17-letter words containing b, e, t, r, o, n
- exhibition centre — a large building in which major trade fairs are held
- flowering tobacco — any plant belonging to the genus Nicotiana, of the nightshade family, as N. alata and N. sylvestris, having clusters of fragrant flowers that usually bloom at night, grown as an ornamental.
- fort walton beach — a city in NW Florida.
- frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
- goldbeater's skin — the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used by goldbeaters to lay between the leaves of the metal while they beat it into gold leaf.
- golf ball printer — IBM 2741
- government broker — the government-appointed stockbroker whose job is to sell government securities on the stock exchange, as instructed by the Bank of England
- haemoglobinometer — an instrument used to determine the haemoglobin content of blood
- have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they dislike you and try to cause problems for you.
- have on the brain — If someone has something on the brain, they keep thinking about it.
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- high-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent carbon
- histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
- hold one's breath — If you say that someone is holding their breath, you mean that they are waiting anxiously or excitedly for something to happen.
- honorable mention — a citation conferred on a contestant, exhibit, etc., having exceptional merit though not winning a top honor or prize.
- hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
- hottentot's bread — elephant's-foot.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- in the background — behind the focus of attention
- incompressibility — The quality of being incompressible, of not compressing under pressure.
- incubation period — the period between infection and the appearance of signs of a disease.
- inertial observer — a hypothetical observer who is not accelerated with respect to an inertial system. Newton's laws of motion and the special theory of relativity apply to the measurements which would be made by such observers
- insectivorous bat — any bat of the suborder Microchiroptera, typically having large ears and feeding on insects. The group includes common bats (Myotis species), vampire bats, etc
- insupportableness — The state of being insupportable; insufferableness.
- inter-convertible — to subject to interconversion; interchange.
- interlibrary loan — a system by which one library obtains a work for a user by borrowing it from another library.
- internet backbone — (communications, networking) High-speed networks that carry Internet traffic. These communications networks are provided by companies such as AT&T, GTE, IBM, MCI, Netcom, Sprint, UUNET and consist of high-speed links in the T1, T3, OC1 and OC3 ranges. The backbones carry Internet traffic around the world and meet at Network Access Points (NAPs). The topology of the "backbone" and its interconnections may once have resembled a spine with ribs connected along its length but is now almost certainly more like a fishing net wrapped around the world with many circular paths.
- into one's barrow — suited to one's interests or desires
- inverted snobbery — the attitude of an inverted snob
- invisible exports — services sold to a foreign country or countries
- invisible imports — imports of services rather than goods
- irrational number — a number that cannot be exactly expressed as a ratio of two integers.
- irreconcilability — incapable of being brought into harmony or adjustment; incompatible: irreconcilable differences.
- job advertisement — an announcement in a newspaper, on television, or on a poster about a post of employment
- job-order costing — a method of cost accounting by which the total cost of a given unit or quantity is determined by computing the costs that go into making a product as it moves through the manufacturing process.
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- liberal education — an education based primarily on the liberal arts, emphasizing the development of intellectual abilities as opposed to the acquisition of professional skills.
- lithium carbonate — a colorless crystalline compound, Li 2 CO 3 , slightly soluble in water: used in ceramic and porcelain glazes, pharmaceuticals, and luminescent paints.
- little blue heron — a small heron, Egretta caerulea, of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, having bluish-gray plumage.
- macroinvertebrate — (zoology) An invertebrate that is large enough to be seen without the use of a microscope.
- madiba generation — the generation born around 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first president of a multiracial South Africa
- methyltheobromine — caffeine.
- microinvertebrate — An invertebrate of microscopic size.
- monarch butterfly — a large, deep-orange butterfly, Danaus plexippus, having black and white markings, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of milkweed.
- monkey bread tree — a bombacaceous tree, Adansonia digitata, native to Africa, that has a very thick trunk, large white flowers, and a gourdlike fruit with an edible pulp called monkey bread
- naval observatory — an astronomical observatory located in Washington, D.C., operated by the U.S. government, and responsible for the U.S. time service.
- near-earth object — a comet or asteroid pushed by the gravitational attraction of nearby planets into an orbit that allows it to enter the earth's orbit and thereby pose a danger of collision. Abbreviation: NEO.
- neath port talbot — a county borough in S Wales, created from part of West Glamorgan in 1996. Administrative centre: Port Talbot. Pop: 135 300 (2003 est). Area: 439 sq km (169 sq miles)
- neurofibromatosis — a dominantly inherited genetic disorder characterized by flat brown patches on the skin, neurofibromas of the skin and internal organs, and in some cases skeletal deformity.