17-letter words containing a, i, m
- to read sb's mind — If you can read someone's mind, you know what they are thinking without them saying anything.
- to take your time — If you take your time doing something, you do it quite slowly and do not hurry.
- track maintenance — the process of maintaining and repairing railway tracks
- traffic policeman — a policeman controlling traffic, esp while stationed at an intersection, or enforcing traffic regulations
- trailing geranium — an ivy-leaved variety of geranium, Pelargonium peltatum
- trans-mississippi — across or beyond the Mississippi River.
- transcendentalism — transcendental character, thought, or language.
- transformationist — transformist.
- transmission line — a system of conductors, as coaxial cable, a wave guide, or a pair of parallel wires, used to transmit signals.
- triangular matrix — a square matrix in which either all the entries above the principal diagonal, or all the entries below the principal diagonal, are zero.
- tridimensionality — having three dimensions.
- trigger mechanism — a physiological or psychological process caused by a stimulus and resulting in a usually severe reaction.
- tropical aquarium — an aquarium designed for the maintenance and breeding of tropical fish and kept at a suitably warm temperature.
- tropical maritime — a type of warm, wet air mass originating at low latitudes over ocean areas
- tropical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the study and treatment of diseases occurring in the tropics.
- trucial sheikdoms — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- tympanic membrane — eardrum.
- ultimate strength — the quantity of the utmost tensile, compressive, or shearing stress that a given unit area of a certain material is expected to bear without failing.
- ultrametamorphism — metamorphism during which the temperature of a rock exceeds its melting point.
- ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
- uncircumscribable — to draw a line around; encircle: to circumscribe a city on a map.
- uncle tom's cabin — an antislavery novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- uncompassionately — having or showing compassion: a compassionate person; a compassionate letter.
- unconformity trap — An unconformity trap is a hydrocarbon trap where the closure is made by an unconformity (= a formation of rock layers which represents a gap in the geological record).
- undercompensation — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- uniformitarianism — supporting, conforming to, or derived from a theory or doctrine about uniformity, especially on the subject of geology.
- unimaginativeness — the quality of being unimaginative
- unipalm group plc — (company) A company floated in March 1994.
- universal grammar — a grammar that attempts to establish the properties and constraints common to all possible human languages.
- unix brain damage — Something that has to be done to break a network program (typically a mailer) on a non-Unix system so that it will interoperate with Unix systems. The hack may qualify as "Unix brain damage" if the program conforms to published standards and the Unix program in question does not. Unix brain damage happens because it is much easier for other (minority) systems to change their ways to match non-conforming behaviour than it is to change all the hundreds of thousands of Unix systems out there. An example of Unix brain damage is a kluge in a mail server to recognise bare line feed (the Unix newline) as an equivalent form to the Internet standard newline, which is a carriage return followed by a line feed. Such things can make even a hardened jock weep.
- unprofessionalism — not professional; not pertaining to or characteristic of a profession.
- unsympathetically — in a manner that is not characterized by feeling or showing sympathy
- urogenital system — the urinary tract and reproductive organs
- user brain damage — (humour) (UBD) A description (usually abbreviated) used to close a trouble report obviously due to utter cluelessness on the user's part. Compare pilot error; opposite: PBD; see also brain-damaged, PEBCAK.
- utmost good faith — a principle used in insurance contracts, legally obliging all parties to reveal to the others any information that might influence the others' decision to enter into the contract
- utopian socialism — (sometimes initial capital letter) an economic system based on the premise that if capital voluntarily surrendered its ownership of the means of production to the state or the workers, unemployment and poverty would be abolished.
- vacuum aspiration — menstrual extraction.
- vacuum extraction — applying suction to a baby's head during birth to help it emerge
- valetudinarianism — the state, condition, or habits of a valetudinarian.
- van diemen's land — former name of Tasmania.
- variable-geometry — denoting an aircraft in which the wings are hinged to give the variable aspect ratio colloquially known as a swing-wing
- varix lymphaticus — a similar condition affecting an artery or lymphatic vessel
- velaric airstream — a current of mouth air produced by the action of the tongue, operant in forming click sounds.
- vertical mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- vestibular system — the sensory mechanism in the inner ear that detects movement of the head and helps to control balance
- victor emmanuel i — 1759–1824, king of Sardinia 1802–21.
- village community — an early form of community organization in which land belonged to the village, the arable land being allotted to the members or households of the community by more or less permanent arrangements and the waste or excess land remaining undivided.
- visually impaired — (of a person) having reduced vision so severe as to constitute a handicap.
- vitamin b complex — an important group of water-soluble vitamins containing vitamin B 1 , vitamin B 2 , etc.
- wade-giles system — a system of Romanization of Chinese, devised by Sir Thomas Francis Wade (1818–95) and adapted by Herbert Allen Giles (1845–1935), widely used in representing Chinese words and names in English, especially before the adoption of pinyin.