17-letter words containing a, i, r, v
- rift valley fever — a highly infectious viral disease of humans and animals, transmitted by mosquitoes and other insects, occurring in Africa and characterized in humans by headache, fever, eye discomfort, and muscle aches, progressing in some cases to encephalitis, blindness, or internal bleeding.
- riza shah pahlavi — Pahlavi (def 2).
- romantic movement — the late 18th- and early 19th-century movement in France, Germany, England, and America to establish Romanticism in art and literature.
- rotary cultivator — a machine for breaking up and tilling soil, consisting of a series of blades mounted on a revolving power-driven shaft
- saint bonaventure — Saint ("the Seraphic Doctor") 1221–74, Italian scholastic theologian.
- saint croix river — Also called Santa Cruz. a U.S. island in the N Lesser Antilles: the largest of the Virgin Islands. 82 sq. mi. (212 sq. km).
- saturation diving — a method of prolonged diving, using an underwater habitat to allow divers to remain in the high-pressure environment of the ocean depths long enough for their body tissues to become saturated with the inert components of the pressurized gas mixture that they breathe: when this condition is reached, the amount of time required for decompression remains the same, whether the dive lasts a day, a week, or a month.
- second derivative — the derivative of the derivative of a function: Acceleration is the second derivative of distance with respect to time.
- self-conservation — the act of conserving; prevention of injury, decay, waste, or loss; preservation: conservation of wildlife; conservation of human rights.
- self-preservation — preservation of oneself from harm or destruction.
- silver star medal — a U.S. military decoration in the form of a bronze star with a small silver star at the center, awarded for gallantry in action
- sleep deprivation — a condition in which you have not had enough sleep
- sodium-vapor lamp — an electric lamp in which sodium vapor is activated by current passing between two electrodes, producing a yellow, glareless light: used on streets and highways.
- soil conservation — any of various methods to achieve the maximum utilization of the land and preserve its resources through such controls as crop rotation, prevention of soil erosion, etc.
- spanish civil war — the civil war in Spain 1936–39.
- special privilege — exclusive advantage
- spiral bevel gear — a bevel gear having curved teeth tending to converge on the axis of rotation.
- squash vine borer — the larva of a clearwing moth, Melittia satyriniformis, that bores into the stems of squash and related plants.
- stellar evolution — the sequence of changes that occurs in a star as it ages
- subclavian artery — either of a pair of arteries, one on each side of the body, that carry the main supply of blood to the arms.
- subclavian groove — either of two grooves in the first rib, one for the main artery (subclavian artery) and the other for the main vein (subclavian vein) of the arm
- substantive right — a right, as life, liberty, or property, recognized for its own sake and as part of the natural legal order of society.
- subtractive color — cyan, yellow, or magenta, as used in the subtractive process of color photography.
- supermassive star — Astronomy. a star with a mass more than fifty times the mass of the sun.
- supervisory board — a board of management of which nonmanagerial workers are members, having supervisory powers over some aspects of management decision-making
- survival instinct — the instinct in humans and animals to do things in a dangerous situation that will prevent them from dying
- synovial membrane — anatomy: connective tissue
- terminal velocity — Physics. the velocity at which a falling body moves through a medium, as air, when the force of resistance of the medium is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force of gravity. the maximum velocity of a body falling through a viscous fluid.
- the driver's seat — the position of control or dominance
- the evil day/hour — If someone is putting off the evil day or the evil hour, they have to do something unpleasant and are trying to avoid doing it for as long as possible.
- the varsity match — a sporting fixture between Oxford and Cambridge university rugby teams
- to have a tin ear — If you say that someone has a tin ear for something, you mean that they do not have any natural ability for it and cannot appreciate or understand it fully.
- traffic diversion — a special route arranged for traffic to follow when the normal route cannot be used
- traffic violation — driving offence
- transverse engine — an engine which is fitted side-to-side across the axis of a vehicle
- travancore-cochin — a former Indian state that was a merger of Travancore and Cochin, two former princely states of India, and which became part of Kerala state in 1956
- travelling people — Gypsies or other itinerant people: a term used esp by such people of themselves
- twelve patriarchs — any of the sons of Jacob ((the twelve patriarchs),) from whom the tribes of Israel were descended.
- ultraconservative — extremely conservative, especially in politics.
- uncooperativeness — working or acting together willingly for a common purpose or benefit.
- universal algebra — (logic) The model theory of first-order equational logic.
- universal grammar — a grammar that attempts to establish the properties and constraints common to all possible human languages.
- vacuum aspiration — menstrual extraction.
- vacuum extraction — applying suction to a baby's head during birth to help it emerge
- vaginal discharge — emission from the female genitalia
- valetudinarianism — the state, condition, or habits of a valetudinarian.
- vanilla-flavoured — having been flavoured with vanilla extract or essence
- 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
- vascular cylinder — stele (sense 3)