17-letter words containing a, e, r, o, d, y
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- downwardly mobile — See under vertical mobility (def 1).
- downwardly-mobile — See under vertical mobility (def 1).
- dress-down friday — In some companies employees are allowed to wear clothes that are less smart than usual on a Friday. This day is known as a dress-down Friday.
- drive-by download — an incidence of an unwanted program being automatically downloaded to a computer, often without the user's knowledge
- early closing day — a day on which most shops in a town or area close after lunch
- eastern orthodoxy — the faith, practice, membership, and government of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
- electricity board — a company which supplies electricity
- embroidery thread — a thread used for embroidery
- epicycloidal gear — a gear of an epicyclic train
- ethinyloestradiol — Alternative form of ethinylestradiol.
- extraordinary ray — the plane-polarized ray of light that does not obey the laws of refraction in a doubly refracting crystal
- forever and a day — without ever ending; eternally: to last forever.
- four-rowed barley — a class of barley having, in each spike, six rows of grain, with two pairs of rows overlapping.
- free-body diagram — A free-body diagram is a diagram of a structure in which all supports are replaced by forces.
- front-end payment — a payment required or incurred in advance of a project in order to get it under way
- guardhouse lawyer — a person in military service, especially an inmate of a guardhouse or brig, who is or claims to be an authority on military law, regulations, and soldiers' rights.
- gulf war syndrome — a group of symptoms occurring in some Gulf War veterans, most commonly including headache and memory loss, muscle pain, skin disorders, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments, possibly caused by exposure to chemical weapons, vaccines, infectious diseases, or other factors.
- haemorrhoidectomy — surgical removal of haemorrhoids
- hairy-tailed mole — a blackish North American mole, Parascalops breweri, having a short, hairy tail.
- hard rock geology — (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining (hard-rock mining) and geology (hard-rock geology)
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- homeland security — national defence
- household cavalry — (in Britain) cavalry units forming part of the ceremonial guard of the monarch.
- hybrid fiber coax — (networking) (HFC) A kind of physical connection used in networks for audio, video, and data. DVB (Digital Video Broadcast) is used in Europe and DOCSIS is used in N America.
- hydroelectrically — Using hydroelectric power.
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- hydrotherapy pool — a pool of water used for hydrotherapy
- hydrothermal vent — an opening on the floor of the sea from which hot, mineral-rich solutions issue. Compare vent1 (def 2).
- hydroxytryptamine — (organic compound) Any hydroxy derivative of tryptamine, but especially 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin).
- hypophrygian mode — a plagal church mode represented on the white keys of a keyboard instrument by an ascending scale from B to B, with the final on E.
- i beg your pardon — You say 'Pardon?' or 'I beg your pardon?' or, in American English, 'Pardon me?' when you want someone to repeat what they have just said because you have not heard or understood it.
- ideogrammatically — In terms of, or by means of, ideograms.
- italian greyhound — one of an Italian breed of toy dogs resembling a greyhound.
- kawasaki syndrome — a syndrome, usually afflicting children, characterized by high fever, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, rashes, irritated eyes and mucous membranes, etc. with possible damage to the cardiovascular system
- keyboard commando — (messaging) A bulletin board user who posts authoritatively on military or combat topics, but who has never served in uniform or heard a shot fired in anger. A poseur.
- lee harvey oswald — Lee Harvey, 1939–63, designated by a presidential commission to be the lone assassin of John F. Kennedy.
- liberal democracy — a democracy based on the recognition of individual rights and freedoms, in which decisions from direct or representative processes prevail in many policy areas
- lipopolysaccaride — a molecule, consisting of lipid and polysaccharide components, that is the main constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria
- machado y morales — Gerardo [he-rahr-th aw] /hɛˈrɑr ðɔ/ (Show IPA), 1871–1939, president of Cuba 1925–33.
- majority decision — a decision supported by more than half the people involved
- midmorning prayer — the third of the seven canonical hours; terce
- money-market fund — a mutual fund that invests in the money market.
- monkey bread tree — a bombacaceous tree, Adansonia digitata, native to Africa, that has a very thick trunk, large white flowers, and a gourdlike fruit with an edible pulp called monkey bread
- mundane astrology — the astrology of worldly events, in contrast to the astrology of the individual: used especially in interpretations and forecasts involving politics, the stock market, weather, and disasters.
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- new scotland yard — See under Scotland Yard (def 1).
- nine days' wonder — an event or thing that arouses considerable but short-lived interest or excitement.
- ninety-day wonder — an officer commissioned in a branch of the armed forces after an unusually short training period, especially after a three-months officers' training course during World War II.