15-letter words containing y, n
- semipornography — partial pornography; material that is almost pornographic
- sensitizing dye — a dye adsorbed onto the silver halide grains of an emulsion to make the emulsion more sensitive to certain colors.
- sepoy rebellion — the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58
- septentrionally — northwards; in the direction of the north
- serendipitously — come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: serendipitous scientific discoveries.
- serial monogamy — a form of monogamy characterized by several successive, short-term marriages over the course of a lifetime.
- service economy — an economy which is dominated by the provision or importance of services (as opposed to products)
- sesquicentenary — a hundred and fiftieth anniversary
- seven-year itch — scabies.
- seventy-seventh — next after the seventy-sixth; being the ordinal number for 77.
- sharing economy — a system in which people rent, borrow, or share commodities, services, and resources owned by individuals, usually with the aid of online technology, in an effort to save money, cut costs, and reduce waste.
- shillyshallying — hesitation; vacillation
- shove-halfpenny — a shuffleboard game played with coins or brass disks that are pushed by the hand and thumb down a board toward a scoring pit.
- sibling rivalry — the feeling of competitiveness that often exists between brothers and sisters
- sibylline books — (in ancient Rome) a collection of prophetic sayings, supposedly bought from the Cumaean sibyl, bearing upon Roman policy and religion
- sidesplittingly — in a side-splitting manner
- siege mentality — a state of mind whereby one believes that one is being constantly attacked, oppressed, or isolated.
- significatively — serving to signify.
- silent majority — the U.S. citizens who supported President Nixon's policies but who were not politically vocal, outspoken, or active: considered by him to constitute a majority.
- simeon stylites — Saint, a.d. 390?–459, Syrian monk and stylite.
- single currency — a currency that is common to different countries
- single-handedly — in a single-handed manner; single-handed.
- sinorespiratory — of, relating to, or affecting the paranasal sinuses and the respiratory tract.
- 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.
- slumpflationary — of or relating to slumpflation
- small cranberry — See under cranberry (def 1).
- smoky mountains — Great Smoky Mountains
- snowy mountains — a mountain range in SE Australia, part of the Australian Alps: famous hydroelectric scheme
- so much/so many — You use so much and so many when you are saying that there is a definite limit to something but you are not saying what this limit is.
- social dynamics — the study of social processes, especially social change.
- society islands — a group of islands in the S Pacific: administratively part of French Polynesia; consists of the Windward Islands and the Leeward Islands; became a French protectorate in 1843 and a colony in 1880. Pop: 214 445 (2002). Area: 1595 sq km (616 sq miles)
- sociocentricity — socially oriented.
- sons of liberty — any of several patriotic societies, originally secret, that opposed the Stamp Act and thereafter supported moves for American independence.
- 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 symbolism — a nonarbitrary connection between phonetic features of linguistic items and their meanings, as in the frequent occurrence of close vowels in words denoting smallness, as petite and teeny-weeny.
- spanish bayonet — any of certain plants belonging to the genus Yucca, of the agave family, having narrow, spine-tipped leaves and a cluster of white flowers.
- spiny cocklebur — a cocklebur, Xanthium spinosum, introduced into North America from Europe.
- spratly islands — a widely-scattered group of uninhabited islets and reefs in the S South China Sea, the subject of territorial claims wholly or in part by six neighbouring nations
- 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.
- stand-up comedy — telling jokes to an audience
- starting salary — an employee's initial rate of pay
- stationary wave — standing wave.
- sticky-fingered — given to thieving
- stony meteorite — any of various meteorites composed mainly of rock-forming silicates, especially olivine, plagioclase, and pyroxene, and classified as achondrites or chondrites.
- strawberry roan — a horse with a reddish coat that is liberally flecked with white hairs.
- street ministry — the vocation of a church worker, clergyman, or the like who frequents public places in an attempt to help runaways, prostitutes, or others on the margins of society.
- subsidiary coin — a coin, especially one made of silver, having a value less than that of the monetary unit.
- substitutionary — a person or thing acting or serving in place of another.
- succinylcholine — a drug, C14H30N2O4, used primarily as a muscle relaxant, produced by the esterization of succinic acid with choline
- sulphinpyrazone — a uricosuric drug with molecular formula C23H20N2O3S, used in the treatment of chronic gout