17-letter words containing a, e, g, n, i
- carbon offsetting — a program in which a company, country, etc., reduces or offsets its carbon emissions through the funding of activities and projects that improve the environment: Carbon offsetting does not always have a quantifiable impact on the planet.
- carboxyhemoglobin — a compound formed in the blood when carbon monoxide occupies the positions on the hemoglobin molecule normally taken by oxygen, resulting in cellular oxygen starvation
- cardinal grosbeak — any of various mostly tropical American buntings, such as the cardinal and pyrrhuloxia, the males of which have brightly coloured plumage
- cardiogenic shock — a type of shock caused by decreased cardiac output despite adequate blood volume, owing to a disease of the heart itself, as myocardial infarction, or any other factor that interferes with the filling or emptying of the heart.
- 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.
- categoric contact — behavior toward an individual on the basis of the type or group of people that person represents rather than on the basis of personal makeup.
- cathedral ceiling — a high ceiling formed by or suggesting an open-timbered roof.
- center of gravity — The center of gravity of an object is a point in it. If this point is above the base of the object, it stays stable, rather than falling over.
- centre of gravity — The centre of gravity of an object is a point in it. If this point is above the base of the object, it stays stable, rather than falling over.
- 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.
- change one's mind — to alter one's decision or opinion
- charles lindbergh — Anne (Spencer) Morrow, 1906–2001, U.S. writer (wife of Charles Augustus Lindbergh).
- chemical engineer — A chemical engineer is a person who designs and constructs the machines needed for industrial chemical processes.
- chinagraph pencil — a coloured pencil used for writing on china, glass, etc
- 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.
- chronological age — the number of years a person has lived, especially when used as a standard against which to measure behavior, intelligence, etc.
- cigarette machine — a vending machine from which cigarettes can be purchased
- circle the wagons — to take defensive action; prepare for an attack: from arranging a wagon train in a circular formation
- circular triangle — a triangle in which each side is the arc of a circle
- clear box testing — white box testing
- cleveland heights — city in NE Ohio: suburb of Cleveland: pop. 50,000
- climbing accident — an accident occurring during climbing
- closed-captioning — (of a television program, film, or video) distributed with synchronized transcription of speech and written descriptions of other relevant audio elements, as for the hearing-impaired, that are visible only when the option to display them is selected. Abbreviation: CC.
- closing-down sale — a sale held to clear stock from a shop that is ceasing to operate
- coarse-grain salt — salt with a much larger grain size than table salt
- cognitive meaning — the literal meaning of something
- cognitive therapy — a form of psychotherapy in which the patient is encouraged to change the way he or sees the world and himself or herself: used particularly to treat depression
- collection agency — A collection agency is an organization that obtains payments from people who owe money to others.
- colleterial gland — a paired accessory reproductive gland, present in most female insects, secreting a sticky substance that forms either the egg cases or the cement that binds the eggs to a surface
- come to handgrips — to engage in hand-to-hand fighting
- commercial agency — a concern that investigates for the benefit of its subscribers the financial standing, reputation, and credit rating of individuals, firms, corporations, or others.
- committal hearing — (in British law) a preliminary inquiry by a magistrate to decide if there is enough evidence for a case to go to trial
- communal marriage — group marriage.
- congestion charge — Congestion charges refer to money motorists must pay in order to drive in some city centres. Congestion charges are intended to reduce traffic within those areas.
- congo-brazzaville — a republic in W Central Africa: formerly the French colony of Middle Congo, part of French Equatorial Africa, it became independent in 1960; consists mostly of equatorial forest, with savanna and extensive swamps; drained chiefly by the Rivers Congo and Ubangi. Official language: French. Religion: Christian majority. Currency: franc. Capital: Brazzaville. Pop: 4 492 689 (2013 est). Area: 342 000 sq km (132 018 sq miles)
- congregationalism — a system of Christian doctrines and ecclesiastical government in which each congregation is self-governing and maintains bonds of faith with other similar local congregations
- congregationalist — a form of Protestant church government in which each local religious society is independent and self-governing.
- connection charge — a charge made as soon as a caller is connected to the number dialled and which is additional to any charges calculated based on the duration of the call
- consumer sampling — a research technique in which targeted consumers are polled or tested for their receptiveness to a product or service
- content marketing — marketing that tries to attract customers by distributing informational content potentially useful to the target audience, rather than by advertising products and services in the traditional way: content marketing through blogs and email newsletters.
- contingency table — an array having the frequency of occurrence of certain events in each of a number of samples
- contrasuggestible — responding or tending to respond to a suggestion by doing or believing the opposite
- controlling image — a literary device employing repetition so as to stress the theme of a work or a particular symbol.
- counter-espionage — Counter-espionage is the same as counter-intelligence.
- counter-migration — a migration in the opposite direction.
- counter-signature — a signature added by way of countersigning.
- countersignatures — Plural form of countersignature.
- cracking severity — Cracking severity is the temperature used in a cracking process to yield a product, higher temperatures being used to produce ethane and benzene, and lower temperatures to produce propene and liquid products.
- creeping elegance — Describes a tendency for parts of a design to become elegant past the point of diminishing return, something which often happens at the expense of the less interesting parts of the design, the schedule, and other things deemed important in the Real World. See also creeping featurism, second-system effect, tense.