15-letter words containing u, y, s
- psychoacoustics — the study of sound perception.
- pubic symphysis — the fixed joint at the front of the pelvic girdle where the halves of the pubis meet.
- publicity stunt — something done to attract publicity
- purslane family — the plant family Portulacaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, often fleshy leaves, sometimes showy flowers, and capsular fruit, and including bitterroot, purslane, red maids, rose moss, and spring beauty.
- pusillanimously — lacking courage or resolution; cowardly; faint-hearted; timid.
- 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.
- queen's highway — king's highway.
- 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.
- questionability — of doubtful propriety, honesty, morality, respectability, etc.: questionable activities; in questionable taste.
- radio sono-buoy — a buoy equipped to detect underwater noises and transmit them by radio
- ranfurly shield — (in New Zealand) the premier rugby trophy, competed for annually by provincial teams
- ray of sunshine — beam of sunlight
- rayside-balfour — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
- ready-furnished — (of a room, house, office, etc) fitted with furniture before being rented or sold
- regulatory risk — a risk to which private companies are subject, arising from the possibility of legislation or regulations that will affect business being adopted by a government
- resurrectionary — pertaining to or of the nature of resurrection.
- reynolds number — a dimensionless number, vρl/η, where v is the fluid velocity, ρ the density, η the viscosity and l a dimension of the system. The value of the number indicates the type of fluid flow
- right of asylum — the right of alien fugitives to protection or nonextradition in a country or its embassy.
- ritualistically — adherence to or insistence on ritual.
- rocky mountains — mountain range in USA and Canada
- rogation sunday — the fifth Sunday after Easter; it sees the start of the supplications that are continued during the following Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
- rogues' gallery — a collection of portraits of criminals and suspects maintained by the police for purposes of identification.
- royal enclosure — at the Royal Ascot horse-race meeting, an area of Ascot racecourse which is reserved for the Royal Family, members, and their guests
- rubaiyat stanza — a quatrain patterned after those in The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, of iambic pentameter and rhyming aaba.
- ruddy turnstone — a common shorebird, Arenaria interpres, of the New and Old World arctic, wintering south to southern South America and Australia and having striking reddish-brown, black, and white plumage.
- run-time system — (programming) (RTS, run-time support, run-time) Library code and processes which support software written in a particular language running on a particular platform. The RTS typically deals with details of the interface between the program and the operating system such as system calls, program start-up and termination, and memory management.
- rural sociology — the sociological study of life in rural areas and the effects of ruralization.
- rusty blackbird — a North American blackbird, Euphagus carolinus, the male of which has plumage that is uniformly bluish-black in the spring and rusty-edged in the fall.
- salisbury plain — a plateau in S England, N of Salisbury: the site of Stonehenge.
- salisbury steak — ground beef, sometimes mixed with other foods, shaped like a hamburger patty and broiled or fried, often garnished or served with a sauce.
- sarcenchymatous — relating to the connective tissue of some sponges
- sayan mountains — a mountain range in S central Russia, in S Siberia. Highest peak: Munku-Sardyk, 3437 m (11 457 ft)
- schoolboy crush — an infatuation that a young boy has, usually for an older woman such as a teacher or an actress, which is seen as superficial and unlikely to last for long
- secondary cause — a cause which is not the primary or ultimate cause
- secondary group — a group of people with whom one's contacts are detached and impersonal.
- security camera — closed-circuit TV camera
- security forces — police or soldiers responsible for maintaining security
- security police — a police force responsible for maintaining order at a specific locale or under specific circumstances, as at an airport or factory.
- security thread — a colored thread running through the paper of a piece of paper money, used to deter counterfeiting.
- security threat — a threat to the security of a country
- self-justifying — offering excuses for oneself, especially in excess of normal demands.
- self-regulatory — Self-regulatory systems, organizations, or activities are controlled by the people involved in them, rather than by outside organizations or rules.
- semidocumentary — a film or television programme that is fictional but includes many factual events or details
- serendipitously — come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: serendipitous scientific discoveries.
- sesquicentenary — a hundred and fiftieth anniversary
- sexual equality — the same status, rights, and responsibilities for male and female people
- shut your mouth — stop talking
- silviculturally — with reference to silviculture
- single currency — a currency that is common to different countries
- 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.