17-letter words containing b, l, e, t, c
- probability curve — a curve that describes the distribution of probability over the values of a random variable.
- public assistance — government aid to the poor, disabled, or aged or to dependent children, as financial assistance or food stamps.
- public enterprise — economic activity by governmental organizations
- public prosecutor — an officer charged with the conduct of criminal prosecution in the interest of the public.
- public television — a type of noncommercial, usually educational, television programming funded by the government, grants, viewers, and corporations. Compare educational television.
- publicity officer — a person who is employed to get publicity for an organization, or to provide information about it
- publicity-seeking — eager to attract publicity
- quality paperback — a softbound book that is usually larger and more expensive than a mass market paperback and is sold primarily in bookstores as a trade book.
- receiving blanket — a small blanket, usually of cotton, for wrapping an infant, especially following a bath.
- recumbent bicycle — a type of bicycle that is ridden in a reclining position
- red and the black — a novel (1832) by Stendhal.
- reflection nebula — a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light of neighboring stars.
- rhinoceros beetle — any of several scarabaeid beetles, especially of the genus Dynastes, which comprises the largest beetles, characterized by one or more horns on the head and prothorax.
- ribonucleoprotein — a substance composed of RNA in close association with protein; a nucleoprotein containing RNA. Abbreviation: RNP.
- sandro botticelli — Sandro [san-droh,, sahn-;; Italian sahn-draw] /ˈsæn droʊ,, ˈsɑn-;; Italian ˈsɑn drɔ/ (Show IPA), (Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi) 1444?–1510, Italian painter.
- scrape the barrel — to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
- self-incompatible — not capable of self-pollination.
- smokeless tobacco — snuff1 (def 9).
- special constable — a person recruited for temporary or occasional police duties, esp in time of emergency
- 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.
- subject catalogue — a catalogue with entries arranged by subject in a classified sequence
- subsistence level — low standard of living
- subtractive color — cyan, yellow, or magenta, as used in the subtractive process of color photography.
- 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.
- the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
- 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.
- 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.