17-letter words containing a, n, l, y
- intestinal bypass — the surgical circumvention, by anastomosis, of a diseased portion of the intestine; also sometimes used to reduce nutrient absorption in morbidly obese patients.
- intraspecifically — Between individuals of the same species.
- iontophoretically — By means of iontophoresis.
- irreconcilability — incapable of being brought into harmony or adjustment; incompatible: irreconcilable differences.
- it's your funeral — If someone says to you 'It's your funeral', they think your decision or your actions will have bad consequences for you, but they are unwilling to interfere.
- italian greyhound — one of an Italian breed of toy dogs resembling a greyhound.
- john of salisbury — c1115–80, English prelate and scholar.
- jurisprudentially — In terms of jurisprudence.
- kansas city style — a style of jazz developed in Kansas City, Mo., in the early 1930s, marked by a strong blues influence, the use of riffs as a characteristic formal device, and a less pronounced beat than that of the New Orleans or Chicago style of jazz.
- keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- kidney transplant — surgery to replace a kidney
- know only by name — to be familiar with the name of but not know personally
- lady of the night — a tropical American shrub, Brunfelsia americana, of the nightshade family, having berrylike yellow fruit and fragrant white flowers.
- lady-of-the-night — a tropical American shrub, Brunfelsia americana, of the nightshade family, having berrylike yellow fruit and fragrant white flowers.
- lance of courtesy — a lance having a blunt head to prevent serious injury by a jouster to an opponent.
- laryngopharyngeal — of, relating to, or involving the larynx and pharynx.
- latter-day saints — a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
- lautenclavicymbal — a harpsichord with strings of gut rather than metal.
- lay it on (thick) — to exaggerate
- liability account — A liability account is an account recording a company's liabilities.
- literacy campaign — a campaign designed to reduce illiteracy and promote literacy in a country, area, etc
- livingstone daisy — a gardener's name for various species of Mesembryanthemum, esp M. criniflorum, grown as garden annuals (though several are perennial) for their brightly coloured showy flowers: family Aizoaceae
- luminous efficacy — the quotient of the luminous flux of a radiation and its corresponding radiant flux
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- lymphangiographic — Relating to lymphangiography.
- lyon king of arms — the chief herald of Scotland
- macroevolutionary — Pertaining to, or as a result of macroevolution.
- magellan barberry — an evergreen shrub, Berberis buxifolia, of southern Chile, having prickle-tipped leaves, dark-purple fruit, and orange-yellow flowers, rarely flowering in cultivation.
- magnetoelasticity — the phenomenon, consisting of a change in magnetic properties, exhibited by a ferromagnetic material to which stress is applied.
- mains electricity — electricity supplied to a building through wires
- malayo-polynesian — a family of languages extending from Madagascar to the central Pacific, including Malagasy, Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Polynesian
- manual typewriter — a keyboard machine, operated entirely by hand, for writing mechanically in characters resembling print
- manufacturability — The condition of being manufacturable.
- many-valued logic — the study of logical systems in which the truth-values that a proposition may have are not restricted to two, representing only truth and falsity
- melissopalynology — The study of honey and its composition.
- mental deficiency — mental retardation
- mental disability — a general or specific intellectual handicap, resulting directly or indirectly from injury to the brain or from abnormal neurological development
- mentally impaired — with reduced or weakened mental capacity
- mercantile agency — commercial agency.
- mercantile system — a system of political and economic policy, evolving with the modern national state and seeking to secure a nation's political and economic supremacy in its rivalry with other states. According to this system, money was regarded as a store of wealth, and the goal of a state was the accumulation of precious metals, by exporting the largest possible quantity of its products and importing as little as possible, thus establishing a favorable balance of trade.
- methyl isocyanate — Chemistry. a highly toxic, flammable, colorless liquid, CH 3 NCO, used as an intermediate in the manufacture of pesticides: in 1984, the accidental release of a cloud of this gas in Bhopal, India, killed more than 1700 people and injured over 200,000.
- methylnaphthalene — a compound, C 1 1 H 1 0 , whose alpha isomer, a colorless liquid, is used in determining cetane numbers.
- methyltransferase — any of a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of methyl groups from one molecule to another.
- microevolutionary — Of or pertaining to microevolution.
- micropaleontology — the branch of paleontology dealing with the study of microscopic fossils.
- militant tendency — (in Britain) a Trotskyist group formerly operating within the Labour Party
- military covenant — the supposed understanding that members of the armed forces and their families will be supported by the state in the event of injury or death in the course of duty
- military governor — the military officer in command of a military government.
- military training — drilling in army discipline and techniques
- miss lonelyhearts — a novel (1933) by Nathanael West.