15-letter words containing c, o, n, s, r
- at short notice — Notice is used in expressions such as 'at short notice', 'at a moment's notice' or 'at twenty-four hours' notice', to indicate that something can or must be done within a short period of time.
- at the controls — If someone is at the controls of a machine or other piece of equipment, they are operating it.
- autofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting autofluorescence.
- barbizon school — a group of French painters of landscapes of the 1840s, including Théodore Rousseau, Daubigny, Diaz, Corot, and Millet
- barn conversion — the adaptation of a farm barn into a building serving a different use, such as a house or commercial premises
- bear comparison — to be sufficiently similar in class or range to be compared with (something else), esp favourably
- ben day process — a method of adding texture, shading, or detail to line drawings by overlaying a transparent sheet of dots or any other pattern during platemaking
- beta conversion — (theory) A term from lambda-calculus for beta reduction or beta abstraction.
- bioastronautics — the study of the effects of space flight on living organisms
- biscuit tortoni — an individual portion of tortoni, frozen and served in a small cup, often topped with ground almonds.
- bits per second — (communications, unit) (bps, b/s) The unit in which data rate is measured. For example, a modem's data rate is usually measured in kilobits per second. In 1996, the maximum modem speed for use on the PSTN was 33.6 kbps, rising to 56 kbps in 1997. Note that kilo- (k), mega- (M), etc. in data rates denote powers of 1000, not 1024.
- black snakeroot — a tall bugbane, Cimicifuga racemosa, of the buttercup family, of eastern North America, having thin, tapering, toothed or deeply cut leaflets and branched clusters of small, white flowers.
- blow one's cork — to lose one's temper; become enraged
- boa constrictor — A boa constrictor is a large snake that kills animals by wrapping itself round their bodies and squeezing them to death. Boa constrictors are found mainly in South and Central America and the West Indies.
- boarding school — A boarding school is a school which some or all of the pupils live in during the school term. Compare day school.
- booster cushion — an extra seat or cushion placed on an existing seat for a child to sit on in a car
- borderline case — a person or thing that is not clearly classifiable as something
- boston massacre — an outbreak (1770) in Boston against British troops, in which a few citizens were killed
- bourbon biscuit — a rich chocolate-flavoured biscuit with a chocolate-cream filling
- boustrophedonic — of or relating to lines written in opposite directions
- brachistochrone — the curve between two points through which a body moves under the force of gravity in a shorter time than for any other curve; the path of quickest descent
- branchiostegous — branchiostegal.
- bristol channel — an inlet of the Atlantic, between S Wales and SW England, merging into the Severn estuary. Length: about 137 km (85 miles)
- british council — an organization founded (1934) to extend the influence of British culture and education throughout the world
- brocken specter — an optical phenomenon sometimes occurring at high altitudes when the image of an observer placed between the sun and a cloud is projected on the cloud as a greatly magnified shadow.
- bronchial tubes — the bronchi or their smaller divisions
- caernarvonshire — (until 1974) a county of NW Wales, now part of Gwynedd
- cairngorm-stone — smoky quartz.
- california rose — a cultivated variety of a bindweed, Calystegia hederacea, having showy, double, rose-colored flowers.
- camp counsellor — an adult supervisor assigned to a group of campers at a summer camp
- canadian forces — the official name for the military forces of Canada
- canisterization — the process of putting (something) into a canister or canisters
- car transporter — a vehicle for carrying automobiles
- carcinosarcomas — Plural form of carcinosarcoma.
- cardinal points — the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and west
- 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
- carnivorousness — flesh-eating: A dog is a carnivorous animal.
- carry one's bat — (of an opening batsman) to reach the end of an innings without being dismissed
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- cartier-bresson — Henri (ɑ̃ri). 1908–2004, French photographer
- case conference — a meeting at which all the parties involved in a medical, legal, or social work case come together to discuss it
- cast around for — If you cast around for something or cast about for it, you try to find it or think of it.
- cast aspersions — If you cast aspersions on someone or something, you suggest that they are not very good in some way.
- cast-iron plant — any of several plants belonging to the genus Aspidistra, of the lily family, native to eastern Asia, especially A. eliator, having large evergreen leaves often striped with white, and grown as a houseplant.
- castanospermine — a substance obtained from the Australian chestnut or black bean tree
- castner process — a process for extracting sodium from sodium hydroxide, devised by Hamilton Young Castner (1858–98)
- castrametations — Plural form of castrametation.
- catastrophising — Present participle of catastrophise.
- catastrophizing — Present participle of catastrophize.
- categoricalness — The quality of being categorical, positive, or absolute.