14-letter words containing y, o, t
- sauropterygian — any of various Mesozoic marine reptiles of the superorder Sauropterygia, including the suborder Plesiosauria.
- scholastically — of or relating to schools, scholars, or education: scholastic attainments.
- schottky noise — shot effect.
- scratch monkey — (humour) As in "Before testing or reconfiguring, always mount a scratch monkey", a proverb used to advise caution when dealing with irreplaceable data or devices. Used to refer to any scratch volume hooked to a computer during any risky operation as a replacement for some precious resource or data that might otherwise get trashed. This term preserves the memory of Mabel, the Swimming Wonder Monkey, star of a biological research program at the University of Toronto. Mabel was not (so the legend goes) your ordinary monkey; the university had spent years teaching her how to swim, breathing through a regulator, in order to study the effects of different gas mixtures on her physiology. Mabel suffered an untimely demise one day when a DEC engineer troubleshooting a crash on the program's VAX inadvertently interfered with some custom hardware that was wired to Mabel. It is reported that, after calming down an understandably irate customer sufficiently to ascertain the facts of the matter, a DEC troubleshooter called up the field circus manager responsible and asked him sweetly, "Can you swim?" Not all the consequences to humans were so amusing; the sysop of the machine in question was nearly thrown in jail at the behest of certain clueless droids at the local "humane" society. The moral is clear: When in doubt, always mount a scratch monkey. A corespondent adds: The details you give are somewhat consistent with the version I recall from the Digital "War Stories" notesfile, but the name "Mabel" and the swimming bit were not mentioned, IIRC. Also, there's a very detailed account that claims that three monkies died in the incident, not just one. I believe Eric Postpischil wrote the original story at DEC, so his coming back with a different version leads me to wonder whether there ever was a real Scratch Monkey incident.
- secret history — a version of historical events which differs from the official or commonly accepted record and purports to be the true version
- secret society — an organization, as a fraternal society, the members of which take secret initiation oaths, share secret passwords and rites, and are bound to assist each other.
- security video — a video recording taken by a security camera
- see eye to eye — the organ of sight, in vertebrates typically one of a pair of spherical bodies contained in an orbit of the skull and in humans appearing externally as a dense, white, curved membrane, or sclera, surrounding a circular, colored portion, or iris, that is covered by a clear, curved membrane, or cornea, and in the center of which is an opening, or pupil, through which light passes to the retina.
- self-enjoyment — the act of enjoying.
- self-laudatory — containing or expressing praise: overwhelmed by the speaker's laudatory remarks.
- seniority rule — the custom in Congress providing for the assignment of a committee chairpersonship to that member of the majority party who has served on the committee the longest.
- sensory cortex — the region of the cerebral cortex concerned with receiving and interpreting sensory information from various parts of the body.
- sequestrectomy — the removal of dead spicules or portions, especially of bone.
- seronegativity — the quality or state of being seronegative
- seropositivity — the quality or state of being seropositive
- seventy-fourth — next after the seventy-third; being the ordinal number for 74.
- seventy-second — next after the seventy-first; being the ordinal number for 72.
- shifty-looking — having the appearance of being dishonest
- shoo-fly plant — apple of Peru.
- shooting party — a social gathering when people shoot game together
- shrove tuesday — the last day of Shrovetide, long observed as a season of merrymaking before Lent.
- simultaneously — existing, occurring, or operating at the same time; concurrent: simultaneous movements; simultaneous translation.
- sinistrorsally — in a sinistrorsal manner
- sit-down money — social security benefits
- slaughterously — murderously
- slurry reactor — A slurry reactor is a reactor in which contact is achieved by suspending a solid in a liquid.
- snowy mountain — of or relating to the Snowy Mountains of Australia or their inhabitants
- sobriety coach — a person who is employed to help another to refrain from drinking alcohol
- social history — a view of historical events seen in terms of social trends
- socratic irony — pretended ignorance in discussion.
- solar activity — the sum of all variable and short-lived disturbances on the sun, as sunspots, prominences, and solar flares.
- solid geometry — the geometry of solid figures; geometry of three dimensions.
- solitary vireo — a vireo, Vireo solitarius, of North and Central America, having the top and sides of the head bluish-gray.
- sorority house — a house occupied by a college or university sorority.
- south ayrshire — a council area of SW Scotland, on the Firth of Clyde: comprises the S part of the historical county of Ayrshire; formerly part of Strathclyde Region (1975–96): chiefly agricultural, with fishing and tourism. Administrative centre: Ayr. Pop: 111 580 (2003 est). Area: 1202 sq km (464 sq miles)
- south tyneside — a unitary authority of NE England, in Tyne and Wear. Pop: 151 700 (2003 est). Area: 64 sq km (25 sq miles)
- south-easterly — A south-easterly point, area, or direction is to the south-east or towards the south-east.
- south-westerly — A south-westerly point, area, or direction is to the south-west or towards the south-west.
- southern yemen — a former name of Yemen (def 1).
- spectra yellow — a vivid yellow color.
- sphaerocrystal — a spherical crystalline mass
- st. john's day — the saint's day of St. John the Baptist, celebrated on June 24, being one of the four quarter days in England.
- st. marylebone — former metropolitan borough of London: since 1965, part of Westminster
- stagflationary — of, caused by, or relating to, stagflation
- standard money — money made of a metal that has utility and value apart from its use as a unit of monetary exchange.
- staphylococcus — any of several spherical bacteria of the genus Staphylococcus, occurring in pairs, tetrads, and irregular clusters, certain species of which, as S. aureus, can be pathogenic for humans.
- staphyloplasty — plastic surgery or surgical repair involving the soft palate or the uvula
- start-up money — money that is spent on setting up a new business or other project
- state attorney — (in judicial proceedings) the legal representative of the state.
- statutory body — a body set up by the government to consider evidence and make judgements in some field of activity