17-letter words containing a, b, s, i
- disability clause — a clause in a life-insurance policy providing for waiver of premium and sometimes payment of monthly income if the policyholder becomes totally and permanently disabled.
- discreditableness — Quality of being discreditable.
- discrete variable — a variable that may assume only a countable, and usually finite, number of values.
- dishonourableness — Alternative spelling of dishonorableness.
- disposable income — the part of a person's income remaining after deducting personal income taxes.
- disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
- division of labor — a production process in which a worker or group of workers is assigned a specialized task in order to increase efficiency.
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- double insulation — Double insulation is insulation that consists of both basic insulation and supplementary insulation.
- east siberian sea — a part of the Arctic Ocean, between Wrangel Island and the New Siberian Islands. 352,520 sq. mi. (913,000 sq. km).
- egyptian brackets — (programming, humour) A humourous term for K&R indent style, referring to the "one hand up in front, one down behind" pose which popular culture inexplicably associates with Egypt.
- english breakfast — An English breakfast is a breakfast consisting of cooked food such as bacon, eggs, sausages, and tomatoes. It also includes toast and tea or coffee.
- establishing shot — Cinema
- false bread-fruit — ceriman.
- father substitute — a male who replaces an absent father and becomes an object of attachment.
- feasibility study — (systems analysis) Part of the systems develpment life cycle which aims to determine whether it is sensible to develop some system. The most popular model of feasibility study is "TELOS", standing for Technical, Economic, Legal, Operational, Schedule. Technical Feasibility: does the technology exist to implement the proposed system? Is it a practical proposition? Economic Feasibility: is the system cost-effective? Do benefits outweigh costs? Legal Feasibility: is there any conflict between the proposed system and legal requirements, e.g. the Data Protection Act? Operational Feasibility: are the current work practices and procedures adequate to support the new system? Schedule Feasibility: can the system be developed in time? After the feasibility study, the requirements analysis should be carried out.
- fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
- frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
- fulgencio batista — Fulgencio [fool-hen-syaw] /fulˈhɛn syɔ/ (Show IPA), (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar) 1901–73, Cuban military leader: dictator of Cuba 1934–40; president 1940–44, 1952–59.
- get to first base — Baseball. the first in counterclockwise order of the bases from home plate. the position of the player covering the area of the infield near first base.
- glass box testing — white box testing
- glastonbury chair — a folding chair having legs crossed front-to-back and having arms connected to the back and to the front seat rail.
- go by the wayside — to be put aside on account of something more urgent
- goldbeater's skin — the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used by goldbeaters to lay between the leaves of the metal while they beat it into gold leaf.
- hasbrouck heights — a borough in NE New Jersey.
- have it both ways — to try to get the best of a situation, argument, etc, by chopping and changing between alternatives or opposites
- have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they dislike you and try to cause problems for you.
- heartbreakingness — The state or quality of being heartbreaking.
- hepatitis b virus — a form of hepatitis caused by a DNA virus (hepatitis B virus, or HBV) that persists in the blood, characterized by a long incubation period: usually transmitted by sexual contact or by injection or ingestion of infected blood or other bodily fluids.
- high-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent carbon
- histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- i am bound to say — You can say 'I am bound to say' to introduce a statement expressing something that you find undesirable or unexpected.
- iberian peninsula — Also called Iberian Peninsula. a peninsula in SW Europe, comprising Spain and Portugal.
- impracticableness — The state of being impracticable; impracticability.
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- in double harness — in a harness for two animals pulling the same carriage, plow, etc.
- in-band signaling — in-band signalling
- incompatibilities — not compatible; unable to exist together in harmony: She asked for a divorce because they were utterly incompatible.
- inconceivableness — The quality of being inconceivable.
- indefatigableness — The state of being indefatigable.
- indescribableness — The quality of being indescribable.
- indian paintbrush — any of several semiparasitic plants belonging to the genus Castilleja, of the figwort family, as C. linariaefolia, of the western U.S.: the state flower of Wyoming.
- indian strawberry — a plant, Duchesnea indica, of the rose family, native to India, having yellow flowers and inedible fruit resembling strawberries.
- indispensableness — The characteristic of being indispensable; indispensability.
- indistinguishable — not distinguishable.
- indistinguishably — In an indistinguishable manner; so that separate components or differences cannot be discerned.
- inertial observer — a hypothetical observer who is not accelerated with respect to an inertial system. Newton's laws of motion and the special theory of relativity apply to the measurements which would be made by such observers
- inexhaustibleness — The quality of being inexhaustible.