13-letter words starting with s
- scullery maid — a maid whose duties include washing up and vegetable preparation
- sculpturesque — suggesting sculpture: the sculpturesque beauty of her face.
- scythian lamb — a fern, Cibotium barometz, of southeastern Asia, having stalks covered with shaggy, brownish hair and large, feathery leaves, formerly believed to be a source of vegetable wool.
- se defendendo — in self-defense: homicide committed se defendendo.
- sea buckthorn — a thorny Eurasian shrub, Hippophaë rhamnoides, growing on sea coasts and having silvery leaves and orange fruits: family Elaeagnaceae
- sea butterfly — any member of the gastropod order Pteropoda, shelled marine mollusks so called for their ability to swim using winglike extensions of the foot.
- sea hollyhock — a rose mallow, Hibiscus moscheutos.
- sea transport — transport by ship over the sea
- sea vegetable — an edible seaweed
- seafaring man — a sailor
- seal the deal — make an agreement official
- sealed orders — written instructions that are not to be read until a specified time
- seaplane base — a base for seaplanes
- search engine — a computer program that searches documents, especially on the World Wide Web, for a specified word or words and provides a list of documents in which they are found.
- seashore test — a test of musical ability in which items measuring tonal memory, rhythm sense, etc., are presented to the subject by means of recordings.
- season ticket — a ticket for a specified series or number of events or valid for unlimited use during a specified time, often sold at a reduced rate, for athletic events, concerts, transportation, etc.
- seasonability — fact of being seasonable
- seaton valley — a region in NE England, in SE Northumberland: consists of a group of former coal-mining villages
- seckel (pear) — a small, sweet, juicy, reddish-brown pear
- seclusiveness — tending to seclude, especially oneself.
- second advent — Second Coming.
- second ballot — an electoral procedure in which if no candidate emerges as a clear winner in a first ballot, candidates at the bottom of the poll are eliminated and another ballot is held among the remaining candidates
- second banana — a comic who supports the leading comedian, often as a straight man, especially in burlesque or vaudeville.
- second coming — the coming of Christ on Judgment Day.
- second cousin — a child of a first cousin of one's parent. Compare cousin (def 1).
- second empire — the empire established in France (1852–70) by Louis Napoleon: the successor to the Second Republic.
- second estate — the second of the three estates: the nobles in France; the lords temporal in England. Compare estate (def 5).
- second fiddle — a secondary role: to play second fiddle to another person.
- second growth — the plant growth that follows the destruction of virgin forest.
- second nature — an acquired habit or tendency in one's character that is so deeply ingrained as to appear automatic: Neatness is second nature to him.
- second of arc — second2 (def 4).
- second papers — the documents by which an alien formerly made application for U.S. citizenship after having earlier filed a declaration of intention
- second person — the grammatical person used by the speaker of an utterance in referring to the one (second person singular) or ones (second person plural) to whom he or she is speaking.
- second reader — the elected official of a church or society who conducts services and reads from the Scriptures.
- second string — Sports. the squad of players available either individually or as a team to replace or relieve those who start a game.
- second-degree — In the United States, second-degree is used to describe crimes that are considered to be less serious than first-degree crimes.
- second-grader — a pupil who is in the second grade
- second-source — of or pertaining to a cooperative arrangement whereby the products, as electronic parts, of one company are also manufactured by another company
- second-strike — noting, pertaining to, or using nuclear forces capable of withstanding attack and retaliating after an adversary has launched a first strike.
- secondary era — the period from the beginning of the Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous
- secret ballot — a vote in which the confidentiality of how one votes is safeguarded.
- secret police — a police force that functions as the enforcement arm of a government's political policies and whose activities, which often include surveillance, intimidation, and physical violence as a means of suppressing dissent, are usually concealed from the public.
- secret weapon — Someone's secret weapon is a thing or person which they believe will help them achieve something and which other people do not know about.
- secretaryship — a person, usually an official, who is in charge of the records, correspondence, minutes of meetings, and related affairs of an organization, company, association, etc.: the secretary of the Linguistic Society of America.
- section eight — a military discharge for physical or mental unfitness as determined by an Army Regulation in effect from 1922 to 1944.
- sectionalized — divided into sections
- sectorization — the act or state of sectorizing
- secure server — a web server that uses Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or another security protocol to protect transmitted personal data from unauthorized access.
- security firm — a firm which provides guards for buildings, and other security services and personnel
- security leak — a leak of information that could endanger public safety