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 Talk Talk - Communication terms
Category: General technical and industrial
Date & country: 28/05/2010, UK
Words: 18630


Russian Federation
Click images to enlargeCountry in northern Asia and eastern Europe, bounded north by the Arctic Ocean; east by the Bering Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk; west by Norway, Finland, the Baltic States, Belarus, and Ukraine; and south by China, Mongolia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan. Government The 1993 constitu...

run-time system
In computing, programs that must be stored in memory while an application is executed

rutherfordium
Synthesized, radioactive, metallic element. It is the first of the transactinide series, atomic number 104, relative atomic mass 262. It is produced by bombarding californium with carbon nuclei and has ten isotopes, the longest-lived of which, Rf-262, has a half-life of 70 seconds. Two institutions claim to be the first to have synthesi...

Russia: history to 1922
Click images to enlargeThe first states on the territory of what was to become the Russian Empire arose in Transcaucasia (for example, Urartu) and Central Asia (for example, Khorezm and Sogdiana) in the 9th–6th centuries BC. Constantly threatened by their stronger neighbours, the Assyrians and Persians, and periodica...

rudd
Freshwater bony fish allied to the roach. It is tinged with bronze, and has reddish fins, the dorsal being farther back than that of the roach. It is found in British and European lakes and sluggish streams. The largest weigh over 1 kg/2.2 lb and may be as much as 45 cm/18 in long. Classification The rudd Scardinius erythropthalmus...

rumba
Afro-Cuban traditional secular dance and music genre, rendered by vocals with percussion, providing complex syncopated rhythms. It has a characteristic quick-quick-slow dance movement and a repetitive melody accompanied by an ostinato (persistently repeating) one-bar pattern played on the maracas. The dance emphasizes the hip and sh...

Russell, Willy
English dramatist and screenwriter. His plays usually address social class divisions and are set in his native Liverpool. His best-known plays include Educating Rita (1979) and Shirley Valentine (1986), both of which were made into successful films. He also wrote the musical Blood Brothers...

Rumsfeld, Donald Henry
US Republican politician, defense secretary 1975–77 and 2001–2006. A veteran of the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford Republican administrations of the 1970s, from 2001 he formulated an aggressive US defence doctrine that supports the use of pre-emptive strikes against countries that are perceived as risks to the USA, particularly those s...

Rudd, Kevin Michael
Australian centre-left politician, prime minister from 2007. A former diplomat, he gained a high national profile as the Australian Labour Party's shadow minister for foreign affairs 2001–06, criticizing John Howard's Liberal–National coalition government's support for the USA in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In 2006 he repla...

Rwanda
Landlocked country in central Africa, bounded north by Uganda, east by Tanzania, south by Burundi, and west by the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire). Government Rwanda has a presidential political system, dominated by the Tutsi-orientated Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and supported by the armed forces. Under its 2003 constitution, t...

Rysbrack, Jan Michiel
Dutch-born sculptor, settled in England from 1720. Working in a style of restrained baroque, he established an extensive practice in monumental sculpture, his work being found in many English churches. Some of his portraits and tombs are in Westminster Abbey, London, including the monument to the scientist Isaac Newton (1731)

rye
Tall annual cereal grass grown extensively in northern Europe and other temperate regions. The flour is used to make dark-coloured (`black`) breads. Rye is grown mainly as a food crop for animals, but the grain is also used to make whisky and breakfast cereals. (Secale cereale.)

Ryazan
(city) Capital city of Ryazan oblast (region), Russian Federation, 175 km/109 mi southeast of Moscow; population (1996 est) 536,000. Industries include engineering, oil refining, food processing, and a variety of light industries. Ryazan has been known since 1095; from this time un...

Ryle, Martin
English radio astronomer. At the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, he developed the technique of sky-mapping using `aperture synthesis`, combining smaller dish aerials to give the characteristics of one large one. His work on the distribution of radio sources in the universe brought confirmation of the Big Bang theory. H...

