17-letter words containing a, b, y
- go by the wayside — to be put aside on account of something more urgent
- gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
- haemoglobinopathy — (medicine) Any of a group of inherited disorders in which haemoglobin does not function properly.
- harvey wallbanger — a screwdriver cocktail topped with Galliano.
- have it both ways — to try to get the best of a situation, argument, etc, by chopping and changing between alternatives or opposites
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- house of assembly — the legislature or the lower house of the legislature in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
- hybrid fiber coax — (networking) (HFC) A kind of physical connection used in networks for audio, video, and data. DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) is used in Europe and DOCSIS is used in N America.
- hydrofluorocarbon — Any of a class of partly chlorinated and fluorinated hydrocarbons, used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons in foam production, refrigeration, and other processes.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- hyperexcitability — an excessive reaction to stimuli.
- hyperirritability — extreme irritability.
- 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.
- i beg your pardon — You say 'Pardon?' or 'I beg your pardon?' or, in American English, 'Pardon me?' when you want someone to repeat what they have just said because you have not heard or understood it.
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- in broad daylight — openly, in full public view
- incommunicability — incapable of being communicated, imparted, shared, etc.
- indecipherability — Quality of being indecipherable.
- indian strawberry — a plant, Duchesnea indica, of the rose family, native to India, having yellow flowers and inedible fruit resembling strawberries.
- indistinguishably — In an indistinguishable manner; so that separate components or differences cannot be discerned.
- insurmountability — incapable of being surmounted, passed over, or overcome; insuperable: an insurmountable obstacle.
- interlibrary loan — a system by which one library obtains a work for a user by borrowing it from another library.
- intestinal bypass — the surgical circumvention, by anastomosis, of a diseased portion of the intestine; also sometimes used to reduce nutrient absorption in morbidly obese patients.
- irreconcilability — incapable of being brought into harmony or adjustment; incompatible: irreconcilable differences.
- japanese barberry — a thorny barberry, Berberis thunbergii, of Japan, having yellow flowers and bearing bright-red fruit, grown as a hedge plant.
- joachim du bellay — Joachim [French zhaw-a-keem] /French ʒɔ aˈkim/ (Show IPA), Bellay, Joachim du.
- john of salisbury — c1115–80, English prelate and scholar.
- keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- keyboard commando — (messaging) A bulletin board user who posts authoritatively on military or combat topics, but who has never served in uniform or heard a shot fired in anger. A poseur.
- know only by name — to be familiar with the name of but not know personally
- laboratory school — a school maintained by a college or university for the training of student teachers.
- ladybird (beetle) — ladybug
- lautenclavicymbal — a harpsichord with strings of gut rather than metal.
- lead acid battery — A lead acid battery is a 12-volt battery for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles consisting of lead-acid cells in series.
- liability account — A liability account is an account recording a company's liabilities.
- liberal democracy — a democracy based on the recognition of individual rights and freedoms, in which decisions from direct or representative processes prevail in many policy areas
- limited liability — a liability restricted by law or contract, as the liability of owners of shares in a corporation or limited company, or that of a special partner.
- magellan barberry — an evergreen shrub, Berberis buxifolia, of southern Chile, having prickle-tipped leaves, dark-purple fruit, and orange-yellow flowers, rarely flowering in cultivation.
- malagasy republic — former name of Madagascar.
- management buyout — A management buyout is the buying of a company by its managers. The abbreviation MBO is also used.
- manufacturability — The condition of being manufacturable.
- massachusetts bay — an inlet of the Atlantic, off the E coast of Massachusetts.
- maternity benefit — government allowance
- membrane recovery — Membrane recovery is a process which uses membranes to obtain hydrogen from refinery fuel gas, hydrocrackers, and chemical processes such as methanol production.
- mental disability — a general or specific intellectual handicap, resulting directly or indirectly from injury to the brain or from abnormal neurological development
- mercury barometer — a barometer in which the weight of a column of mercury in a glass tube with a sealed top is balanced against that of the atmosphere pressing on an exposed cistern of mercury at the base of the mercury column, the height of the column varying with atmospheric pressure.
- mesembryanthemums — Plural form of mesembryanthemum.
- metabolic pathway — biochemistry: sequence of reactions within a cell or organism
- microbiologically — With regard to microbiology.