slumpflation
  • 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.
  • southern paiute — See under Paiute (def 2).
  • spawning ground — a place where fish deposit their eggs for fertilization
  • spinach-rhubarb — an Ethiopian plant, Rumex abyssinicus, of the buckwheat family, having leaves that are sometimes used as spinach and leafstalks sometimes used as rhubarb.
  • 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.
  • stamping ground — a habitual or favorite haunt.
  • sub-corporation — an association of individuals, created by law or under authority of law, having a continuous existence independent of the existences of its members, and powers and liabilities distinct from those of its members. See also municipal corporation, public corporation.
  • sublapsarianism — infralapsarianism.
  • subprofessional — being below professional standards: subprofessional health care.
  • sulphinpyrazone — a uricosuric drug with molecular formula C23H20N2O3S, used in the treatment of chronic gout
  • superabundantly — very or too abundantly
  • superexaltation — extreme or supreme exaltation; the act of superexalting; the process or condition of being superexalted
  • superexcitation — the act of exciting.
  • superficialness — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
  • supergiant star — Astronomy. an exceptionally luminous star whose diameter is more than 100 times that of the sun, as Betelgeuse or Antares.
  • superindividual — greater than the individual
  • superior planet — any of the five planets whose orbits are outside the orbit of the earth, namely, the planets Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
  • supernaturalism — supernatural character or agency.
  • supernaturalist — supernatural character or agency.
  • supernaturality — the quality or state of being supernatural; supernaturalism.
  • supernaturalize — to make supernatural; give supernatural character or qualities to.
  • superordination — Logic. the relation between a universal proposition and a particular proposition of the same quality containing the same terms in the same order.
  • surface-ripened — (of cheese) ripened on the surface by molds or other microorganisms.
  • tetrasporangium — a sporangium containing four asexual spores.
  • the upper ranks — the higher divisions of the armed forces
  • trans-euphrates — a river in SW Asia, flowing from E Turkey through Syria and Iraq, joining the Tigris to form the Shatt-al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. 1700 miles (2735 km) long.
  • ultrasonography — a diagnostic imaging technique utilizing reflected high-frequency sound waves to delineate, measure, or examine internal body structures or organs.
  • unapprehensible — not able to be understood or comprehended
  • uncompromisable — that cannot or should not be compromised
  • undercompensate — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
  • university park — a city in N Texas.
  • unix conspiracy — [ITS] According to a conspiracy theory long popular among ITS and TOPS-20 fans, Unix's growth is the result of a plot, hatched during the 1970s at Bell Labs, whose intent was to hobble AT&T's competitors by making them dependent upon a system whose future evolution was to be under AT&T's control. This would be accomplished by disseminating an operating system that is apparently inexpensive and easily portable, but also relatively unreliable and insecure (so as to require continuing upgrades from AT&T). This theory was lent a substantial impetus in 1984 by the paper referenced in the back door entry. In this view, Unix was designed to be one of the first computer viruses (see virus) - but a virus spread to computers indirectly by people and market forces, rather than directly through disks and networks. Adherents of this "Unix virus" theory like to cite the fact that the well-known quotation "Unix is snake oil" was uttered by DEC president Kenneth Olsen shortly before DEC began actively promoting its own family of Unix workstations. (Olsen now claims to have been misquoted.)
  • unpractisedness — the quality or state of being unpractised
  • unprotestantize — to make something (e.g. a church, country, etc) a religion other than Protestant
  • unsportsmanlike — a man who engages in sports, especially in some open-air sport, as hunting, fishing, racing, etc.
  • upper peninsula — a peninsula in the northern US between Lakes Superior and Michigan, constituting the N part of the state of Michigan
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