18-letter words that end in s
- box-office success — a very successful film or play that earns a lot of money
- bread and circuses — something offered as a means of distracting attention from a problem or grievance
- bring to its knees — If a country or organization is brought to its knees, it is almost completely destroyed by someone or something.
- bronchocandidiasis — See under candidiasis.
- building materials — materials such as bricks, cement, timber, etc
- burn one's bridges — If you burn your bridges, you do something which forces you to continue with a particular course of action, and makes it impossible for you to return to an earlier situation or relationship.
- burn one's fingers — to suffer from having meddled or been rash
- bursa of fabricius — a lymphoid gland of the cloaca in birds, believed to function in disease resistance, and closing or disappearing as the bird ages.
- burst at the seams — to break, break open, or fly apart with sudden violence: The bitter cold caused the pipes to burst.
- by fits and starts — spasmodically; without concerted effort
- call to the colors — call or order to serve in the armed forces
- calliper compasses — an instrument for measuring internal or external dimensions, consisting of two steel legs hinged together
- cambrian mountains — a mountain range in Wales, extending from Carmarthenshire in the S to Denbighshire in the N. Highest peak: Aran Fawddwy, 891 m (2970 ft)
- camp david accords — a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt issuing from talks at Camp David between Egyptian President Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Begin, and the host, U.S. President Carter: signed in 1979.
- capital allowances — the money spent by a company on fixed assets which can be taken off the profits of the company before tax is imposed
- cash-for-questions — of, involved in, or relating to a scandal in which some MPs were accused of accepting bribes to ask particular questions in Parliament
- catskill mountains — a mountain range in SE New York State: resort. Highest peak: Slide Mountain, 1261 m (4204 ft)
- caucasus mountains — a mountain range in SW Russia, running along the N borders of Georgia and Azerbaijan, between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea: mostly over 2700 m (9000 ft). Highest peak: Mount Elbrus, 5642 m (18 510 ft)
- cauliflower fungus — a large edible white to yellowish cauliflowerlike mushroom, Sparassis radicata, widely distributed in North America.
- chamber of horrors — a room, for example in a waxworks, containing objects, images or representations of people or scenes that are believed likely to frighten or horrify visitors
- chambered nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- change one's spots — to reform one's character
- character graphics — ASCII art
- charge of quarters — a member of the armed forces who handles administration in his or her unit, esp after duty hours
- chattering classes — The chattering classes are people such as journalists, broadcasters, or public figures who comment on events but have little or no influence over them.
- chickenheartedness — Alternative form of chicken-heartedness.
- chrétien de troyes — 12th century, French poet, who wrote the five Arthurian romances Erec; Cligès; Lancelot, le chevalier de la charette; Yvain, le chevalier au lion; and Perceval, le conte del Graal (?1155–?1190), the first courtly romances
- christian brothers — a religious congregation of laymen founded in France in 1684 for the education of the poor
- christopher sholes — Christopher Latham [ley-thuh m,, -th uh m] /ˈleɪ θəm,, -ðəm/ (Show IPA), 1819–90, U.S. inventor of the typewriter.
- chronic bronchitis — persistent respiratory disease
- citizenship papers — the document stating that a naturalized person has been formally declared a citizen
- coccidioidomycosis — a disease of the skin or viscera, esp the lungs, caused by infection with the fungus Coccidioides immitis
- coitus interruptus — the deliberate withdrawal of the penis from the vagina before ejaculation
- collection charges — the charges levied to cover expenses for the collection of debt
- colossus of rhodes — a giant bronze statue of Apollo built on Rhodes in about 292–280 bc; destroyed by an earthquake in 225 bc; one of the Seven Wonders of the World
- comings and goings — Comings and goings refers to the way people keep arriving at and leaving a particular place.
- common user access — (programming) (CUA) The user interface standard of SAA.
- commonwealth games — an event held every four years in which sportspeople from the countries of the Commonwealth compete
- compassionlessness — The quality, state, or condition of being compassionless; uncompassion.
- composition series — a normal series of subgroups in which no additional subgroups can be inserted.
- comprehensibleness — The quality of being comprehensible; comprehensibility.
- conceptualisations — Plural form of conceptualisation.
- conceptualizations — Plural form of conceptualization.
- conditional access — the encryption of television programme transmissions so that only authorized subscribers with suitable decoding apparatus may have access to them
- congregationalists — a form of Protestant church government in which each local religious society is independent and self-governing.
- consequential loss — A consequential loss is a loss that follows another loss that is caused by a danger that has been insured against.
- contact dermatitis — dermatitis caused by direct contact with an irritating substance, as an allergen or chemical
- continuous process — A continuous process is a process in which the product comes out without interruption and not in groups.
- contradistinctions — Plural form of contradistinction.
- contrastive stress — a stress imposed on a word or syllable contrary to its normal accentuation in order to contrast it with an alternative word or syllable or to focus attention on it, as the stress given to the normally unstressed word of in government of the people, by the people, for the people in order to point up the parallel between of, by, and for and to distinguish of from words such as over or against.