16-letter words containing c, h, a, n
- archconservative — consistently holding extremely conservative views: publisher of the city's archconservative newspaper.
- armchair banking — the management of one's bank account or accounts using a computer, telephone, or television in the home or via the postal system
- around the clock — continuing without pause or interruption: an around-the-clock guard on the prisoner.
- around-the-clock — all day and all night
- arthus' reaction — a severe, local immune reaction to the injection of an antigen in a sensitized host.
- ascending rhythm — rising rhythm.
- asiatic elephant — Indian elephant. See under elephant.
- athanasian creed — a profession of faith widely used in the Western Church which, although formerly attributed to Athanasius, probably originated in Gaul between 381 and 428 ad
- atlantic charter — the joint declaration issued by F. D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill on Aug 14, 1941, consisting of eight principles to guide a postwar settlement
- attendance sheet — an official document for listing those attending a meeting, class, course, etc
- atwood's machine — a device consisting of two unequal masses connected by a string passed over a pulley, used to illustrate the laws of motion.
- auction pinochle — a variety of pinochle for three to five players in which, for every hand, there are three active players, each dealt 15 cards, with the highest bidder winning the contract and playing against the other two active opponents.
- audience chamber — a room where a monarch or head of state conducts formal interviews
- authentification — The process of making, or establishing as, authentic.
- autoethnographic — Using ethnographic techniques to describe one's own life, or events in which one is a participant.
- background check — an investigation into a person's origins and previous history
- balloon catheter — a type of catheter with a tiny, inflatable balloon at the tip, used in various surgical procedures
- batch processing — manufacturing products or treating materials in batches, by passing the output of one process to subsequent processes
- batch production — production of goods in batches, rather than continuously
- bathroom cabinet — a wall-mounted cabinet in a bathroom, typically with a mirror front and used for the storage of medicines and toiletries
- bearish tendency — a tendency for share prices to fall
- bill of exchange — (now chiefly in foreign transactions) a document, usually negotiable, containing an instruction to a third party to pay a stated sum of money at a designated future date or on demand
- biotechnological — Biotechnological means relating to biotechnology.
- birchbark biting — a Native Canadian craft in which designs are bitten onto bark from birch trees
- bismarck herring — marinaded herring, served cold
- black nightshade — a poisonous solanaceous plant, Solanum nigrum, a common weed in cultivated land, having small white flowers with backward-curved petals and black berry-like fruits
- bleaching powder — a white powder with the odour of chlorine, consisting of chlorinated calcium hydroxide with an approximate formula CaCl(OCl).4H2O. It is used in solution as a bleaching agent and disinfectant
- blue in the face — the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
- bonhomme richard — the flagship of John Paul Jones.
- branchial groove — one of a series of rudimentary depressions on the surface of the embryo between adjacent branchial arches, homologous to the branchial clefts of gill-breathing ancestral forms.
- branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
- bronchial asthma — asthma.
- bronchopneumonia — inflammation of the lungs, originating in the bronchioles
- buckley's chance — no chance at all
- buckthorn family — the plant family Rhamnaceae, characterized by shrubs and trees having alternate, simple leaves, clusters of small flowers, and fruit in the form of a drupe or capsule, and including the buckthorn, cascara, and New Jersey tea.
- buoyancy chamber — an enclosed section of a canoe, float, ship or other object that contains air, foam, or another buoyant substance in order to help maintain buoyancy
- bureau de change — a place where foreign currencies can be exchanged
- business machine — a machine for expediting clerical work, as a tabulator or adding machine.
- byzantine church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
- cache on a stick — (architecture) (COAST) Intel Corporation attempt to's standardise the modular L2 cache subsystem in Pentium-based computers. A COAST module should be about 4.35" wide by 1.14" high. According to earlier specifications from Motorola, a module between 4.33" and 4.36" wide, and between 1.12" and 1.16" high is within the COAST standard. Some module vendors, including some major motherboard suppliers, greatly violate the height specification. Another COAST specification violated by many suppliers concerns clock distribution in synchronous modules. The specification requires that the clock tree to each synchronous chip be balanced, i.e. equal length from edge of the connector to individual chips. An unbalanced clock tree increases reflections and noise. For a 256 kilobyte cache module the standard requires the same clock be used for both chips but some vendors use separate clocks to reduce loading on the clock driver and hence increase the clock speed. However, this creates unbalanced loading in other motherboard configurations, such as motherboards with soldered caches in the system.
- caducibranchiate — (of many amphibians, such as frogs) having gills during one stage of the life cycle only
- call one's shots — a discharge of a firearm, bow, etc.
- camborne-redruth — a former (until 1974) urban district in SW England, in Cornwall: formed in 1934 by the amalgamation of the neighbouring towns of Camborne and Redruth. Pop: 39 936 (2001)
- can-not help but — to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist: He planned to help me with my work. Let me help you with those packages.
- canadian english — the English language as spoken in Canada
- canadian hemlock — eastern hemlock.
- canyon de chelly — a canyon in NE Arizona, in the Navajo reservation: site contains prehistoric cliff dwellings.
- carnot's theorem — the principle that no engine operating between two given temperatures can be more efficient than a Carnot engine operating between the same temperatures.
- carpatho-ukraine — a region in W Ukraine: ceded by Czechoslovakia in 1945.
- carpenter gothic — (sometimes initial capital letters) a style of Victorian Gothic architecture adapted to the resources of contemporary woodworking tools and machinery.