12-letter words containing a, v, e, r
- unvulnerable — invulnerable
- unwaveringly — to sway to and fro; flutter: Foliage wavers in the breeze.
- uv ceti star — flare star.
- vacuum brake — a brake system, used on British and many overseas railways, in which the brake is held off by a vacuum on one side of the brake-operating cylinder. If the vacuum is destroyed by controlled leakage of air or a disruptive emergency, the brake is applied. It is now largely superseded by the Westinghouse brake system
- vacuum frame — a machine from which the air is extracted in order to obtain close contact between the surfaces of two materials, e.g. the film and plate during platemaking
- vacuum servo — a servomechanism that is operated by the lowering of pressure in the intake duct of an internal-combustion engine
- val-de-marne — a department in N France. 94 sq. mi. (243 sq. km). Capital: Créteil.
- valeric acid — any of several isomeric organic acids having the formula C 5 H 10 O 2 , the common one being a liquid of pungent odor obtained from valerian roots: used chiefly as an intermediate in perfumery.
- valetudinary — valetudinarian.
- valley fever — coccidioidomycosis.
- valley forge — a village in SE Pennsylvania: winter quarters of Washington's army 1777–78.
- valve lifter — (in an internal-combustion engine) a tappet that opens a valve when actuated by a camshaft.
- valve spring — a helical spring used to hold closed a valve in the cylinder head of an internal-combustion engine
- van der post — Sir Laurens (Jan). 1906–96, South African writer and traveller. His works include the travel books Venture to the Interior (1952), The Lost World of the Kalahari (1958), and Testament to the Bushmen (1984) and the novels The Hunter and the Whale (1967) and The Admiral's Baby (1996)
- van der rohe — Ludwig Mies [luhd-wig meez,, mees] /ˈlʌd wɪg miz,, mis/ (Show IPA), Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig.
- van devanter — Willis, 1859–1941, U.S. jurist: associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court 1910–37.
- van riebeeck — Jan, full name Johan Anthoniszoon van Riebeeck. 1619–77, Dutch colonial administrator. Founder of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope (1652)
- vanga shrike — any of several birds of the family Vangidae, endemic to Madagascar, some of which resemble shrikes, with great diversity in size, color, and bill shape.
- vanity press — a printing house that specializes in publishing books for which the authors pay all or most of the costs.
- vaporescence — production or formation of vapor.
- vaporishness — the quality or state of being vaporish
- varia lectio — a variant reading.
- variableness — apt or liable to vary or change; changeable: variable weather; variable moods.
- varicoloured — having many colours; variegated; motley
- varicosities — the state or condition of being varicose.
- variety meat — edible meat other than the usual flesh, especially organs, as tongue and liver.
- variety show — vaudeville performance
- variety turn — an act in a variety show
- variocoupler — a transformer having coils with a self-impedance that is essentially constant but a mutual impedance that can be varied by moving one coil with respect to the other.
- varnish tree — any of various trees yielding sap or other substances used for varnish, as Rhus verniciflua, of Japan.
- varying hare — snowshoe hare.
- vas deferens — the duct that transports the sperm from the epididymis to the penis.
- vas efferens — any of a number of short ducts that carry sperm from the testis to the epididymis.
- vascularised — (of a tissue or embryo) to develop or extend blood vessels or other fluid-bearing vessels or ducts; become vascular.
- vascularized — rendered vascular by the formation of new blood vessels.
- vasoligature — vasoligation.
- vector space — an additive group in which addition is commutative and with which is associated a field of scalars, as the field of real numbers, such that the product of a scalar and an element of the group or a vector is defined, the product of two scalars times a vector is associative, one times a vector is the vector, and two distributive laws hold.
- velarization — to pronounce with velar articulation.
- vellum paper — a creamy coloured heavy paper resembling vellum
- velociraptor — a small carnivorous dinosaur of the genus Velociraptor , from the late Cretaceous period, capable of leaping, and growing to a length of about 6 feet (2 meters), having feathers, a flat snout, short forelimbs with large handlike talons, and a large sickle-shaped claw on each foot.
- veneer patch — a patch made in one of the veneers of a sheet of plywood before layup.
- venerability — commanding respect because of great age or impressive dignity; worthy of veneration or reverence, as because of high office or noble character: a venerable member of Congress.
- venetian red — a red pigment, originally prepared from a natural oxide of iron, now usually made by calcining a mixture of lime and ferrous sulfate.
- venn diagram — a diagram that uses circles to represent sets and their relationships.
- ventral root — a nerve fiber bundle that emerges from either side of the spinal cord and joins with a complementary bundle to form each spinal nerve in the series of spinal nerves: the root at the rear of the spinal cord (dorsal root or sensory root) conveys sensations to the central nervous system, and the root at the front (ventral root or motor root) conveys impulses to the muscles.
- ventrodorsal — pertaining to the ventral and dorsal aspects of the body; extending from the ventral to the dorsal side.
- ventromedial — relating to both the ventral and medial surfaces, or to the front and to the middle
- venus's-hair — a delicate maidenhair fern, Adiantum capillus-veneris.
- verbal abuse — insulting, shouting at sb
- verbal irony — irony in which a person says or writes one thing and means another, or uses words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of the literal meaning.