15-letter words containing c, o, e, l, i
- cardinal vowels — a set of theoretical vowel sounds, based on the shape of the mouth needed to articulate them, that can be used to classify the vowel sounds of any speaker in any language
- categoricalness — The quality of being categorical, positive, or absolute.
- category killer — a person, product, or business that dominates a particular market
- cathedral choir — the choir, traditionally consisting of boys and men, that sings in cathedral services
- cauliflower ear — permanent swelling and distortion of the external ear as the result of ruptures of the blood vessels: usually caused by blows received in boxing
- cauliflowerette — a single floret from the head of a cauliflower.
- cavalry officer — an officer in a cavalry regiment
- celandine poppy — a poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, of the east-central U.S., having one pair of deeply lobed leaves and yellow flowers.
- celestial globe — a spherical model of the celestial sphere showing the relative positions of stars, constellations, etc
- cell disruption — Cell disruption is when a biological material becomes smaller to release proteins and enzymes.
- celo-navigation — celestial navigation.
- central locking — a system by which all the doors of a motor vehicle can be locked simultaneously when the driver's door is locked
- centrifugal box — a revolving chamber, used in the spinning of manufactured filaments, in which the plastic fibers, subjected to centrifugal force, are slightly twisted and emerge in the form of yarn wound into the shape of a hollow cylinder.
- cephalothoracic — the anterior part of the body in certain arachnids and crustaceans, consisting of the coalesced head and thorax.
- ceylon cinnamon — the aromatic inner bark of any of several East Indian trees belonging to the genus Cinnamonum, of the laurel family, especially the bark of C. zeylanicum (Ceylon cinnamon) used as a spice, or that of C. loureirii (Saigon cinnamon) used in medicine as a cordial and carminative.
- chamois leather — soft cleaning cloth
- chandler period — the period of the oscillation (Chandler wobble) of the earth's axis, varying between 416 and 433 days.
- channel hopping — (chat) To rapidly switch channels on IRC, or a GEnie chat board. This term may derive from the TV idiom, "channel surfing".
- channel-hopping — Channel-hopping means switching quickly between different television channels because you are looking for something interesting to watch.
- charles simonyi — (person) Microsoft programmer, most famously responsible for Hungarian Notation. Simonyi was born in Budapest in 1948, and for more than a decade was senior programmer at Microsoft in Redmond.
- charlottesville — city in central Va.: pop. 45,000
- chemical toilet — a toilet in which waste is treated with chemicals
- chemolithotroph — Chemoautotroph.
- chemosterilants — Plural form of chemosterilant.
- chenopodium oil — a colorless or yellowish oil obtained from the seeds and leaves of Mexican tea, used chiefly in medicine as an agent for killing or expelling intestinal worms.
- chicken cholera — fowl cholera.
- chicken colonel — an officer with the rank of full colonel
- chicken lobster — a young lobster weighing 1 pound (0.4 kg) or less.
- chief constable — A Chief Constable is the officer who is in charge of the police force in a particular county or area in Britain.
- chief of police — (in the US) the head of a regional or municipal police department
- child endowment — a social security payment for dependent children
- children of god — a highly disciplined, fundamentalist Christian sect, active especially in the early 1970s, whose mostly young converts live in communes.
- children's home — care institution for minors
- children's hour — a play (1934) by Lillian Hellman.
- chile con carne — chili con carne
- chili con carne — Chili con carne is a dish made from meat, with a thick sauce of tomatoes, and powdered or fresh chilies.
- chimney swallow — another name for common swallow
- chinless wonder — a person, esp an upper-class one, lacking strength of character
- chiropterophily — Pollination by bats.
- chloramphenicol — a broad-spectrum antibiotic used esp in treating typhoid fever and rickettsial infections: obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae or synthesized. Formula: C11H12N2O5Cl2
- cholangiectasis — Dilation of the bile ducts.
- cholecalciferol — a compound occurring naturally in fish-liver oils, used to treat rickets. Formula: C27H44O
- cholecystokinin — a hormone secreted by duodenal cells that stimulates the contraction of the gall bladder and secretion of pancreatic enzymes
- cholesterolemia — the presence of an abnormal amount of cholesterol in the blood.
- cholinergically — in a cholinergic manner
- choral speaking — recitation of poetry, dramatic pieces, etc. by a chorus of speakers
- chromatic scale — a twelve-note scale including all the semitones of the octave
- chromium-plated — having been plated with chromium
- ciliary process — one of the folds on the ciliary body, connected with the suspensory ligament of the crystalline lens.
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.