17-letter words containing a, c, u
- cellulose acetate — nonflammable material made by acetylating cellulose: used in the manufacture of film, dopes, lacquers, and artificial fibres
- 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.
- chacun a son gout — each to his own taste
- chadless keypunch — (hardware) A card punch which cut little U-shapes in punched cards, rather than punching out a circle or rectangle. The U's made a hole when folded back. One of the Jargon File's correspondents believed that the term "chad" derived from the Chadless keypunch. Obviously, if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be "chad". The assertion that the keypunch was named after its inventor is not supported by any record in US or UK patents or surname references.
- 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
- change one's tune — to alter one's attitude or tone of speech
- 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
- chemical equation — a representation of a chemical reaction using symbols of the elements to indicate the amount of substance, usually in moles, of each reactant and product
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- chest measurement — the circumference of the trunk, measured around the middle of the chest
- chincoteague pony — a wild pony found on certain islands off the Virginia coast, apparently descended from Moorish ponies shipwrecked in this vicinity in the 16th century.
- chinese turkestan — the E part of the central Asian region of Turkestan: corresponds generally to the present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China
- chocolate biscuit — a biscuit covered with chocolate
- christmas pudding — Christmas pudding is a special pudding that is eaten at Christmas.
- chugach mountains — a coastal mountain range in S Alaska, extending W from the St. Elias Mountains. Highest peak, Mount Marcus Baker, 13,176 feet (4016 meters).
- chukchi peninsula — a peninsula in the extreme NE of Russia, in NE Siberia: mainly tundra
- 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.
- classical nahuatl — Aztec (def 2).
- classical-nahuatl — a member of a Nahuatl-speaking state in central Mexico that was conquered by Cortés in 1521.
- close punctuation — punctuation in which many commas, full stops, etc, are used
- cloud cuckoo land — an idealized, illusory domain of imagination; cloudland: the cloud-cuckoo-land of technicolor cartoon whimsy.
- cloud-cuckoo-land — If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
- 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
- colloquialization — The process or result of making colloquial.
- 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.