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18-letter words containing g, r, a, t, e

  • borosilicate glass — any of a range of heat- and chemical-resistant glasses, such as Pyrex, prepared by fusing together boron(III) oxide, silicon dioxide, and, usually, a metal oxide
  • bourdon-tube gauge — an instrument for measuring the pressure of gases or liquids, consisting of a semicircular or coiled, flexible metal tube attached to a gauge that records the degree to which the tube is straightened by the pressure of the gas or liquid inside.
  • breast enlargement — a surgical procedure to increase the size of a woman's breasts
  • breathing exercise — an exercise intended to promote effective and healthy breathing and breath control
  • broadcasting house — any of a number of buildings in the UK from which the BBC broadcasts or has broadcast
  • building materials — materials such as bricks, cement, timber, etc
  • butter-and-egg man — a prosperous businessman from a small town or a farmer who spends his money ostentatiously on visits to a big city.
  • cabernet sauvignon — a black grape originally grown in the Bordeaux area of France, and now throughout the wine-producing world
  • cabinet government — parliamentary government.
  • campaign furniture — furniture, as chests or desks, having metal hinges on the corners and handles on the sides.
  • can't get arrested — (of a performer) is unrecognized and unsuccessful
  • carthaginian peace — the treaty by which Rome reduced Carthage to the status of a puppet state in 201 b.c.
  • catalogue raisonne — a descriptive catalogue, esp one covering works of art in an exhibition or collection
  • categorial grammar — a theory that characterizes syntactic categories in terms of functions between classes of expressions. The basic classes are names (N) and sentences (S). Intransitive verbs are symbols for functions which take a name and yield a sentence (written S/N), adverbs form compound verbs from verbs (for example, run fast) and so are (S/N)/(S/N), etc
  • cationic detergent — a type of detergent in which the active part of the molecule is a positive ion (cation). Cationic detergents are usually quaternary ammonium salts and often also have bactericidal properties
  • ceiling decoration — a plaster moulding for the centre of a ceiling; other decoration, such as coving
  • celestial marriage — the rite or state of marriage, performed in a Mormon temple by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and believed to continue beyond death.
  • central government — the government of a state or country
  • centrifugal clutch — an automatic clutch in which the friction surfaces are engaged by weighted levers acting under centrifugal force at a certain speed of rotation
  • character encoding — (character)   (Or "character encoding scheme") A mapping between binary data values and character code positions (or "code points"). Early systems stored characters in a variety of ways, e.g. four six-bit characters in a 24-bit word, but around 1960, eight-bit bytes started to become the most common data storage layout, with each character stored in one byte, typically in the ASCII character set. In the case of ASCII, the character encoding is an identity mapping: code position 65 maps to the byte value 65. This is possible because ASCII uses only code positions representable as single bytes, i.e., values between 0 and 255. (US-ASCII only uses values 0 to 127, in fact.) From the late 1990s, there was increased use of larger character sets such as Unicode and many CJK coded character sets. These can represent characters from many languages and more symbols.
  • character graphics — ASCII art
  • character-building — improving certain good or useful traits in a person's character, esp self-reliance, endurance, and courage
  • charge conjugation — the mathematical operation of replacing every elementary particle by its antiparticle. Symbol: C.
  • charge of quarters — a member of the armed forces who handles administration in his or her unit, esp after duty hours
  • chartered engineer — (in Britain) an engineer who is registered with the Engineering Council as having the scientific and technical knowledge and practical experience to satisfy its professional requirements
  • chattering classes — The chattering classes are people such as journalists, broadcasters, or public figures who comment on events but have little or no influence over them.
  • chromolithographer — One engaged in chromolithography.
  • cigar-store indian — a wooden statue of an American Indian, traditionally displayed at the entrance of cigar stores.
  • circular breathing — a technique for sustaining a phrase on a wind instrument, using the cheeks to force air out of the mouth while breathing in through the nose
  • circulating medium — currency serving as a medium of exchange
  • coast-guard cutter — a cutter used by the U.S. Coast Guard.
  • collection charges — the charges levied to cover expenses for the collection of debt
  • compartmentalizing — Present participle of compartmentalize.
  • complementary gene — one of a pair of genes, each from different loci, that together are required for the expression of a certain characteristic
  • computer-generated — produced by a computer program
  • configuration item — (jargon)   Hardware or software, or an aggregate of both, which is designated by the project configuration manager (or contracting agency) for configuration management.
  • congregate housing — a type of housing in which each individual or family has a private bedroom or living quarters but shares with other residents a common dining room, recreational room, or other facilities.
  • congregationalists — a form of Protestant church government in which each local religious society is independent and self-governing.
  • conjugated protein — a biochemical compound consisting of a sequence of amino acids making up a simple protein to which another nonprotein group (a prosthetic group), such as a carbohydrate or lipid group, is attached
  • connected subgraph — (mathematics)   A connected graph consisting of a subset of the nodes and edges of some other graph.
  • consecrated ground — ground that has been made or declared sacred or holy, and is therefore suitable for Christian burial
  • conservation grade — relating to food produced using traditional methods where possible, and following strict specifications regarding animal feeds and welfare, the use of chemical fertilizers, wildlife conservation, and land management
  • continental margin — the offshore zone, consisting of the continental shelf, slope, and rise, that separates the dry-land portion of a continent from the deep ocean floor.
  • counter-aggression — the action of a state in violating by force the rights of another state, particularly its territorial rights; an unprovoked offensive, attack, invasion, or the like: The army is prepared to stop any foreign aggression.
  • counterprogramming — the practice of scheduling a program opposite another program, esp. a popular one, that appeals to a different kind of audience, as in placing a romantic film directed at women opposite a sports program mainly watched by men
  • countryside agency — (in England) a government agency that promotes the conservation and enjoyment of the countryside and aims to stimulate employment in rural areas
  • credibility rating — a supposed measure of how far a person can be believed or trusted
  • creeping featurism — (jargon)   /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance.
  • crested dog's-tail — a common wiry perennial grass, Cynosurus cristatus, of meadows and pasture
  • crested wheatgrass — a forage grass, Agropyron cristatum, native to Eurasia and grown in the Great Plains as pasturage, hay, and for erosion control.
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