17-letter words containing a, i, r, s
- carolina moonseed — a twining woody vine, Cocculus carolinus, of the southeastern U.S., having inconspicuous flowers and showy, red fruit.
- cartesian product — the set of all ordered pairs of members of two given sets. The product A × B is the set of all pairs <a, b> where a is a member of A and b is a member of B
- 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.
- castle in the air — a hope or desire unlikely to be realized; daydream
- catastrophization — The act or process of catastrophizing.
- causality paradox — the hypothetical cause-and-effect of time travel and making changes in the past that would affect current actions.
- cavalier servente — a lover; suitor.
- celestial equator — the great circle lying on the celestial sphere, the plane of which is perpendicular to the line joining the north and south celestial poles
- celestial horizon — the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.
- 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
- chancery division — (in England) the Lord Chancellor's court, now a division of the High Court of Justice
- character witness — a witness in a trial who testifies to the accused's general good character rather than providing evidence about the specific offence which has led to him or her being on trial
- characterisations — Plural form of characterisation.
- characterizations — portrayal; description: the actor's characterization of a politician.
- charge d'affaires — A chargé d'affaires is a person appointed to act as head of a diplomatic mission in a foreign country while the ambassador is away.
- charles lindbergh — Anne (Spencer) Morrow, 1906–2001, U.S. writer (wife of Charles Augustus Lindbergh).
- charter of rights — a section of the Canadian Constitution containing a statement of the basic rights of citizens of Canada.
- chartered society — a society that has an official charter
- chelsea pensioner — an old ex-soldier resident in the Chelsea Royal Hospital
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- china grass cloth — grass cloth.
- chinese artichoke — a hairy plant, Stachys affinis, of China and Japan, having numerous small, white, edible tubers.
- 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 soldier — a person who mistakenly believes that he or she is very powerful, important, or impressive
- christian science — Christian Science is a type of Christianity which emphasizes the use of prayer to cure illness.
- christmas cracker — a decorated cardboard tube that emits a bang when pulled apart, releasing a toy, a joke, or a paper hat.
- christmas disease — a relatively mild type of haemophilia, caused by lack of a protein (Christmas factor) implicated in the process of blood clotting
- christmas present — a present given at Christmas time, typically on Christmas Day
- christmas pudding — Christmas pudding is a special pudding that is eaten at Christmas.
- chromolithographs — Plural form of chromolithograph.
- circassian walnut — the hard, heavy, brown or purplish wood of the English walnut
- circle the wagons — to take defensive action; prepare for an attack: from arranging a wagon train in a circular formation
- circumstantiality — the quality of being circumstantial
- circumstantiating — Present participle of circumstantiate.
- circumterrestrial — surrounding or revolving about the earth.
- cistern barometer — a mercury barometer in which the lower mercury surface has a greater area than the upper.
- citizen's charter — (formerly, in Britain) a government document setting out standards of service for public and private sector bodies, such as schools, hospitals, railway companies, water and energy suppliers, etc
- civil partnership — A civil partnership is a legal relationship between two people of the same sex that is similar to marriage.
- class-a amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output current flows for the whole of the input signal cycle
- class-b amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output flows for half of the input signal cycle
- class-c amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output current flows for less than half of the input cycle
- clear box testing — white box testing
- clicks and mortar — making use of traditional trading methods in conjunction with internet trading
- clicks-and-mortar — pertaining to or denoting a company that does business on the Internet and in traditional stores or offices.
- clipperton island — an uninhabited atoll in the E Pacific SW of Mexico, under French administration. Area: 6 sq km (2.3 sq miles)
- close corporation — a small private limited company
- close parenthesis — right parenthesis
- clumber (spaniel) — a short-legged spaniel with a heavy body and a thick coat of straight, white hair marked with yellow or orange
- coarse-grain salt — salt with a much larger grain size than table salt