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17-letter words containing c, l, a, d

  • emergency landing — an occasion when a place is forced to land: for example, because of a mechanical fault, bad weather, terrorism, etc.
  • epicycloidal gear — a gear of an epicyclic train
  • epidemiologically — With regard to epidemiology.
  • esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
  • exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
  • exceptional child — a gifted child
  • fendalton tractor — a four-wheel drive recreational vehicle
  • fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
  • field sales force — a team of people selling a product or service in the field as opposed to over the telephone, etc
  • financial adviser — A financial adviser is someone whose job it is to advise people about financial products and services.
  • first-aid classes — classes which teach people how to give immediate medical help in an emergency
  • flagrante delicto — Law. in the very act of committing the offense.
  • floating dry dock — a dock that floats and can be lowered in the water for the entrance of a ship, and then raised for use as a dry dock
  • fluid lubrication — lubrication in which bearing surfaces are separated by an oil film sustained by the motion of the parts
  • foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
  • fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
  • fractal dimension — (mathematics)   A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
  • frederick william — 1795–1861, king of Prussia 1840–61 (brother of William I of Prussia).
  • french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
  • full load current — A full load current is the largest current that a motor or other device is designed to carry under particular conditions.
  • galactic latitude — the angular distance from the galactic equator of a point on the celestial sphere.
  • general discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has served honorably but who has not met all the conditions of an honorable discharge.
  • good-time charlie — an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.
  • grand climacteric — Physiology. a period of decrease of reproductive capacity in men and women, culminating, in women, in the menopause.
  • grand union canal — a canal in S England linking London and the Midlands: opened in 1801
  • grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
  • grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
  • greater celandine — celandine (def 1).
  • greenland current — the ocean current flowing clockwise around S Greenland.
  • grey-faced petrel — a dark-coloured New Zealand petrel, Pterodroma macroptera gouldi
  • gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
  • half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
  • hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
  • hammer and sickle — the emblem of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and consisting of an insignia of a hammer with its handle across the blade of a sickle and a star above.
  • hammered dulcimer — dulcimer (sense 1)
  • hard rock geology — (loosely) of or relating to igneous or metamorphic rocks, as in mining (hard-rock mining) and geology (hard-rock geology)
  • hard-shelled clam — quahog
  • hard-shelled crab — a crab, esp. an edible sea crab, before it has shed its hard shell
  • haroun-al-raschid — Harun al-Rashid.
  • henry cabot lodgeHenry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
  • heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
  • historical method — the process of establishing general facts and principles through attention to chronology and to the evolution or historical course of what is being studied.
  • hold all the aces — If you say that someone holds all the aces, you mean that they have all the advantages in a contest or situation.
  • hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
  • homeland security — national defence
  • homovanillic acid — the end product of dopamine metabolism, C 9 H 10 O 4 , found in human urine.
  • household cavalry — (in Britain) cavalry units forming part of the ceremonial guard of the monarch.
  • hydraulic circuit — a circuit through which water or another liquid, instead of electric current, flows, but which otherwise operates in the same way as an electric circuit
  • hydrochloric acid — a colorless or faintly yellow, corrosive, fuming liquid, HCl, used chiefly in chemical and industrial processes.
  • hydroelectrically — Using hydroelectric power.
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