17-letter words containing c, o, a, l
- class distinction — a characteristic that is observed to differ based on social class
- classical college — (in Quebec) a college offering a programme that emphasizes the classics and leads to university entrance
- classless society — a society in which class distinctions are negligible or absent
- clear box testing — white box testing
- clicks and mortar — making use of traditional trading methods in conjunction with internet trading
- clicks-and-mortar — pertaining to or denoting a company that does business on the Internet and in traditional stores or offices.
- clifden nonpareil — a handsome nocturnal moth, Catocala fraxini, that is brown with bluish patches on the hindwings: related to the red underwing
- clinicopathologic — of or relating to the combined study of disease symptoms and pathology.
- clipperton island — an uninhabited atoll in the E Pacific SW of Mexico, under French administration. Area: 6 sq km (2.3 sq miles)
- close corporation — a small private limited company
- close parenthesis — right parenthesis
- close punctuation — punctuation in which many commas, full stops, etc, are used
- closed-captioning — (of a television program, film, or video) distributed with synchronized transcription of speech and written descriptions of other relevant audio elements, as for the hearing-impaired, that are visible only when the option to display them is selected. Abbreviation: CC.
- closing-down sale — a sale held to clear stock from a shop that is ceasing to operate
- cloud cuckoo land — an idealized, illusory domain of imagination; cloudland: the cloud-cuckoo-land of technicolor cartoon whimsy.
- cloud-cuckoo-land — If you say that someone is living in cloud-cuckoo-land, you are criticizing them because they think there are no problems and that things will happen exactly as they want them to, when this is obviously not the case.
- cloverleaf aerial — a type of aerial, having three or four similar coplanar loops arranged symmetrically around an axis, to which in-phase signals are fed
- coal-tar creosote — impure phenol or carbolic acid, distinct from the creosote of wood tar.
- coarse-grain salt — salt with a much larger grain size than table salt
- coastguard vessel — a ship used by the coastguard
- cock-a-doodle-doo — an imitation or representation of a cock crowing
- cocktail waitress — a woman who serves in a bar or cocktail lounge
- codlins-and-cream — an onagraceous plant, Epilobium hirsutum, native to Europe and Asia and introduced into North America, having purplish-red flowers and hairy stems and leaves
- coffee-table book — A coffee-table book is a large expensive book with a lot of pictures, which is designed to be looked at rather than to be read properly, and is usually placed where people can see it easily.
- coin of the realm — legal tender.
- coldstream guards — a guard regiment of the English royal household: formed in Coldstream, Scotland, 1659–60, and instrumental in restoring the English monarchy under Charles II.
- coliform bacillus — any of several bacilli, especially Escherichia coli and members of the genus Aerobacter, found as commensals in the large intestine of humans and certain other animals, the presence of which in water indicates fecal pollution.
- coliform bacteria — a large group of bacteria inhabiting the intestinal tract of humans and animals that may cause disease and whose presence in water is an indicator of faecal pollution
- collaborativeness — Quality of being collaborative.
- collateral damage — Collateral damage is accidental injury to non-military people or damage to non-military buildings which occurs during a military operation.
- collateralization — The act or process of collateralizing.
- collection agency — A collection agency is an organization that obtains payments from people who owe money to others.
- collegiate church — a church that has an endowed chapter of canons and prebendaries attached to it but that is not a cathedral
- colleterial gland — a paired accessory reproductive gland, present in most female insects, secreting a sticky substance that forms either the egg cases or the cement that binds the eggs to a surface
- colloquialization — The process or result of making colloquial.
- color temperature — a temperature defined in terms of the temperature of a black body at which it emits light of a specified spectral distribution: used to specify the color of a light source.
- color-coordinated — with all parts or elements related, blended, or matched to a particular color scheme.
- colour photograph — a photograph that is developed and printed in colour
- colour separation — the division of a coloured original into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so that plates may be made for print reproduction. Separation may be achieved by electronic scanning or by photographic techniques using filters to isolate each colour
- colour subcarrier — a component of a colour television signal on which is modulated the colour or chrominance information
- columnar jointing — (in basaltic igneous rocks) a series of generally hexagonal columns formed by vertical joints as a result of contraction during cooling.
- combe-capelle man — a skeleton of the early Upper Paleolithic Perigordian culture in France.
- combinatory logic — (logic) A system for reducing the operational notation of logic, mathematics or a functional language to a sequence of modifications to the input data structure. First introduced in the 1920's by Schoenfinkel. Re-introduced independently by Haskell Curry in the late 1920's (who quickly learned of Schoenfinkel's work after he had the idea). Curry is really responsible for most of the development, at least up until work with Feys in 1958. See combinator.
- commercial agency — a concern that investigates for the benefit of its subscribers the financial standing, reputation, and credit rating of individuals, firms, corporations, or others.
- commercial credit — credit issued by a bank to a business to finance trading or manufacturing operations.
- commercialisation — Alternative spelling of commercialization.
- commercialization — to make commercial in character, methods, or spirit.
- committal hearing — (in British law) a preliminary inquiry by a magistrate to decide if there is enough evidence for a case to go to trial
- communal marriage — group marriage.
- commuter airplane — air taxi.