17-letter words containing a, c, r, u
- carlos de austria — Don [dawn] /dɔn/ (Show IPA), 1545–68, eldest son of Philip II of Spain: died during imprisonment for conspiracy against his father.
- cartesian product — the set of all ordered pairs of members of two given sets. The product A × B is the set of all pairs <a, b> where a is a member of A and b is a member of B
- cast/run your eye — If you cast your eye or run your eye over something, you look at it or read it quickly.
- casting the runes — (jargon) What a guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program because it never works for anyone else; especially used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Compare incantation, runes, examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight.
- castor and pollux — the twin sons of Leda: Pollux was fathered by Zeus, Castor by the mortal Tyndareus. After Castor's death, Pollux spent half his days with his half-brother in Hades and half with the gods in Olympus
- causality paradox — the hypothetical cause-and-effect of time travel and making changes in the past that would affect current actions.
- celestial equator — the great circle lying on the celestial sphere, the plane of which is perpendicular to the line joining the north and south celestial poles
- cellular automata — cellular automaton
- cellulose nitrate — a compound made by treating cellulose with nitric and sulphuric acids, used in plastics, lacquers, and explosives: a nitrogen-containing ester of cellulose
- cellulose varnish — a varnish made from cellulose nitrate, used as a protective sealing film
- centrifugal brake — a safety mechanism on a hoist, crane, etc, that consists of revolving brake shoes that are driven outwards by centrifugal force into contact with a fixed brake drum when the rope drum revolves at excessive speed
- centrifugal force — In physics, centrifugal force is the force that makes objects move outwards when they are spinning around something or travelling in a curve.
- châlons-sur-marne — city in NE France, on the Marne River: scene of defeat ( a.d. 451) of Attila by the Romans: pop. 50,000
- charles de gaulle — Charles André Joseph Marie [chahrlz ahn-drey joh-zuh f muh-ree;; French sharl ahn-drey zhoh-zef ma-ree] /tʃɑrlz ˈɑn dreɪ ˈdʒoʊ zəf məˈri;; French ʃarl ɑ̃ˈdreɪ ʒoʊˈzɛf maˈri/ (Show IPA), 1890–1970, French general and statesman: president 1959–69.
- chart of accounts — A chart of accounts is a list of all the accounts used in a business to classify transactions or report balances.
- chateau cardboard — wine sold in a winebox
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- chest measurement — the circumference of the trunk, measured around the middle of the chest
- chinese turkestan — the E part of the central Asian region of Turkestan: corresponds generally to the present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China
- christmas pudding — Christmas pudding is a special pudding that is eaten at Christmas.
- church of england — The Church of England is the main church in England. It has the Queen as its head and it does not recognize the authority of the Pope.
- church triumphant — those Christians in heaven who have triumphed over evil and the enemies of Christ.
- churchyard beetle — a blackish nocturnal ground beetle, Blaps mucronata, found in cellars and similar places
- circassian walnut — the hard, heavy, brown or purplish wood of the English walnut
- circular function — trigonometric function (def 1).
- circular triangle — a triangle in which each side is the arc of a circle
- circular velocity — the velocity at which a body must move in order to maintain an orbit at the outer edge of the earth's atmosphere.
- circumlocutionary — a roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than necessary to express an idea.
- circumstantiality — the quality of being circumstantial
- circumstantiating — Present participle of circumstantiate.
- circumterrestrial — surrounding or revolving about the earth.
- ciudad del carmen — a city in SE Mexico, on the Gulf of Campeche.
- clairaut equation — a differential equation of the form y = xy prime; + f (y prime;).
- clare boothe luce — Clare Boothe, 1903–87, U.S. writer, politician, and diplomat.
- clumber (spaniel) — a short-legged spaniel with a heavy body and a thick coat of straight, white hair marked with yellow or orange
- coastguard vessel — a ship used by the coastguard
- code of behaviour — the generally accepted rules governing how people behave
- code of hammurabi — a Babylonian legal code of the 18th century b.c. or earlier, instituted by Hammurabi and dealing with criminal and civil matters.
- coitus reservatus — the deliberate delaying or avoidance of orgasm during intercourse
- coldstream guards — a guard regiment of the English royal household: formed in Coldstream, Scotland, 1659–60, and instrumental in restoring the English monarchy under Charles II.
- coliform bacillus — any of several bacilli, especially Escherichia coli and members of the genus Aerobacter, found as commensals in the large intestine of humans and certain other animals, the presence of which in water indicates fecal pollution.
- collegiate church — a church that has an endowed chapter of canons and prebendaries attached to it but that is not a cathedral
- color temperature — a temperature defined in terms of the temperature of a black body at which it emits light of a specified spectral distribution: used to specify the color of a light source.
- colour photograph — a photograph that is developed and printed in colour
- colour separation — the division of a coloured original into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so that plates may be made for print reproduction. Separation may be achieved by electronic scanning or by photographic techniques using filters to isolate each colour
- colour subcarrier — a component of a colour television signal on which is modulated the colour or chrominance information
- columnar jointing — (in basaltic igneous rocks) a series of generally hexagonal columns formed by vertical joints as a result of contraction during cooling.
- common of turbary — (in England) the legal right to cut peat for fuel on a common
- communal marriage — group marriage.
- commuter airplane — air taxi.