17-letter words containing a, b, n, d, e
- passive obedience — unquestioning obedience to authority
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- pressurized cabin — the cabin of an aircraft in which the air has been pressurized
- proficiency badge — an insignia or device granted by the Girl Scouts and worn especially on a uniform to indicate special achievement.
- proprietary brand — a brand of product that is privately owned and controlled
- red and the black — a novel (1832) by Stendhal.
- rhode island bent — a European pasture grass, Agrostis tenuis, naturalized in North America, having red flower clusters.
- rubberman disease — Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- russell, bertrand — Bertrand Russell
- sable island pony — a variety of wild pony found on Sable Island, Nova Scotia
- salt-rising bread — a kind of bread leavened with a fermented mixture of salted milk, cornmeal, flour, sugar, and soda.
- sandro botticelli — Sandro [san-droh,, sahn-;; Italian sahn-draw] /ˈsæn droʊ,, ˈsɑn-;; Italian ˈsɑn drɔ/ (Show IPA), (Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi) 1444?–1510, Italian painter.
- second balkan war — Balkan War (def 2).
- secondary battery — storage battery.
- secondary boycott — a boycott by union members against their employer in order to induce the employer to bring pressure on another company involved in a labor dispute with the union.
- secondary rainbow — a faint rainbow formed by light rays that undergo two internal reflections in drops of rain, appearing above the primary rainbow and having its colors in the opposite order.
- sinbad the sailor — a merchant in The Arabian Nights who makes seven adventurous voyages
- split keyboarding — the act or practice of editing data from one terminal on another terminal
- square and rabbet — annulet (def 1).
- strawberry blonde — woman: with reddish fair hair
- subordinated debt — a debt that an unsecured creditor can only claim, in the event of a liquidation, after the claims of secured creditors have been paid
- sum and substance — main idea, gist, or point: the sum and substance of an argument.
- sunday observance — the fact of keeping Sunday as a special day when people go to church
- surrender to bail — to present oneself at court at the appointed time after having been on bail
- take to one's bed — to remain in bed, esp because of illness
- tanenbaum, andrew — Andrew Tanenbaum
- temporomandibular — of, relating to, or situated near the hinge joint formed by the lower jaw and the temporal bone of the skull.
- tibetan highlands — Tibet, Plateau of.
- to best advantage — If something is shown to good advantage or to best advantage, it is shown in a way that reveals its best features.
- to read sb's mind — If you can read someone's mind, you know what they are thinking without them saying anything.
- understandability — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
- undistinguishable — to mark off as different (often followed by from or by): He was distinguished from the other boys by his height.
- unix brain damage — Something that has to be done to break a network program (typically a mailer) on a non-Unix system so that it will interoperate with Unix systems. The hack may qualify as "Unix brain damage" if the program conforms to published standards and the Unix program in question does not. Unix brain damage happens because it is much easier for other (minority) systems to change their ways to match non-conforming behaviour than it is to change all the hundreds of thousands of Unix systems out there. An example of Unix brain damage is a kluge in a mail server to recognise bare line feed (the Unix newline) as an equivalent form to the Internet standard newline, which is a carriage return followed by a line feed. Such things can make even a hardened jock weep.
- unpredictableness — not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
- urban development — the development or improvement of an urban area by building
- user brain damage — (humour) (UBD) A description (usually abbreviated) used to close a trouble report obviously due to utter cluelessness on the user's part. Compare pilot error; opposite: PBD; see also brain-damaged, PEBCAK.
- visible radiation — electromagnetic radiation that causes the sensation of sight; light. It has wavelengths between about 380 and 780 nanometres
- voidable contract — a contract or agreement that is capable of being made of no legal effect or made void
- wedding breakfast — meal served at wedding reception
- what does sb know — You can use expressions such as What does she know? and What do they know? when you think that someone has no right to comment on a situation because they do not understand it.
- wheatstone bridge — a circuit for measuring an unknown resistance by comparing it with known resistances.