17-letter words containing h, e, a, d, t, c
- dictating machine — a device that records spoken words, as on audiocassettes, for playing back later to prepare a transcript
- diphenylacetylene — tolan.
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- distance teaching — teaching via correspondence or the internet, where students are not physically present in a classroom
- dutch east indies — a former name of the Republic of Indonesia.
- dutch elm disease — a disease of elms characterized by wilting, yellowing, and falling of the leaves and caused by a fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi, transmitted by bark beetles.
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exceptional child — a gifted child
- fifth commandment — “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”: fifth of the Ten Commandments.
- further education — adult education.
- good-time charlie — an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.
- grande chartreuse — the Carthusian monastery at Grenoble, France: the chief monastery of the Carthusians until 1903.
- grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- haemorrhoidectomy — surgical removal of haemorrhoids
- handicap register — a list of the disabled people in its area that a local authority had a duty to compile under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- heptanedioic acid — pimelic acid.
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- historical method — the process of establishing general facts and principles through attention to chronology and to the evolution or historical course of what is being studied.
- hold all the aces — If you say that someone holds all the aces, you mean that they have all the advantages in a contest or situation.
- homeland security — national defence
- homogentisic acid — an intermediate compound in the metabolism of tyrosine and of phenylalanine, found in excess in the blood and urine of persons affected with alkaptonuria.
- hydroelectrically — Using hydroelectric power.
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- icositetrahedrons — Plural form of icositetrahedron.
- in the background — behind the focus of attention
- indecipherability — Quality of being indecipherable.
- induction heating — a method of heating a conducting material, as metal in a furnace, by using electromagnetic induction to establish a current in the material.
- integrated school — (in New Zealand) a private or church school that has joined the state school system
- knock on the head — to daze or kill (a person) by striking on the head
- maintained school — a school financially supported by the state
- manufactured home — a prefabricated house, assembled in modular sections.
- merchant of death — a company, nation, or person that sells military arms on the international market, usually to the highest bidder and without scruple or regard for political ramifications.
- method invocation — (programming) In object-oriented programming, the way the program looks up the right code to run when a method with a given name is called ("invoked") on an object. The method is first looked for in the object's class, then that class's superclass and so on up the class hierarchy until a method with the given name is found (the name is "resolved"). Generally, method lookup cannot be performed at compile time because the object's class is not known until run time. This is the case for an object method whereas a class method is just an ordinary function (that is bundled with a given class) and can be resolved at compile time (or load time in the case of a dynamically loaded library).
- methylacetic acid — propionic acid.
- mexican hat dance — a dance performed by couples, consisting of eight measures during which the dancers kick out each foot alternately, followed by eight more measures during which they swing around with interlocking arms.
- modulo arithmetic — modular arithmetic
- ninth commandment — “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor”: ninth of the Ten Commandments.
- nuclear threshold — the point in war at which a combatant brings nuclear weapons into use
- overhead camshaft — a camshaft in an automotive engine that is located in the cylinder head over the engine block rather than in the block. Abbreviation: OHC.
- parathyroidectomy — the excision of a parathyroid gland.
- phenylacetic acid — a white crystalline, aromatic acid, C 8 H 8 O 2 , used in the manufacture of penicillin and in perfumes.
- platinic chloride — chloroplatinic acid.
- pseudo-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- pseudo-humanistic — a person having a strong interest in or concern for human welfare, values, and dignity.
- psychoeducational — designating or of psychological methods, as intelligence tests, used in evaluating learning ability
- quick on the draw — having fast reflexes
- read the riot act — an English statute of 1715 providing that if 12 or more persons assemble unlawfully and riotously, to the disturbance of the public peace, and refuse to disperse upon proclamation they shall be considered guilty of felony.
- red and the black — a novel (1832) by Stendhal.