Ryukyu Islands
Southernmost island group of Japan, stretching towards Taiwan and including Okinawa, Miyako, and Ishigaki; area 2,254 sq km/870 sq mi; population (2000 est) 1,318,000. Most of the larger islands are composed of volcanic rock, while the smaller islands are formed from coral. The capital is Naha (on Okinawa). Produce includes sugar, pinea...

Ryder Cup
Golf tournament for professional men's teams from the USA and Europe. It is played every two years, and the match is made up of a series of singles, foursomes, and fourballs played over three days. A women's version of the Ryder Cup, the Solheim Cup, was introduced in 1990. Named after entrepreneur Samuel Ryder, who donated the trophy in 19...

Ryzhkov, Nikolai Ivanovich
Russian politician. He held governmental and party posts from 1975 before being brought into the Politburo and serving as prime minister 1985–90 under Gorbachev. A low-profile technocrat, Ryzhkov was the author of unpopular economic reforms. In August 1996 he became a leading member of the communist-led Patriotic Popular Union of Russi...

Rydberg constant
In physics, a constant that relates atomic spectra to the spectrum of hydrogen. Its value is 1.0977 × 107 per metre

Ryder, Albert Pinkham
US painter. He was one of the most original US artists of the 19th century. His romantic landscapes, moonlit seascapes, and depictions of scenes from Shakespeare and Wagner are intense, poetic, and dreamlike. His best-known work, Death on a Pale Horse (c. 1910; Cleveland Museum of Art), has an eerie, ha...

saxifrage
Any of a group of plants belonging to the saxifrage family, found growing in rocky, mountainous, and alpine areas in the northern hemisphere. They are low plants with groups of small white, pink, or yellow flowers. (Genus Saxifraga, family Saxifragaceae.)

samphire
Perennial plant found on sea cliffs and coastlines in Europe. The aromatic, salty leaves are fleshy and sharply pointed; the flowers grow in yellow-green open clusters. Samphire is used in salads, or pickled. (Crithmum maritimum, family Umbelliferae.)

sage
Perennial herb belonging to the mint family, with grey-green aromatic leaves used for flavouring in cookery. It grows up to 50 cm/20 in high and has bluish-lilac or pink flowers. (Salvia officinalis, family Labiatae.)

salsify
Hardy biennial plant native to the Mediterranean region. Its white fleshy roots and spring shoots are cooked and eaten; the roots are said to taste like oysters. (Tragopogon porrifolius, family Compositae.)

saffron
Crocus plant belonging to the iris family, probably native to southwestern Asia, and formerly widely cultivated in Europe; also the dried orange-yellow stigmas of its purple flowers, used for colouring and flavouring in cookery. (Crocus sativus, family Iridaceae.)

safflower
Thistlelike Asian plant with large orange-yellow flowers. It is widely grown for the oil from its seeds, which is used in cooking, margarine, and paints and varnishes; the leftovers are used as cattle feed. (Carthamus tinctorius, family Compositae.)

San Miguel de Tucumán
Capital of Tucumán province, northwest Argentina; situated on the Rio Sali, to the east of the Sierra de Aconquija range in the foothills of the Andes; population (2001) 527,500. Industries include sugar mills and distilleries. It is the commercial centre of the province, and the largest city in northern Argentina. Founded in 1565, San...

saxophone
Member of a hybrid brass instrument family of conical bore, with a single-reed woodwind mouthpiece and keyworks, invented about 1840 by Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax (1814–1894). Soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone forms remain current. The soprano saxophone is usually straight; the others are characteristically curved back a...

Saxony-Anhalt
Administrative region (Land) in eastern central Germany; area 20,450 sq km/7,895 sq mi; population (2003 est) 2,549,200. The capital is Magdeburg, and other major towns include Halle and Dessau German. Industries include chemicals, electronics, rolling stock, and footwear. Cereals and vegetables are grown. History The...

