17-letter words containing a, n, u, d
- sum and substance — main idea, gist, or point: the sum and substance of an argument.
- sunday observance — the fact of keeping Sunday as a special day when people go to church
- sunday supplement — a special section incorporated in the Sunday editions of many newspapers, often containing features on books, celebrities, home entertainment, gardening, and the like.
- superaerodynamics — the branch of aerodynamics that deals with gases at very low densities.
- supply and demand — economy: basic market theory
- supreme commander — the military officer commanding all allied forces in a theater of war.
- surface condenser — a device condensing steam or vapor by passing it over a cool surface.
- surgical dressing — a dressing made of cotton, used for incisions made during surgery
- surrender to bail — to present oneself at court at the appointed time after having been on bail
- sustained-release — (of a drug or fertilizer) capable of gradual release of an active agent over a period of time, allowing for a sustained effect; timed-release; long-acting; prolonged-action; slow-release.
- sustentation fund — a fund, esp in the Church of Scotland, to augment the support of ministers
- take into custody — to arrest
- tanenbaum, andrew — Andrew Tanenbaum
- teacher education — training to become a teacher, usually at an institution of higher education
- temporomandibular — of, relating to, or situated near the hinge joint formed by the lower jaw and the temporal bone of the skull.
- the last judgment — the occasion, after the resurrection of the dead at the end of the world, when, according to biblical tradition, God will decree the final destinies of all men according to the good and evil in their earthly lives
- the life and soul — a person regarded as the main source of merriment and liveliness
- therapeutic index — the ratio between the dosage of a drug that causes a lethal effect and the dosage that causes a therapeutic effect.
- thermal diffusion — the separation of constituents, often isotopes, of a fluid under the influence of a temperature gradient.
- thermal underwear — underwear designed to retain body heat in cold temperatures.
- thiopental sodium — a barbiturate, C 11 H 18 N 2 NaO 2 S, used as an anesthetic in surgery and, in psychiatry, for narcoanalysis and to stimulate recall of past events.
- thousandths-place — last in order of a series of a thousand.
- thread escutcheon — a raised metal rim around a keyhole.
- tongue-and-groove — the technique of making a joint between two boards by means of a tongue along the edge of one board that fits into a groove along the edge of the other board
- trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
- turbinado (sugar) — a partially refined, granulated, pale-brown sugar obtained by washing raw sugar in a centrifuge until most of the molasses is removed
- unclassified road — a road that has not been given a grade because it is of a basic standard
- under the weather — the state of the atmosphere with respect to wind, temperature, cloudiness, moisture, pressure, etc.
- undercompensation — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- understandability — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
- undistinguishable — to mark off as different (often followed by from or by): He was distinguished from the other boys by his height.
- undulatory theory — wave theory (def 1).
- 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.
- unlawful wounding — an offence committed when a person maliciously wounds another person
- unpredictableness — not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
- unrealized losses — Unrealized losses are losses from the decrease in value of an asset that you still own.
- urban development — the development or improvement of an urban area by building
- used-car salesman — a person who sells used cars
- 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.
- valetudinarianism — the state, condition, or habits of a valetudinarian.
- vanilla-flavoured — having been flavoured with vanilla extract or essence
- vascular cylinder — stele (sense 3)
- vibrofluidization — Vibrofluidization is when vibration is used to make particles move in a fluidized bed.
- vulcan death grip — (jargon) A variant of Vulcan nerve pinch derived from a Star Trek classic epsisode where a non-existant "Vulcan death grip" was used to fool Romulans that Spock had killed Kirk.
- wallis and futuna — French overseas territory in the South Pacific, northeast of the Fiji Islands: it consists of two groups of islands (Wallis Islands and Futuna Islands): c. 106 sq mi (275 sq km); pop. 14,000
- washing-up liquid — Washing-up liquid is a thick soapy liquid which you add to hot water to clean dirty dishes.
- what do you want? — If you say to someone 'what do you want?', you are asking them in a rather rude or angry way why they have come to the place where you are or why they want to speak to you.
- your day in court — Your day in court is your chance to give your side of an argument or other matter.
- youth-and-old-age — a stiff-growing, erect composite plant, Zinnia elegans, of Mexico, having large, solitary flowers with yellow-to-purple disks and usually red rays.