15-letter words starting with s
- sense of humour — Someone who has a sense of humour often finds things amusing, rather than being serious all the time.
- sensitive plant — Also called humble plant. a tropical American plant, Mimosa pudica, cultivated in greenhouses, having bipinnate leaves whose leaflets fold together when touched.
- sensitizing dye — a dye adsorbed onto the silver halide grains of an emulsion to make the emulsion more sensitive to certain colors.
- sentence adverb — an adverb modifying or commenting upon the content of a sentence as a whole or upon the conditions under which it is uttered, as frankly in Frankly, he can't be trusted.
- sentence stress — the stress pattern or patterns associated with words as arranged in sentences in a particular language.
- sententiousness — abounding in pithy aphorisms or maxims: a sententious book.
- sentinel animal — an animal that is placed in a given environment and then monitored to find out if an infectious disease or other harmful agent is present in that environment
- separate school — (in Canada) a school for a large religious minority financed by its rates and administered by its own school board but under the authority of the provincial department of education
- sepoy rebellion — the Indian Mutiny of 1857–58
- september rains — rainy weather during the month of September
- septendecillion — a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 54 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 102 zeros.
- septentrionally — northwards; in the direction of the north
- serendipitously — come upon or found by accident; fortuitous: serendipitous scientific discoveries.
- sergeant at law — a noncommissioned army officer of a rank above that of corporal.
- serial marriage — a form of monogamy characterized by several successive, short-term marriages over the course of a lifetime.
- serial monogamy — a form of monogamy characterized by several successive, short-term marriages over the course of a lifetime.
- serjeant at law — (formerly in England) a barrister of a special rank, to which he was raised by a writ under the Great Seal
- serous membrane — any of various thin membranes, as the peritoneum, that line certain cavities of the body and exude a serous fluid.
- serpentine jade — a green variety of serpentine used as a gem: not a true jade.
- serum hepatitis — hepatitis B.
- serve one right — to act as a servant.
- service ceiling — the height above sea level, measured under standard conditions, at which the rate of climb of an aircraft has fallen to a specified amount
- service economy — an economy which is dominated by the provision or importance of services (as opposed to products)
- service history — information concerning all of a car's services (ie overhauls, checks, or repairs)
- service station — Also called gas station. a place equipped for servicing automobiles, as by selling gasoline and oil, making repairs, etc.
- service uniform — a uniform for routine duties and service, as distinguished from work, dress, or full-dress uniforms.
- servius tullius — Servius, Servius Tullius.
- servo-mechanism — A servo-mechanism is a system or device that provides increased power to operate a control.
- sesquicarbonate — a salt intermediate in composition between a carbonate and a bicarbonate or consisting of the two combined.
- sesquicentenary — a hundred and fiftieth anniversary
- set by the ears — to cause disagreement or commotion
- set in concrete — constituting an actual thing or instance; real: a concrete proof of his sincerity.
- set one's teeth — (in most vertebrates) one of the hard bodies or processes usually attached in a row to each jaw, serving for the prehension and mastication of food, as weapons of attack or defense, etc., and in mammals typically composed chiefly of dentin surrounding a sensitive pulp and covered on the crown with enamel.
- settlement date — day by which payment must be made
- seven-card stud — a variety of poker in which each player is dealt one card face down in each of the first two rounds, one card face up in each of the next four rounds, and one card face down in the last round, each of the last five rounds being followed by a betting interval. Compare stud poker (def 1).
- seven-year itch — scabies.
- seventy-seventh — next after the seventy-sixth; being the ordinal number for 77.
- sewage disposal — waste processing
- sex chromosomes — a chromosome, differing in shape or function from other chromosomes, that determines the sex of an individual.
- sexual equality — the same status, rights, and responsibilities for male and female people
- sexual politics — the differences in the amount of power that male and female people have in a society or group
- shadow minister — a member of the main opposition party in Parliament who would hold ministerial office if their party were in power
- shalmaneser iii — died 824? b.c, Assyrian ruler 859–824?.
- shalom aleichem — Sholom [shaw-luh m] /ˈʃɔ ləm/ (Show IPA), or Sholem [shoh-lem,, -luh m] /ˈʃoʊ lɛm,, -ləm/ (Show IPA), or Shalom [shah-lohm] /ʃɑˈloʊm/ (Show IPA), (pen name of Solomon Rabinowitz) 1859–1916, Russian author of Yiddish novels, plays, and short stories; in the U.S. from 1906.
- shalosh seudoth — the last of the three prescribed Sabbath meals, taken after Minhah and before the evening service.
- share ownership — the owning of shares in a company
- 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.
- shark repellent — any tactic used by a corporation to prevent a takeover by a corporate raider.
- sharm al-sheikh — a village and military post in E Egypt, on the Sinai Peninsula, guarding the Gulf of Suez.
- sharm el-sheikh — a city in Egypt on the southern point of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea; a major holiday resort. Pop: 73 000 (2015 est)