Saxony
Administrative region (German Land) in eastern Germany; area 18,412 sq km/7,109 sq mi; population (1999 est) 4,459,700. The capital is Dresden, and other major towns include Leipzig, Chemnitz, and Zwickau. The region is on the plain of the River Elbe north of the Erzgebirge mountain range. Industries include electroni...

saxhorn
Family of brass musical instruments played with valves, invented in 1845 by the Belgian Adolphe Sax (1814–1894). It is played with a cup mouthpiece and made in seven different pitches, covering between them a range of some five octaves: soprano in E flat, alto in B flat (both also called flügelhorns), tenor in E flat, baritone in B fl...

Savonarola, Girolamo
Italian reformer, a Dominican friar and an eloquent preacher. His crusade against political and religious corruption won him popular support, and in 1494 he led a revolt in Florence that expelled the ruling Medici family and established a democratic republic. His denunciations of Pope Alexander VI led to his excommunication 1497, and in 1498 he was...

savings
Unspent income, after deduction of tax, put aside through bank deposits or other financial schemes offering interest to savers on their deposits. In economics a distinction is made between investment, involving the purchase of capital goods, such as buying a house, and saving (where capital goods are not directly purchased; for example, buying ...

savannah
Extensive open tropical grasslands, with scattered trees and shrubs. Savannahs cover large areas of Africa, North and South America, and northern Australia. The soil is acidic and sandy and generally considered suitable only as pasture for low-density grazing. A new strain of rice suitable for savannah conditions was developed in 1992. It not o...

satyr
In Greek mythology, a lustful, drunken woodland creature, half man and half beast, characterized by pointed ears, two horns on the forehead, and a tail. Satyrs attended the god of wine, Dionysus. They represented the vital powers of nature. Roman writers confused the satyr with their goat-footed Italian Faunus

satyagraha
Nonviolent resistance to British rule in India, as employed by Mahatma Gandhi from 1918 to press for political reform; the idea owes much to the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy

Saturn
(mythology) In Roman mythology, the god of agriculture, identified by the Romans with the Greek god Kronos. His period of rule was the ancient Golden Age, when he introduced social order and the arts of civilization. Saturn was dethroned by his sons Jupiter, Neptune, and Dis. At the Saturnalia...

Satie, Erik
(Alfred Leslie) French composer. His piano pieces, such as the three Gymnopédies (1888), are precise and tinged with melancholy, and parody romantic expression with surreal commentary. His aesthetic of ironic simplicity, as in the Messe des pauvres/Poor Peo...

Sassoon, Siegfried Loraine
English poet. His anti-war poems which appeared in The Old Huntsman (1917), Counter-Attack (1918), and later volumes, were begun in the trenches during World War I and express the disillusionment of his generation. His later poetry tended towards the reflective and the spiritual. His three fictionalized...

Sassanian Empire
Persian empire founded AD 224 by Ardashir, a chieftain in the area of what is now Fars, in Iran, who had taken over Parthia; it was named after his grandfather, Sasan. The capital was Ctesiphon, near modern Baghdad, Iraq. After a rapid period of expansion, when it contested supremacy with Rome, it was destroyed in 637 by Muslim Arabs at the Bat...

Saskatchewan
Province of west-central Canada, the middle Prairie Province, bordered to the west by Alberta and to the east by Manitoba. To the north of Saskatchewan (above the 60th parallel) are the Northwest Territories, while to the south (below the 49th parallel) lie the US states of North Dakota and Monta...

Sarraute, Nathalie Ilyanova
Russian-born French novelist. Her books include Portrait d'un inconnu/Portrait of a Man Unknown (1948), Les Fruits d'or/The Golden Fruits (1964), and Vous les entendez?/Do You Hear Them? (1972). An exponent of the nouveau roman, Sarraute bypasses plo...

