17-letter words containing y, e, t
- rift valley fever — a highly infectious viral disease of humans and animals, transmitted by mosquitoes and other insects, occurring in Africa and characterized in humans by headache, fever, eye discomfort, and muscle aches, progressing in some cases to encephalitis, blindness, or internal bleeding.
- rocket technology — the technology of the design, operation, maintenance, and launching of rockets
- rub the wrong way — to subject the surface of (a thing or person) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing: to rub a table top with wax polish; to rub the entire back area.
- safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
- safety inspection — an inspection of a place carried out to ensure that it is safe and not dangerous
- safety precaution — a precaution that is taken in order to ensure that something is safe and not dangerous
- saved by the bell — a hollow instrument of cast metal, typically cup-shaped with a flaring mouth, suspended from the vertex and rung by the strokes of a clapper, hammer, or the like.
- say the unsayable — to express an opinion thought to be too controversial to mention
- scentless mayweed — a similar and related plant, Matricaria maritima, with scentless leaves
- scheme repository — A collection of free Scheme programs.
- scientific theory — a coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation: the scientific theory of evolution.
- seaweed marquetry — marquetry having the form of symmetrical, foliate scrolls, as on English cabinetwork of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
- secondary battery — storage battery.
- secondary boycott — a boycott by union members against their employer in order to induce the employer to bring pressure on another company involved in a labor dispute with the union.
- secondary contact — communication or relationship between people characterized by impersonal and detached interest on the part of those involved.
- secondary product — a product that is not the main product of an industry; a by-product
- secondary quality — one of the qualities attributed by the mind to an object perceived, such as color, temperature, or taste.
- secretary-general — the head or chief administrative officer of a secretariat.
- semi-permeability — permeable only to certain small molecules: a semipermeable membrane.
- sensitivity group — a group of persons participating in sensitivity training.
- separation energy — binding energy (def 1).
- serendipity berry — miracle fruit (def 2).
- shake one's booty — to dance
- short-term memory — information retained in the brain and retrievable from it over a brief span of time (contrasted with long-term memory).
- shorthold tenancy — letting of a dwelling for between one and five years at a fair rent
- shuttle diplomacy — diplomatic negotiations carried out by a mediator who travels back and forth between the negotiating parties.
- simplicity itself — If you say that something is simplicity itself, you are emphasizing that it is very simple or easy.
- sister of charity — a member of one of several congregations of sisters founded in 1634 by St. Vincent de Paul.
- sixty-fourth note — a note having one sixty-fourth of the time value of a whole note; hemidemisemiquaver.
- sixty-fourth rest — a rest equal in time value to a sixty-fourth note.
- slowly but surely — If you say that something is happening slowly but surely, you mean that it is happening gradually but it is definitely happening.
- sodium pyroborate — borax1 .
- sodium salicylate — a white, crystalline compound, C 7 H 5 NaO 3 , soluble in water, alcohol, and glycerol: used in medicine as an analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory, and as a preservative.
- soft-rock geology — geology dealing with sedimentary rocks.
- softvelocity inc. — (company) The distributors of the Clarion family of application development systems.
- south sea company — a British joint stock company that traded in South America in the 18th century. The South Sea Company took over the national debt in return for a monopoly of trade with the South Seas, causing feverish speculation in their stocks, and a financial crash in 1720 (the South Sea Bubble)
- southeast by east — a point on the compass 11°15′ east of southeast. Abbreviation: SEbE.
- southwest by west — a point on the compass 11°15′ west of southwest. Abbreviation: SWbW.
- spatial frequency — the measure of fine detail in an optical image in terms of cycles per millimetre
- specific humidity — the ratio of the mass of water vapor in air to the total mass of the mixture of air and water vapor.
- spectrophotometry — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
- spectroscopically — an optical device for producing and observing a spectrum of light or radiation from any source, consisting essentially of a slit through which the radiation passes, a collimating lens, and an Amici prism.
- spectrum analyser — an instrument that splits an input waveform into its frequency components, which are then displayed
- spectrum analysis — the determination of the constitution or condition of bodies and substances by means of the spectra they produce.
- speech difficulty — a problem encountered in speaking
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- split personality — multiple personality.
- spondylolisthesis — the forward displacement of a vertebra.
- stage-door johnny — a man who often goes to a theater or waits at a stage door to court an actress.
- stand on ceremony — to insist on or act with excessive formality