18-letter words containing y, s, a
- family-size packet — a packet large enough to be suitable for a family
- fantasy basketball — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
- faraday dark space — the dark region between the negative glow and the positive column in a vacuum tube occurring when the pressure is low.
- fast-food industry — the industry surrounding fast-food restaurants
- feast of orthodoxy — a solemn festival held on the first Sunday of Lent (Orthodoxy Sunday) commemorating the restoration of the use of icons in the church (a.d. 842) and the triumph over all heresies.
- first year infants — a class for young children who have just started school
- flat-panel display — a type of thin, lightweight video display that uses liquid crystals or electroluminescence to reflect images.
- fragile x syndrome — a widespread form of mental retardation caused by a faulty gene on the X chromosome.
- fragile-x syndrome — an inherited condition characterized by learning disability: affected individuals have an X-chromosome that is easily damaged under certain conditions
- gamblers anonymous — an organization that holds group meetings to help people who are addicted to gambling
- gas chromatography — a chromatograph used for the separation of volatile substances.
- gas plasma display — (electronics) A type of display containing super-energised neon gas, used mostly in flat monitor and television screens. Each pixel has a transistor that controls its colour and brightness.
- gastroduodenostomy — See under gastroenterostomy.
- gensym corporation — (company) A company that supplies software and services for intelligent operations management. Common applications include quality management, process optimisation, dynamic scheduling, network management, energy and environmental management, and process modelling and simulation. Their products include G2.
- gestalt psychology — (sometimes lowercase) the theory or doctrine that physiological or psychological phenomena do not occur through the summation of individual elements, as reflexes or sensations, but through gestalts functioning separately or interrelatedly.
- get one's end away — to have sexual intercourse
- gettysburg address — the notable short speech made by President Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pa.
- glycosaminoglycans — Plural form of glycosaminoglycan.
- goya (y lucientes) — Fran‧ˈcis‧co Jo‧ˈsé‧ de (fʀɑnˈθiskɔhɔˈsɛ ðɛ) ; fränt hēsˈk^ōh^ōseˈ the) 1746-1828; Sp. painter
- grand canyon state — Arizona (used as a nickname).
- grand traverse bay — an inlet of Lake Michigan on the NW of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.
- gravity escapement — an escapement, used especially in large outdoor clocks, in which the impulse is given to the pendulum by means of a weight falling through a certain distance.
- gray manganese ore — manganite.
- great sandy desert — a desert in NW Australia. About 300 miles (485 km) long; 500 miles (800 km) wide; about 160,000 sq. mi. (414,400 sq. km).
- greater yellowlegs — either of two American shorebirds having yellow legs, Tringa melanoleuca (greater yellowlegs) or T. flavipes (lesser yellowlegs)
- gulf stream system — a major ocean-current system consisting of the Gulf Stream and the Florida and North Atlantic currents.
- ha ha only serious — (SF fandom, originally as mutation of HHOK, "Ha Ha Only Kidding") A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavour of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic jokes that are both intended and perceived to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed on in-joke and self-parody. The Jargon File contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of hacker culture is often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider, a wannabee, or in larval stage. For further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See also AI koan.
- handyman's special — fixer-upper.
- happy as a sandboy — very happy; high-spirited
- haud your wheesht! — be silent! hush!
- have eyes only for — 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.
- head disk assembly — (hardware, storage) (HDA) A sealed, high capacity mainframe hard disk with integral heads, as opposed to a removable disk.
- hepatosplenomegaly — Enlargement of both the liver and spleen.
- heteroscedasticity — (statistics) The property of a series of random variables of 'not' every variable having the same finite variance.
- heteroskedasticity — Alternative spelling of heteroscedasticity.
- hexaphosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with six units of phosphoric acid.
- hidalgo y costilla — Miguel [mee-gel] /miˈgɛl/ (Show IPA), 1753–1811, Mexican priest, patriot, and revolutionist.
- highbush cranberry — a shrub, Viburnum trilobum, of northern North America, having broad clusters of white flowers and edible scarlet berries.
- hilary of poitiers — Saint, a.d. c300–368, French bishop and theologian.
- histocompatibility — the condition of having antigenic similarities such that cells or tissues transplanted from one (the donor) to another (the recipient) are not rejected.
- historical geology — the branch of geology dealing with the history of the earth.
- honeysuckle family — the plant family Caprifoliaceae, typified by shrubs and woody vines having opposite leaves, clusters of usually flaring, narrow, tubular flowers, and various types of fruit, and including the elder, honeysuckle, snowberry, twinflower, and viburnum.
- honorary secretary — a unpaid person who is one of the managers of an organization
- hundred years' war — the series of wars between England and France, 1337–1453, in which England lost all its possessions in France except Calais.
- hungry programmers — (body) A group of programmers producing free software.
- hydrofluorocarbons — Plural form of hydrofluorocarbon.
- hydroxytryptamines — Plural form of hydroxytryptamine.
- hyperaldosteronism — aldosteronism.
- hypercholesteremia — Alternative spelling of hypercholesteraemia.
- hypernationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.