Sark
One of the Channel Islands, 10 km/6 mi east of Guernsey; area 5 sq km/2 sq mi; population (2001) 644. There is no town or village. It is divided into Great and Little Sark, linked by an isthmus, and is of great natural beauty. The Seigneurie of Sark was established by Elizabeth I, the ruler being known as Seigneur/Dame, and has ...

Sargent,
(Harold) English conductor. He was professor at the Royal College of Music from 1923, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra 1950–57, and continued as conductor in chief of the annual Henry Wood promenade concerts at the Royal Albert Hall. He championed Vaughan Williams and Holst a...

Sardinia
Mountainous island and special autonomous region of Italy, about 240 km/150 mi southwest of the Orbetello promontory in Tuscany; area 24,090 sq km/9,301 sq mi; population (2001 est) 1,599,500. It is the second-largest Mediterranean island and comprises the provinces of Cagliari, N...

Saracen
Ancient Greek and Roman term for an Arab, used in the Middle Ages by Europeans for all Muslims. The equivalent term used in Spain was Moor

Sarajevo
Capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina; population (2005 est) 380,000. Industries include engineering, brewing, chemicals, carpets, and ceramics. A Bosnian, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand here in 1914, thereby precipitating World War I. From April 1992 the city was the target of a siege by Bosnian Serb forces in their fight t...

Sapporo
Capital of Hokkaido prefecture, Japan, on the Ishikari River; population (2000 est) 1,822,000. Industries include rubber, food processing, printing, brewing beer, and lead and zinc mining. It is a winter sports centre and was the site of the 1972 Winter Olympics. Giant figures are sculpted in ice at the annual snow festival. The city has an und...

Sappho
Greek lyric poet. A native of Lesbos and contemporary of the poet Alcaeus, she was famed for her female eroticism (hence lesbianism). The surviving fragments of her poems express a keen sense of loss, and delight in the worship of the goddess Aphrodite

Saône
River in eastern France, rising in the Vosges Mountains and flowing 480 km/300 mi to join the Rhône at Lyon. After rising in the Faucilles Mountains of the Vosges, it flows south past Gray, Chalon-sur-Saône, and Maçon. The chief tributaries are the Doubs and the Ognon. It is connected by canal with the rivers Loire, Seine...

San Yu, U
Myanmar (Burmese) politician, president 1981–88. A member of the revolutionary council that came to power in 1962, he became president in 1981 and was re-elected in 1985. He was forced to resign in July 1988, along with Ne Win, after riots in Yangon (formerly Rangoon)

Santos
Industrial city and principal seaport in São Paulo federal unit (state), southeast Brazil, 72 km/45 mi southeast of the city of São Paulo on the Atlantic coast; population (2000) 415,700. It is the largest and most important port in Brazil, and the world's leading coffee-exporting port. There are oil refineries and chemica...

Santo Domingo
Capital and chief sea port of the Dominican Republic; population (2002) 2,306,100. Industries include food processing, distilling, and tanning. Founded in 1496 by Bartolomeo, brother of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, it is the oldest colonial city in the Americas. Its cathedral was bu...

Santiago
(Dominican Republic) Second-largest city in the Dominican Republic; population (2002) 507,400. It is a processing and trading centre for sugar, coffee, and cacao

Santiago de Compostela
Capital of Galicia autonomous community, in the province of La Coruña, northwest Spain; population (1991) 87,500. Textiles, chocolate, and soap are manufactured here, and there is a trade in agricultural produce. The 11th-century cathedral was reputedly built over the grave of Sant Iago el Mayor (St James the Great), patron saint of Sp...

Santiago
(Chile) Capital of Chile, on the Mapocho River; population (2002) 4,656,700. It is the fifth largest city in South America and the country's cultural, commercial, and manufacturing centre. Industries include textiles, chemicals, and food processing. It has three universities, and sever...

Santiago de Cuba
Port on the south coast of Cuba; population (2002) 423,400. It is the second largest city and former capital of Cuba, and is now the capital of Santiago de Cuba province. Products include sugar, rum, and cigars. The cathedral dates from 1528, the university from 1947, and the city also houses the Museum of Colonial Art. San Pedro de la Roca Cas...

