17-letter words containing g, r, a
- angular leaf spot — a disease of plants, characterized by angular, watery spots on the leaves and fruit, caused by any of several bacteria, as Pseudomonas lachrymans.
- anionic detergent — any of a class of synthetic compounds whose anions are alkali salts, as soap, or whose ions are ammonium salts.
- answering machine — An answering machine is the same as an answerphone.
- answering pennant — one of the flags of the International Code of Signals, a pennant of three red and two white vertical stripes, flown at the dip while a message is being interpreted and close up when it is understood.
- answering service — a business that answers telephone calls on behalf of another business or organization, taking messages from and providing information to callers
- anthropogenically — In an anthropogenic way.
- anthropogeography — a branch of anthropology dealing with the geographical distribution of humankind and the relationship between human beings and their environment.
- anthropologically — the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind.
- anthropophaginian — (nonce, humorous) One who eats human flesh.
- anti-aircraft gun — a gun intended to destroy enemy aircraft
- anti-carcinogenic — any substance or agent that tends to produce a cancer.
- anti-profiteering — a person who seeks or exacts exorbitant profits, especially through the sale of scarce or rationed goods.
- antiferromagnetic — noting or pertaining to a substance in which, at sufficiently low temperatures, the magnetic moments of adjacent atoms point in opposite directions.
- antihyperglycemic — (of a medication or treatment) Tending to reduce hyperglycemia (high blood sugar, characteristic of diabetes).
- antiprostaglandin — A prostaglandin inhibitor.
- antitwilight arch — a narrow band, pink or with a purple cast, that sometimes appears at twilight just above the horizon opposite the sun.
- antivirus program — antivirus software
- anytime algorithm — (algorithm) An algorithm that returns a sequence of approximations to the correct answer such that each approximation is no worse than the previous one, i.e. the algorithm can be stopped at _any time_. x = (x + b / x) / 2 Each new x is closer to the square root than the previous one. Applications might include a real-time control system or a chess program that is allowed a fixed thinking time.
- api gravity scale — the American Petroleum Institute gravity scale: a universally accepted scale of the relative density of fluids that is used in fuel technology and is measured in degrees API. One degree API is equal to (141.5/d)–131.5, where d = relative density at 288.7K
- argumentativeness — fond of or given to argument and dispute; disputatious; contentious: The law students were an unusually argumentative group.
- arlington heights — village in NE Ill.: suburb of Chicago: pop. 76,000
- armchair shopping — buying goods using a computer, telephone, or television in the home or via the postal system
- arranged marriage — In an arranged marriage, the parents choose the person who their son or daughter will marry.
- arresting officer — the police officer making an arrest
- arsenic poisoning — poisoning by arsenic
- as far as it goes — If you say that something is good as far as it goes or true so far as it goes, you mean that it is good or true only to a limited extent.
- ascertained goods — specific goods
- asperger syndrome — a developmental disorder characterized by severely impaired social skills, repetitive behaviors, and often, a narrow set of interests, but not involving delayed development of linguistic and cognitive abilities: now considered one of the autism spectrum disorders.
- assistant manager — a person who assists a manager in their work
- astrophotographer — A person, especially an astronomer, who takes photographs of the stars.
- at their own game — If you beat someone at their own game, you use the same methods that they have used, but more successfully, so that you gain an advantage over them.
- attainment target — a general defined level of ability that a pupil is expected to achieve in every subject at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- augmented reality — an artificial environment created through the combination of real-world and computer-generated data
- australia antigen — an antigen present in the blood of some persons with one form of hepatitis
- automatic writing — writing performed without apparent intent or conscious control, especially to achieve spontaneity or uncensored expression.
- auxiliary storage — secondary storage.
- average deviation — a measure of dispersion, computed by taking the arithmetic mean of the absolute values of the deviations of the functional values from some central value, usually the mean or median.
- average seek time — (storage) The mean time it takes to move the head of a disk drive from one track to another, averaged over the source and destination cylinders. Usually measured in milliseconds (ms). The average seek time gives a good measure of the speed of the drive in a multi-user environment where successive read/write request are largely uncorrelated. Ten ms is common for a hard disk and 200 ms for an eight-speed CD-ROM.
- avogadro constant — the number of atoms or molecules in a mole of a substance
- avogadro's number — the constant, 6.022 × 10 23 , representing the number of atoms, molecules, or ions in one mole of a substance. Symbol: N. Compare gram-atom, gram molecule.
- bachelor's degree — A bachelor's degree is a first degree awarded by universities.
- background report — a report on someone or something that sheds light on their background, esp a report on the background of a person convicted of a crime before they are sentenced by a judge
- backward chaining — (algorithm) An algorithm for proving a goal by recursively breaking it down into sub-goals and trying to prove these until facts are reached. Facts are goals with no sub-goals which are therefore always true. Backward training is the program execution mechanism used by most logic programming language like Prolog. Opposite: forward chaining.
- bacteriologically — In a bacteriological manner; with respect to bacteriology.
- baden-wurttemberg — a state of SW Germany. Capital: Stuttgart. Pop: 53 938 (2003 est). Area: 35 742 sq km (13 800 sq miles)
- baggage checkroom — a left luggage office; a place at, for example, a railway station where baggage can be left
- baggage screening — the procedure whereby baggage is electronically screened at an airport before it is allowed on the plane
- bangalore torpedo — an explosive device in a long metal tube, used to blow gaps in barbed-wire barriers
- banking principle — the principle that bank notes are a form of credit and should be issued freely in order to maintain an elastic currency.
- bar-tailed godwit — a large wader, Limosa lapponica, of the family Scolopacidae which, in migrating from Alaska to New Zealand, makes the longest journey without stopping for food taken by any animal