17-letter words containing b, l, e, n
- butterfly bandage — a butterfly-shaped strip of adhesive medical tape used, when stitches are not required, to keep a deep cut or incision tightly closed while it heals
- buttock-clenching — making one tighten the buttocks through extreme fear or embarrassment
- buttonhole stitch — a reinforcing looped stitch for the edge of material, such as around a buttonhole
- buyers' inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
- calcium carbonate — a white crystalline salt occurring in limestone, chalk, marble, calcite, coral, and pearl: used in the production of lime and cement. Formula: CaCO3
- call-by-reference — (programming) An argument passing convention where the address of an argument variable is passed to a function or procedure, as opposed to passing the value of the argument expression. Execution of the function or procedure may have side-effects on the actual argument as seen by the caller. The C language's "&" (address of) and "*" (dereference) operators allow the programmer to code explicit call-by-reference. Other languages provide special syntax to declare reference arguments (e.g. ALGOL 60). See also call-by-name, call-by-value, call-by-value-result.
- canadian fleabane — a plant, Conyza (or Erigeron) canadensis, with small white tubular flower heads
- canarybird flower — a nasturtium, Tropaeolum peregrinum, of Peru, having round, deeply lobed leaves and yellow flowers.
- cantilever bridge — a bridge having spans that are constructed as cantilevers and often a suspended span or spans, each end of which rests on one end of a cantilever span
- carbon disulphide — a colourless slightly soluble volatile flammable poisonous liquid commonly having a disagreeable odour due to the presence of impurities: used as an organic solvent and in the manufacture of rayon and carbon tetrachloride. Formula: CS2
- carbonyl chloride — phosgene
- carboxyhemoglobin — a compound formed in the blood when carbon monoxide occupies the positions on the hemoglobin molecule normally taken by oxygen, resulting in cellular oxygen starvation
- cardinal grosbeak — any of various mostly tropical American buntings, such as the cardinal and pyrrhuloxia, the males of which have brightly coloured plumage
- celebrity wedding — a wedding of famous people, usually reported at length in celebrity magazines
- centrifugal brake — a safety mechanism on a hoist, crane, etc, that consists of revolving brake shoes that are driven outwards by centrifugal force into contact with a fixed brake drum when the rope drum revolves at excessive speed
- cerebral accident — a disturbance of the blood supply to parts of the brain because of blockage or hemorrhage, causing unconsciousness, paralysis, etc.; stroke
- charles lindbergh — Anne (Spencer) Morrow, 1906–2001, U.S. writer (wife of Charles Augustus Lindbergh).
- cinisello balsamo — a city in N Italy, near Milan.
- civil libertarian — a person who actively supports or works for the protection or expansion of civil liberties.
- clear box testing — white box testing
- climbing accident — an accident occurring during climbing
- close the book on — to bring to a definite end
- close to the bone — If something is too close to the bone, it makes you feel uncomfortable because it is very close to the truth or to the real nature of something.
- clumber (spaniel) — a short-legged spaniel with a heavy body and a thick coat of straight, white hair marked with yellow or orange
- collaborativeness — Quality of being collaborative.
- collecting tubule — the part of a nephron that collects the urine from the distal convoluted tubule and discharges it into the pelvis of the kidney.
- combe-capelle man — a skeleton of the early Upper Paleolithic Perigordian culture in France.
- companionableness — The state or quality of being companionable.
- comprehensibility — capable of being comprehended or understood; intelligible.
- condensing boiler — an energy-efficient boiler that makes use of what would otherwise be waste heat
- congo-brazzaville — a republic in W Central Africa: formerly the French colony of Middle Congo, part of French Equatorial Africa, it became independent in 1960; consists mostly of equatorial forest, with savanna and extensive swamps; drained chiefly by the Rivers Congo and Ubangi. Official language: French. Religion: Christian majority. Currency: franc. Capital: Brazzaville. Pop: 4 492 689 (2013 est). Area: 342 000 sq km (132 018 sq miles)
- contingency table — an array having the frequency of occurrence of certain events in each of a number of samples
- contrasuggestible — responding or tending to respond to a suggestion by doing or believing the opposite
- convoluted tubule — a portion of the nephron in the kidney that functions in concentrating urine and in maintaining salt, water, and sugar balance.
- dagestan republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the Caspian Sea: annexed from Persia in 1813; rich mineral resources. Capital: Makhachkala. Pop: 2 584 200 (2002). Area: 50 278 sq km (19 416 sq miles)
- debt rescheduling — the process of changing the time frame or deadline for the repayment of debt, usually to ease the burden on the debtor
- deoxyribonuclease — DNase.
- desoxyribonucleic — Alternative spelling of deoxyribonucleic.
- differentiability — The ability to be differentiated.
- discreditableness — Quality of being discreditable.
- dishonourableness — Alternative spelling of dishonorableness.
- disposable income — the part of a person's income remaining after deducting personal income taxes.
- distribution line — A distribution line is a line or system for distributing power from a transmission system to a consumer that operates at less than 69,000 volts.
- dobell's solution — a clear, yellowish, aqueous solution of sodium borate, sodium bicarbonate, phenol, and glycerol, used chiefly as an antiseptic and astringent for the nose and throat.
- double insulation — Double insulation is insulation that consists of both basic insulation and supplementary insulation.
- double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
- double track line — a railway line with double track
- double-ended bolt — a headless bolt threaded at both ends.
- douglas engelbart — (person) Douglas C. Engelbart, the inventor of the mouse. On 1968-12-09, Douglas C. Engelbart and the group of 17 researchers working with him in the Augmentation Research Center at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California, USA, presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the on live system, NLS, they had been working on since 1962. The presentation was a session in the of the Fall Joint Computer Conference held at the Convention Center in San Francisco, and it was attended by about 1000 computer professionals. This was the public debut of the computer mouse, hypertext, object addressing, dynamic file linking and shared-screen collaboration involving two persons at different sites communicating over a network with audio and video interface. The original 90-minute video: Hyperlinks, Mouse, Web-board.
- downwardly mobile — See under vertical mobility (def 1).