Santa Fe Trail
US trade route 1821–80 from Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Established by trader William Becknell, the trail passed through Raton Pass and between tributaries of the Kansas and Arkansas rivers. Later, to allow the passage of wheeled wagons, Becknell turned south and headed across the Cimarron Desert. This reduced the journey ...

Santa Fé
(Argentina) River port and capital of Santa Fé province, northeast Argentina, on the Salado River 153 km/95 mi north of Rosario; population (2001) 368,700. It is a leading distribution centre for the area and an export outlet for its agro-industrial and processed products. The...

Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Capital of Tenerife and of the Canary Islands; population (1994 est) 204,000. It is a fuelling port and cable centre. Industry also includes oil refining, pharmaceuticals, and trade in fruit. Santa Cruz was bombarded by the British admirals Blake in 1657 and Nelson in 1797 (the action in which he lost his arm)

Santa Claus
Another (especially American) name for Father Christmas

Santa Cruz
(Bolivia) Capital of Santa Cruz department in central Bolivia, 550 km/342 mi southeast of La Paz; the second-largest city in the country; population (2001) 1,113,600. The surrounding area is fertile, producing sugar cane, soybeans, cotton, rice, maize, and coffee. It is a hub o...

Santa Anna, Antonio López de
Mexican revolutionary. He became general and dictator of Mexico for most of the years between 1824 and 1855. He led the attack on the Alamo fort in Texas in 1836

sans-culotte
In the French Revolution, a member of the working classes, who wore trousers, as opposed to the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, who wore knee breeches. In Paris, the sans-culottes, who drew their support predominantly from apprentices, small shopkeepers, craftspeople, and the unemployed, comprised a large armed force that could be mobilized by rad...

San Salvador
Capital of El Salvador and of San Salvador department; situated at the foot of San Salvador volcano (2,548 m/8,360 ft) on the River Acelhuate, 48 km/30 mi from the Pacific Ocean; population (2005) 507,700. Industries include coffee, food-processing, pharmaceuticals, and textiles. One-third of the country's industrial out...

San Juan
(Puerto Rico) Industrial city and capital of Puerto Rico; population (2000 est) 422,000; metropolitan area (1998 est) 2,004,100. It is a major port, exporting sugar, tobacco, coffee, and tropical fruits, mostly to the US mainland, and provides the world's busiest cruise-ship ba...

Sanger, Frederick
English biochemist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1958 for determining the structure of insulin, and again in 1980 for work on the chemical structure of genes. He was the first person to be awarded the chemistry prize twice. Sanger's second Nobel Prize was shared with two US scientists, Paul Berg and Walter Gilbert, for establ...

San Francisco
Click images to enlargeChief Pacific port in California, USA, on the tip of a peninsula in San Francisco Bay; population (2000) 776,700. The entrance channel from the Pacific to San Francisco Bay was named the Golden Gate in 1846; its strait was crossed in 1937 by the world's second-longest single-span...

San Diego
City and US naval air station, on the Pacific Ocean, and on the border of Mexico, in California, USA; population (2000 est) 1,223,400. San Diego is linked to Tijuana, Mexico, by a 26-km/16-mi transit line (1981) popular with tourists. It is an important fishing port. Manufacturing includes aerospace and electronic equipment, metal f...

Sandburg, Carl August
US poet. He worked as a farm labourer and a bricklayer, and his poetry celebrates ordinary life in the USA, as in Chicago Poems (1916), The People, Yes (1936), and Complete Poems (1950; Pulitzer Prize). In free verse, it is reminiscent of Walt Whitman's poetry. Sandburg also wrote a m...

sand
Loose grains of rock, 0.0625–2.00 mm/0.0025–0.08 in in diameter, consisting most commonly of quartz, but owing their varying colour to mixtures of other minerals. Sand is used in cement-making, as an abrasive, in glass-making, and for other purposes. Sands are classified into marine, freshwater, glacial, and terrestrial. Some ...

