17-letter words containing b, c, e
- stick to the ribs — to pierce or puncture with something pointed, as a pin, dagger, or spear; stab: to stick one's finger with a needle.
- stockbroker tudor — a modern style of architecture popular in affluent suburban areas that is imitative of Tudor architecture
- 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
- subject catalogue — a catalogue with entries arranged by subject in a classified sequence
- subjective spirit — spirit, insofar as it falls short of the attainments of objective spirit.
- subscription rate — the price charged for a subscription
- subsistence level — low standard of living
- subtractive color — cyan, yellow, or magenta, as used in the subtractive process of color photography.
- 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
- symbolic assembly — (language) An early system on the IBM 705.
- symbolic language — a specialized language dependent upon the use of symbols for communication and created for the purpose of achieving greater exactitude, as in symbolic logic or mathematics.
- synthetic biology — the application of computer science techniques to create artificial biological systems
- tabernacle mirror — a mirror of c1800, having columns and a cornice, usually gilt, with a painted panel over the mirror.
- tax-bracket creep — bracket creep.
- the bag of tricks — every device; everything
- the barbary coast — a historic name for the Mediterranean coast of North Africa: a centre of piracy against European shipping from the 16th to the 19th centuries
- the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
- the buckeye state — a nickname for Ohio
- the carboniferous — the Carboniferous period or rock system
- to be taken aback — If you are taken aback by something, you are surprised or shocked by it and you cannot respond at once.
- to beat the clock — If you beat the clock, you finish doing something or succeed in doing something before the time allowed for doing it has ended.
- to cook the books — If you say that someone has cooked the books, you mean that they have changed figures or a written record in order to deceive people.
- tone control knob — a round switch on a radio, record player, etc that is turned to alter the tone control
- torricellian tube — a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure
- transonic barrier — sound barrier.
- triboluminescence — luminescence produced by friction, usually within a crystalline substance.
- trouble came back — (jargon) (TCB) An IBM term for an intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect or shotgun debugging. Compare heisenbug.
- tubercle bacillus — the bacterium, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, causing tuberculosis.
- tuberculin-tested — (of milk) produced by cows that have been certified as free of tuberculosis
- turbidity current — a turbid, dense current of sediments in suspension moving along the slope and bottom of a lake or ocean.
- turbosupercharger — (formerly) a turbocharger.
- tympanic membrane — eardrum.
- ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
- uncircumscribable — to draw a line around; encircle: to circumscribe a city on a map.
- uncle tom's cabin — an antislavery novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- uncomfortableness — causing discomfort or distress; painful; irritating.
- unpredictableness — not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
- unreconstructible — not capable of being reconstructed.
- vertical mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- vitamin b complex — an important group of water-soluble vitamins containing vitamin B 1 , vitamin B 2 , etc.
- voidable contract — a contract or agreement that is capable of being made of no legal effect or made void
- wearable computer — a small computer that is worn or carried on the body; a wearable computing device: a wrist-worn wearable computer with a head-mounted display.
- white blood cells — any of various nearly colorless cells of the immune system that circulate mainly in the blood and lymph and participate in reactions to invading microorganisms or foreign particles, comprising the B cells, T cells, macrophages, monocytes, and granulocytes.
- white book cd-rom — (hardware, standard) A more open CD-ROM standard than Green Book CD-ROM. All films mastered on CD-ROM after March 1994 use White Book. Like Green Book, it is ISO 9660 compliant, uses mode 2 form 2 addressing and can only be played on a CD-ROM drive which is XA (Extended Architecture) compatible. White book CDs are labelled "Video CD".
- winchester bushel — a unit of dry measure containing 4 pecks, equivalent in the U.S. (and formerly in England) to 2150.42 cubic inches or 35.24 liters (Winchester bushel) and in Great Britain to 2219.36 cubic inches or 36.38 liters (Imperial bushel) Abbreviation: bu., bush.
- work-life balance — a situation in which one divides or balances one's time between work and activities outside of work: It's hard to achieve a reasonable work-life balance when you run your own business.
- working substance — a substance, usually a fluid, that undergoes changes in pressure, temperature, volume, or form as part of a process for accomplishing work.
- zero-coupon bonds — Zero-coupon bonds are bonds with no coupons that do not pay interest, and are sold at a large discount from their face value.