16-letter words containing y, a, v, r
- majority verdict — a decision supported by more than half, but not all, the jury
- medal of bravery — a Canadian award for courage
- medieval history — the branch of history dealing with the Middle Ages
- military service — compulsory period spent in the army
- monotransitivity — (grammar) The state or quality of being monotransitive.
- non-transitively — Grammar. having the nature of a transitive verb.
- observationality — The property of being observational.
- orbital velocity — the minimum velocity at which a body must move to maintain a given orbit.
- over-familiarity — thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing, subject, etc.
- overall majority — If a political party wins an overall majority in an election or vote, they get more votes than the total number of votes or seats won by all their opponents.
- overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overdramatically — In an overdramatic manner.
- overexcitability — to excite too much.
- overhead railway — elevated railroad.
- peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
- peter stuyvesant — Peter, 1592–1672, Dutch colonial administrator in the Americas: last governor of New Netherlands 1646–64.
- polyvinyl formal — a colorless, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal produced from partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate and formaldehyde, used chiefly in the manufacture of lacquers.
- prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- primary deviance — the violation of a norm or rule that does not result in the violator's being stigmatized as deviant.
- private property — land or belongings owned by a person or group and kept for their exclusive use
- pyrovanadic acid — an oxyacid of vanadium, known chiefly in the form of its vanadate salts; Formula: H4V2O7
- pyruvic aldehyde — a yellow, liquid compound, C 3 H 4 O 2 , containing both an aldehyde and a ketone group, usually obtained in a polymeric form: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- relative density — specific gravity.
- relatively prime — (mathematics) Having no common divisors (greater than 1). Two numbers are said to be relativey prime if there is no number greater than unity that divides both of them evenly. For example, 10 and 33 are relativly prime. 15 and 33 are not relatively prime, since 3 is a divisor of both.
- relativistically — of or relating to relativity or relativism.
- representatively — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- reserve buoyancy — the difference between the volume of a hull below the designed waterline and the volume of the hull below the lowest opening incapable of being made watertight.
- reserve capacity — the capacity of a battery, measured in minutes, to keep a vehicle operating if the charging system fails.
- salivary amylase — an enzyme in the saliva that converts starch into dextrin and maltose.
- same-day service — (humour, operating system) An ironic term used to describe long response time, particularly with respect to MS-DOS system calls (which ought to require only a tiny fraction of a second to execute). Such response time is a major incentive for programmers to write programs that are not well-behaved. See also PC-ism.
- save as you earn — (in Britain) a savings scheme which offers a tax-free bonus and allows employees to buy shares in the company they work for at a fixed price
- sensory overload — being overwhelmed by sights, sounds, etc.
- seven years' war — the war (1756–63) in which England and Prussia defeated France, Austria, Russia, Sweden, and Saxony.
- severnaya zemlya — an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, between the Kara Sea and Laptev Sea, in N Russia. 14,175 sq. mi. (36,712 sq. km).
- shoemaker-levy 9 — a comet that was captured into an orbit around Jupiter and later broke up, the fragments colliding with Jupiter in July 1995
- special delivery — (in the U.S. Postal Service) delivery of mail outside the regularly scheduled hours, by a special messenger, upon the payment of an extra fee.
- specific gravity — the ratio of the density of any substance to the density of some other substance taken as standard, water being the standard for liquids and solids, and hydrogen or air being the standard for gases.
- state university — a university maintained by the government of a state.
- strawberry guava — a shrub or small tree, Psidium littorale, of the myrtle family, native to Brazil, having smooth, grayish-brown bark, leathery leaves, white flowers, and edible, white-fleshed, purplish-red fruit.
- superheavyweight — an amateur boxer weighing more than 91 kg
- surveyor's chain — a series of objects connected one after the other, usually in the form of a series of metal rings passing through one another, used either for various purposes requiring a flexible tie with high tensile strength, as for hauling, supporting, or confining, or in various ornamental and decorative forms.
- the moving party — a person who applies to a court or judge with the aim of obtaining a ruling in their favour
- treaty of verdun — an agreement reached in 843 ad by three grandsons of Charlemagne, dividing his empire into an E kingdom (later Germany), a W kingdom (later France), and a middle kingdom (containing what became the Low Countries, Lorraine, Burgundy, and N Italy)
- valency electron — an electron in the outer shell of an atom, responsible for forming chemical bonds
- variable annuity — an annuity in which the premiums are invested chiefly in common stocks or other securities, the annuitant receiving payments based on the yield of the investments instead of in fixed amounts.
- vegetable oyster — salsify.
- ventriculography — radiography of the ventricles of the heart after injection of a contrast medium
- verbal auxiliary — an auxiliary verb, especially when considered as a member of a separate class of words used with verbs rather than as a special subclass of verbs.
- videodisc player — an electronic device for playing videodiscs through a television set.
- vocabulary entry — (in dictionaries) a word, phrase, abbreviation, symbol, affix, name, etc., listed with its definition or explanation in alphabetical order or listed for identification after the word from which it is derived or to which it is related.