San Cristóbal
(Venezuela) Capital of Tachirá state, western Venezuela, situated 800 m/26,250 ft above sea level in the northern Andes overlooking the River Torbes, 56 km/35 mi from the Colombian border; population (2007 est) 249,200. It is the centre of a coffee-growing region, and othe...

sanction
Economic or military measure taken by a state or number of states to enforce international law. The first use of sanctions, as a trade embargo, was the attempted economic boycott of Italy 1935–36 during the Abyssinian War by the League of Nations. Other examples of sanctions are the economic boycott of Rhodesia, after its unilateral declaratio...

San Antonio
City in Bexar County, southern Texas, on the San Antonio River; population (2000 est) 1,144,600. It is a commercial, financial, and military centre. Industries include tourism, aircraft maintenance, oil-refining, and meat-packing. Fort Sam Houston, four Air Force bases, the South Texas Medical Center, and the Southwest Research Center l...

San'a
Capital of Yemen, southwest Arabia, 320 km/200 mi north of Aden on the central plateau, 2,210 m/7,250 ft above sea level; population (2004) 918,400. A walled city, with fine mosques and traditional architecture, it is rapidly being modernized. Weaving and jewellery are local handicrafts. Old San'a dates from the 14th and 15th centur...

samurai
Japanese term for the warrior class which became the ruling military elite for almost 700 years. A samurai was an armed retainer of a daimyo (large landowner) with specific duties and privileges and a strict code of honour. The system was abolished in 1869 and all samurai were pensioned off by the government. From the 16th centur...

Saturn rocket
Click images to enlargeFamily of large US rockets, developed by German-born US rocket engineer Wernher von Braun for the Apollo project. The two-stage Saturn IB was used for launching Apollo spacecraft into orbit around the Earth. The three-stage Saturn V sent Apo...

Saturn
(astronomy) Click images to enlargeSixth planet from the Sun, and the second-largest in the Solar System, encircled by bright and easily visible equatorial rings. Viewed through a telescope it is ochre. Its polar diameter is 12,000 km/7...

Sagittarius
Bright zodiacal constellation in the southern hemisphere, represented as an archer aiming a bow and arrow at neighbouring Scorpius. The Sun passes through Sagittarius from mid-December to mid-January, a period that includes the solstice, when it is farthest south of the Equator. The constellation contains many nebulae and globular clusters,...

salicylic acid
Active chemical constituent of aspirin, an analgesic drug. The acid and its salts (salicylates) occur naturally in many plants; concentrated sources include willow bark and oil of wintergreen. When purified, salicylic acid is a white solid that crystallizes into prismatic needles at 159°C/318°F. It is used as an antiseptic, in foo...

saltpetre
Compound used in making gunpowder (from about 1500). It occurs naturally, being deposited during dry periods in places with warm climates, such as India

sawfish
Any fish of the order Pristiformes of large, sharklike rays, characterized by a flat, sawlike snout edged with teeth. The common sawfish Pristis pectinatus, also called the smalltooth, is more than 6 m/19 ft long. It has some 24 teeth along an elongated snout (2 m/6 ft) tha...

sardine
Common name for various small fishes (pilchards) in the herring family. Six species of sardine are generally recognized: five in the Pacific and Indian Oceans (Sardinops species) and Sardinia pilchardus in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. In 1998 US researchers announced, following analysis of mitochondrial ...

sandpiper
Shorebird with a long, slender bill, which is compressed and grooved at the tip. They belong to the family Scolopacidae, which includes godwits, curlews, and snipes, order Charadriiformes

saluki
Ancient breed of hunting dog resembling the greyhound. It is about 65 cm/26 in high and has a silky coat, which is usually fawn, cream, or white. The saluki is a gazehound (hunts by sight) and is descended from the hound of the African desert Bedouins

salmon
Any of the various bony fishes of the family Salmonidae. More specifically the name is applied to several species of game fishes of the genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus of North America and Eurasia that mature in the ocean but, to spawn, return to the freshwater streams where they were born. Their normal colour is silvery with a few dark spots, but th...

