15-letter words containing a, c, u
- 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
- calorific value — the quantity of heat produced by the complete combustion of a given mass of a fuel, usually expressed in joules per kilogram
- calydonian hunt — the pursuit by Meleager, Atalanta, and others of a savage boar (Calydonian boar) sent by Artemis to lay waste to Calydon.
- camelback truss — a roof truss having upper and lower chords curving upward from a common point at each side.
- camp counsellor — an adult supervisor assigned to a group of campers at a summer camp
- campaign button — a disk-shaped pin worn by a supporter of a political candidate, usually bearing the name of the candidate and often a slogan or the candidate's picture.
- 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
- cape chelyuskin — a cape in N central Russia, in N Siberia at the end of the Taimyr Peninsula: the northernmost point of Asia
- capital account — A country's capital account is the part of its balance of payments that is concerned with the movement of capital.
- capital surplus — any surplus of a business firm not derived from direct earnings or profits
- capitulationism — advocacy or approval of capitulation.
- capitulationist — advocacy or approval of capitulation.
- caprifoliaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Caprifoliaceae, a family of N temperate shrubs, small trees, and climbers including honeysuckle, elder, and guelder-rose
- cardinal humour — any of the four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, choler or yellow bile, melancholy or black bile) formerly thought to determine emotional and physical disposition
- cardinal number — A cardinal number is a number such as 1, 3, or 10 that tells you how many things there are in a group but not what order they are in. Compare ordinal number.
- cardinal virtue — anything considered to be an important or characteristic virtue: Tenacity is his cardinal virtue.
- cardiopulmonary — of, relating to, or affecting the heart and lungs
- carl xvi gustaf — born 1946, king of Sweden from 1973
- carnivorousness — flesh-eating: A dog is a carnivorous animal.
- 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.
- cassini-huygens — a NASA-ESA spacecraft launched in 1997 to study Saturn and its moons; Cassini entered orbit around the planet in 2004 and released the Huygens probe which landed on Titan in 2005
- cast around for — If you cast around for something or cast about for it, you try to find it or think of it.
- 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).
- casual labourer — a person who is employed on a temporary, rather than a permanent or regular basis
- cat-o'-mountain — catamountain
- catholic church — any of several Churches claiming to have maintained continuity with the ancient and undivided Church
- cauchy sequence — fundamental sequence.
- cauliflower ear — permanent swelling and distortion of the external ear as the result of ruptures of the blood vessels: usually caused by blows received in boxing
- 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 alcohol — sodium ethylate.
- 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.
- cerebrovascular — of or relating to the blood vessels and the blood supply of the brain
- cervical plexus — a network of nerves branching from the spinal nerves of the neck region and innervating the neck, chest, diaphragm, and part of the face.
- ceteris paribus — other things being equal
- chamber counsel — a counsel who advises in private and does not plead in court
- champagne flute — a tall, thin champagne glass
- change of venue — the removal of a trial out of one jurisdiction into another
- channel surfing — to change from one channel on a television set to another with great or unusual frequency, especially by using a remote control.
- channel-surfing — Channel-surfing is the same as channel-hopping.
- chanson d'amour — love song.
- chantilly-sauce — a town in N France, N of Paris: lace manufacture.