15-letter words containing a, c, t, u, e
- calculated risk — a chance of failure, the probability of which is estimated before some action is undertaken.
- call-out charge — a set amount charged for a repairman to come to one's house, or to a broken-down vehicle, which is added to the cost of the actual repair
- camelback truss — a roof truss having upper and lower chords curving upward from a common point at each side.
- cannot help but — to be unable to do anything else except
- canteen culture — the alleged clannishness of the police force, whereby the prevalent attitudes inhibit officers from reporting or speaking out against malpractice, racism, etc
- canterbury bell — a campanulaceous biennial European plant, Campanula medium, widely cultivated for its blue, violet, or white flowers
- canterbury lamb — New Zealand lamb exported chilled or frozen to the United Kingdom
- cardinal virtue — anything considered to be an important or characteristic virtue: Tenacity is his cardinal virtue.
- carpometacarpus — a bone in the wing of a bird that consists of the metacarpal bones and some of the carpal bones fused together
- carriage return — a mechanism on a typewriter that causes the carriage to return to the left side of the paper
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- castellated nut — a nut that has indentations similar to battlements
- casters-up mode — [IBM, probably from slang belly up] Yet another synonym for "broken" or "down". Usually connotes a major failure. A system (hardware or software) which is "down" may be already being restarted before the failure is noticed, whereas one which is "casters up" is usually a good excuse to take the rest of the day off (as long as you're not responsible for fixing it).
- cauliflowerette — a single floret from the head of a cauliflower.
- cause of action — the facts alleged in a complaint, upon which is based the plaintiff's right to a legal remedy in a court of law
- caustic surface — a surface that envelopes the light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface
- central sudanic — a group of languages belonging to the Nilo-Saharan family, spoken in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, northern Uganda, southern Sudan, Chad, and the Central African Republic, and including Mangbetu.
- centrifugal box — a revolving chamber, used in the spinning of manufactured filaments, in which the plastic fibers, subjected to centrifugal force, are slightly twisted and emerge in the form of yarn wound into the shape of a hollow cylinder.
- ceteris paribus — other things being equal
- champagne flute — a tall, thin champagne glass
- chantilly-sauce — a town in N France, N of Paris: lace manufacture.
- character study — a work of fiction in which the delineation of the central character's personality is more important than the plot.
- charles doughty — Charles Montagu [mon-tuh-gyoo] /ˈmɒn təˌgyu/ (Show IPA), 1843–1926, English traveler and writer.
- charlotte russe — a cold dessert made in a mould with sponge fingers enclosing a mixture of whipped cream, custard, etc
- chateau-thierry — a town in N central France, on the River Marne: scene of the second battle of the Marne (1918) during World War I. Pop: 14 967 (1999)
- check guarantee — A check guarantee is any method, usually via a plastic card, that guarantees that a payment made by check will be honored by the account holder’s bank.
- chemoautotrophs — Plural form of chemoautotroph.
- chemoautotrophy — the process of deriving energy through oxidizing inorganic chemical compounds, as opposed to photosynthesis
- chi-square test — a test derived from the chi-square distribution to compare the goodness of fit of theoretical and observed frequency distributions or to compare nominal data derived from unmatched groups of subjects
- chinese mustard — brown mustard.
- chromium-plated — having been plated with chromium
- circuit breaker — A circuit breaker is a device which can stop the flow of electricity around a circuit by switching itself off if anything goes wrong.
- circumambiently — in a circumambient manner
- circumambulated — Simple past tense and past participle of circumambulate.
- circumambulates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of circumambulate.
- circumferential — of, at, or near the circumference; surrounding; lying along the outskirts.
- circumnavigated — Simple past tense and past participle of circumnavigate.
- circumnavigates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of circumnavigate.
- circumstantiate — to support by giving particulars
- claims adjuster — A claims adjuster is someone who is employed by an insurance company to decide how much money a person making a claim should receive.
- class structure — social hierarchy
- cleistogamously — in a cleistogamous manner
- closed fracture — simple fracture.
- cocktail lounge — A cocktail lounge is a room in a hotel, restaurant, or club where you can buy alcoholic drinks.
- coinstantaneous — taking place at exactly the same moment
- collenchymatous — Relating to collenchyma.
- colour sergeant — a sergeant who carries the regimental, battalion, or national colours, as in a colour guard
- combat fatigues — the uniform worn by soldiers when fighting
- combat neurosis — battle fatigue.
- combat trousers — Combat trousers are large, loose trousers with lots of pockets.