salamander
Tailed amphibian of the order Urodela. They are sometimes confused with lizards, but unlike lizards they have no scales or claws. Salamanders have smooth or warty moist skin. The order includes some 300 species, arranged in nine families, found mainly in the northern hemisphere. Salamanders include h...

sable
Marten Martes zibellina, about 50 cm/20 in long and usually brown. It is native to northern Eurasian forests, but now found mainly in eastern Siberia. The sable has diminished in numbers because of its valuable fur, which has long attracted hunters. Conservation measures and sable farming have been introduced to save it from ...

saliva
In vertebrates, an alkaline secretion from the salivary glands that aids the swallo wing and digestion of food in the mouth. In mammals, it contains the enzyme amylase, which converts starch to sugar. The salivary glands of mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects produce anticoagulants

sandbar
Ridge of sand built up by the currents across the mouth of a river or bay. A sandbar may be entirely underwater or it may form an elongated island that breaks the surface. A sandbar stretching out from a headland is a sand spit. Coastal bars can extend across estuaries to form bay bars

sawfly
Any of several families of insects of the order Hymenoptera, related to bees, wasps, and ants, but lacking a `waist` on the body. The egg-laying tube (ovipositor) of the female is surrounded by a pair of sawlike organs, which it uses to make a slit in a plant stem to lay its eggs. Horntails are closely related

sand hopper
Any of various small crustaceans belonging to the order Amphipeda, with laterally compressed bodies, that live in beach sand and jump like fleas. The eastern sand hopper Orchestia agilis of North America is about 1.3 cm/0.5 in long

sandgrouse
Any bird of the family Pteroclidae, order Columbiformes. They look like long-tailed grouse, but are actually closely related to pigeons. They live in warm, dry areas of Europe, Asia, and Africa and have long wings, short legs and bills, a wedge-shaped tail, and thick skin. They are sandy coloured and feed on vegetable matter and insects. Sa...

saiga
Antelope Saiga tartarica of eastern European and western Asian steppes and deserts. Buff-coloured, whitish in winter, it stands 75 cm/30 in at the shoulder, with a body about 1.5 m/5 ft long. Its nose is unusually large and swollen, an adaptation which may help warm and moisten the air inhaled, and keep out the desert...

samara
In botany, a winged fruit, a type of achene

Sartre, Jean-Paul
French author and philosopher. He was a leading proponent of existentialism. He published his first novel, La Nausée/Nausea (1937), followed by the trilogy Les Chemins de la liberté/Roads to Freedom (1944–45) and many plays, including
sapphire
Deep-blue, transparent gem variety of the mineral corundum Al2O3, aluminium oxide. Small amounts of iron and titanium give it its colour. A corundum gem of any colour except red (which is a ruby) can be called a sapphire; for example, yellow sapphire

safety glass
Glass that does not splinter into sharp pieces when smashed. Toughened glass is made by heating a glass sheet and then rapidly cooling it with a blast of cold air; it shatters into rounded pieces when smashed. Laminated glass is pressed and heated; when struck, it simply cracks

Say's law
In economics, the `law of markets` formulated by Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) to the effect that supply creates its own demand and that resources can never be underused. Widely accepted by classical economists, the `law` was regarded as erroneous by J M Keynes in his analysis of the depression in Britain during the 192...

Sanskrit
The dominant classical language of the Indian subcontinent, a member of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European language family, and the sacred language of Hinduism. The oldest form of Sanskrit is Vedic, the variety used in the Vedas and Upanishads (about 1500–700 BC). Classical Sanskrit was sy...

Saragossa
English spelling of Zaragoza, a city and province of Spain