18-letter words containing a, c, i, n, g
- cartilaginous fish — any fish of the class Chondrichthyes, including the sharks, skates, and rays, having a skeleton composed entirely of cartilage
- cassius (longinus) — (Gaius)died 42 b.c.; Rom. general & conspirator against Caesar
- catalogue raisonne — a descriptive catalogue, esp one covering works of art in an exhibition or collection
- catalytic cracking — a method used in the petroleum industry for the cracking of petroleum by catalysis
- catapult launching — the fact of launching aircraft into the air by a device installed in warships
- cationic detergent — a type of detergent in which the active part of the molecule is a positive ion (cation). Cationic detergents are usually quaternary ammonium salts and often also have bactericidal properties
- cauliflower fungus — a large edible white to yellowish cauliflowerlike mushroom, Sparassis radicata, widely distributed in North America.
- ceiling decoration — a plaster moulding for the centre of a ceiling; other decoration, such as coving
- celestial guidance — the guidance of a spacecraft or missile by reference to the position of one or more celestial bodies
- centrifugal clutch — an automatic clutch in which the friction surfaces are engaged by weighted levers acting under centrifugal force at a certain speed of rotation
- cervical screening — a screening for cervical cancer
- chandelier earring — one of a pair of long and ornate earrings that dangle from the earlobes, usually dropping from more than one level.
- changement de pied — a jump in which the dancer's feet are reversed from the starting position.
- character encoding — (character) (Or "character encoding scheme") A mapping between binary data values and character code positions (or "code points"). Early systems stored characters in a variety of ways, e.g. four six-bit characters in a 24-bit word, but around 1960, eight-bit bytes started to become the most common data storage layout, with each character stored in one byte, typically in the ASCII character set. In the case of ASCII, the character encoding is an identity mapping: code position 65 maps to the byte value 65. This is possible because ASCII uses only code positions representable as single bytes, i.e., values between 0 and 255. (US-ASCII only uses values 0 to 127, in fact.) From the late 1990s, there was increased use of larger character sets such as Unicode and many CJK coded character sets. These can represent characters from many languages and more symbols.
- character-building — improving certain good or useful traits in a person's character, esp self-reliance, endurance, and courage
- charge conjugation — the mathematical operation of replacing every elementary particle by its antiparticle. Symbol: C.
- chartered engineer — (in Britain) an engineer who is registered with the Engineering Council as having the scientific and technical knowledge and practical experience to satisfy its professional requirements
- chattering classes — The chattering classes are people such as journalists, broadcasters, or public figures who comment on events but have little or no influence over them.
- chemical machining — the shaping of a metal part by controlled removal of unwanted metal by a flow of chemical solutions
- chemical pregnancy — a pregnancy that is confirmed by a pregnancy test but not by clinical signs and terminates before clinical signs can be observed.
- cholangiocarcinoma — (pathology) Cancer of the bile duct.
- christmas shopping — shopping especially for Christmas presents, but also for Christmas food and drink, and all the other things required over the Christmas period.
- christmas stocking — A Christmas stocking is a long sock which children hang up on Christmas Eve. During the night, parents fill the stocking with small presents.
- chromatic printing — printing from blocks or types inked with various colours
- chronostratigraphy — The branch of geology concerned with establishing the absolute ages of strata.
- cigar-store indian — a wooden statue of an American Indian, traditionally displayed at the entrance of cigar stores.
- circular breathing — a technique for sustaining a phrase on a wind instrument, using the cheeks to force air out of the mouth while breathing in through the nose
- circulating medium — currency serving as a medium of exchange
- circumnavigational — Relating to circumnavigation.
- climbing hydrangea — a woody vine, Hydrangea anomala, of eastern Asia, having shiny, egg-shaped leaves and flat-topped white flower clusters, and climbing by aerial rootlets.
- cling like a leech — to cling or adhere persistently to something
- clinical pathology — the branch of pathology dealing with the study of disease and disease processes by means of chemical, microscopic, and serologic examinations.
- clobbering machine — pressure to conform with accepted standards
- clothing allowance — an amount of money to compensate for the purchase of clothes for work, school, etc
- coastguard station — the headquarters or local offices of a coastguard
- collagen injection — an injection of collagen into the lip in order to give it a fuller appearance
- collection charges — the charges levied to cover expenses for the collection of debt
- collision coverage — Collision coverage is insurance cover for vehicle accidents.
- colonic irrigation — Colonic irrigation is a medical procedure in which a person's colon is washed by injecting water or other fluids into it.
- comings and goings — Comings and goings refers to the way people keep arriving at and leaving a particular place.
- commanding officer — A commanding officer is an officer who is in charge of a military unit.
- commodity exchange — an exchange where commodities are traded
- community language — a language spoken by members of a minority group or community within a majority language context
- companion planting — the cultivation of different types of plants in close proximity so as to benefit each other, as planting a deer-repellent plant in a flower garden.
- compartmentalizing — Present participle of compartmentalize.
- compassion fatigue — the inability to react sympathetically to a crisis, disaster, etc, because of overexposure to previous crises, disasters, etc
- concussion grenade — a grenade designed to inflict damage by the force of its detonation rather than by the fragmentation of its casing.
- configuration item — (jargon) Hardware or software, or an aggregate of both, which is designated by the project configuration manager (or contracting agency) for configuration management.
- congregate housing — a type of housing in which each individual or family has a private bedroom or living quarters but shares with other residents a common dining room, recreational room, or other facilities.
- congregationalists — a form of Protestant church government in which each local religious society is independent and self-governing.