16-letter words containing a, s, c, n
- tungsten carbide — a very hard, black or gray compound of tungsten and carbon, used in the manufacture of cutting and abrasion tools, dies, and wear-resistant machine parts.
- twin-lens camera — a camera having two separately mounted lenses coordinated to eliminate parallax errors or for making stereoscopic photographs.
- unaccomplishable — to bring to its goal or conclusion; carry out; perform; finish: to accomplish one's mission.
- unattractiveness — the condition of not appealing to the senses or mind through beauty, form, character, etc
- uncharacteristic — Also, characteristical. pertaining to, constituting, or indicating the character or peculiar quality of a person or thing; typical; distinctive: Red and gold are the characteristic colors of autumn.
- uncinate process — a curved, bony process on certain ribs of birds that projects backward and overlaps the succeeding rib, serving to strengthen the thorax.
- uncircumstantial — of pertaining to, or derived from circumstances: a circumstantial result.
- unconstitutional — not constitutional; unauthorized by or inconsistent with the constitution, as of a country.
- unconversational — of, relating to, or characteristic of conversation: a conversational tone of voice.
- undercompensated — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- undersecretariat — a department or section of a ministry of which an under secretary is in charge.
- undiscriminating — differentiating; analytical.
- undiscriminatory — characterized by or showing prejudicial treatment, especially as an indication of bias related to age, color, national origin, religion, sex, etc.: discriminatory practices in housing; a discriminatory tax.
- unissued capital — authorized capital that has not yet been issued as shares
- unsystematically — having, showing, or involving a system, method, or plan: a systematic course of reading; systematic efforts.
- upside-down cake — a cake that is baked on a layer of fruit, then turned before serving so that the fruit is on top.
- upsilon particle — the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
- urinary calculus — a calcareous concretion in the urinary tract.
- vancouver island — an island of SW Canada, off the SW coast of British Columbia: separated from the Canadian mainland by the Strait of Georgia and Queen Charlotte Sound, and from the US mainland by Juan de Fuca Strait; the largest island off the W coast of North America. Chief town: Victoria. Pop: 706 243 (2001). Area: 32 137 sq km (12 408 sq miles)
- vapor combustion — Vapor combustion is a closed burn system used for treating liquid waste which contains volatile organic compounds.
- vasoconstriction — constriction of the blood vessels, as by the action of a nerve.
- vasoconstrictive — causing vasoconstriction.
- velcro fastening — a fastening made of Velcro
- vertical tasting — a tasting of different vintages of one particular wine.
- viceregal assent — the formal signing of an act of parliament by a governor general, by which it becomes law
- victorian values — qualities considered to characterize the Victorian period, including enterprise and initiative and the importance of the family
- vienna secession — thea Viennese movement of the late 19th and early 20th cent. in the arts and architecture, that rejected prevailing academic styles in favor of these of art nouveau
- vincent's angina — a disease characterized by ulceration of the mucosa of the tonsils, pharynx, and mouth, by the presence of abundant bacilli and spirochetes, and by the development of a membrane.
- virginia cowslip — a perennial woodland plant (Mertensia virginica) of the borage family, native to E North America and having clusters of blue or purple, bell-shaped flowers
- visiting teacher — a teacher in a public school system, assigned to give home instruction to sick or disabled pupils.
- visual interface — (tool, text) (vi) /V-I/, /vi:/, *never* /siks/ A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD release. vi became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favourite outside of MIT until the rise of Emacs after about 1984. It tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has often heard the editor's name pronounced /vi:l/). Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even some Emacs fans resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of Emacs). See holy wars.
- vitruvian scroll — a scroll forming a stylized wave pattern.
- voluntary muscle — muscle whose action is normally controlled by an individual's will; mainly skeletal muscle, composed of parallel bundles of striated, multinucleate fibers.
- voluntary school — a school that promotes specific religious beliefs and which is funded by a local education authority but was not established by the authority
- voluntary sector — the part of the economy that consists of non-profit-making organizations, as opposed to the public and private sectors
- walking distance — distance that can easily be walked
- war of secession — American Civil War.
- ward christensen — (person) The inventor of XMODEM and of the BBS. Ward did physics in college and programmed mainframes for IBM. Ward and friend Randy Suess set up their BBS on first on 1978-02-16 in Chicago. It ran on an S-100 computer with 64k RAM and two single-sided 8" 250kB diskettes.
- washington, d. c — Booker T(aliaferro) [boo k-er tol-uh-ver] /ˈbʊk ər ˈtɒl ə vər/ (Show IPA), 1856–1915, U.S. reformer, educator, author, and lecturer.
- washington, d.c. — Booker T(aliaferro) [boo k-er tol-uh-ver] /ˈbʊk ər ˈtɒl ə vər/ (Show IPA), 1856–1915, U.S. reformer, educator, author, and lecturer.
- watch one's step — a movement made by lifting the foot and setting it down again in a new position, accompanied by a shifting of the weight of the body in the direction of the new position, as in walking, running, or dancing.
- well-compensated — to recompense for something: They gave him ten dollars to compensate him for his trouble.
- western sandwich — a sandwich with a western omelet for a filling.
- whole-tone scale — a scale progressing entirely by whole tones, as C, D, E, F♯, G♯, A♯, C.
- wisconsin rapids — a city in central Wisconsin.
- with clean hands — innocently
- word association — stimulation of an associative pattern by a word.
- yeoman's service — good, useful, or workmanlike service: His trusty sword did him yeoman's service.