17-letter words containing i, r, e, d
- liquid propellant — a rocket propellant in liquid form.
- lithium hydroxide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound, LiOH, used to absorb carbon dioxide, especially in spacesuits.
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- live free or die! — 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's automobile licence plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the fascist design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on commercial operating systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake licence plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New Hampshire colours of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
- lobster thermidor — a dish of cooked lobster meat placed back in the shell with a cream sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and melted butter, and browned in the oven.
- locomotive driver — an engine driver
- loggerhead shrike — a common, North American shrike, Lanius ludovicianus, gray above and white below with black wings, tail, and facial mask.
- loose-leaf binder — a hard cover with metal rings inside which is used to hold loose pieces of paper
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- madiba generation — the generation born around 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first president of a multiracial South Africa
- magnetic meridian — a line on the earth's surface, passing in the direction of the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field.
- maintenance order — a court order stating that a divorced or legally separated man or woman must pay his or her former partner a regular sum in order to cover the costs of living
- maison de moliere — Comédie Française.
- majority decision — a decision supported by more than half the people involved
- make a difference — have a significant impact
- make inroads into — to start to use up the supply of something
- man's best friend — a dog, especially as a pet.
- managing director — manager who oversees a project
- marais des cygnes — a river in E central Kansas and W Missouri, flowing SE to the Osage River. 150 miles (241 km) long.
- mare fecunditatis — (Sea of Fertility) a dark plain in the fourth quadrant and extending into the first quadrant of the face of the moon: about 160,000 sq. mi. (415,000 sq. km).
- marquesas islands — a group of volcanic islands in the S Pacific, in French Polynesia. Pop: 8712 (2002). Area: 1287 sq km (497 sq miles)
- marriage guidance — counselling for married couples
- martha's vineyard — an island off SE Massachusetts: summer resort. About 100 sq. mi. (259 sq. km).
- mascarene islands — a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, E of Madagascar, including Mauritius, Reunion, and Rodrigues.
- mass merchandiser — a retailer or retail store that seeks to sell large quantities of goods quickly through such means as discounting, customer self-service, or unadorned display and packaging, as in a warehouse.
- mean-spiritedness — the quality of being mean-spirited
- mechanical digger — a machine used for excavation
- medical insurance — a type of insurance intended to cover possible future medical expenses
- medical librarian — a person who works in a library of medical information kept for reference in a teaching hospital
- medical marijuana — marijuana prescribed by a doctor and used as a medicine: medical marijuana in pill form or oral spray.
- medical procedure — A medical procedure is a medical treatment or operation.
- medicochirurgical — pertaining to medicine and surgery.
- mediterranean sea — a sea surrounded by Africa, Europe, and Asia. 2400 miles (3865 km) long; 1,145,000 sq. mi. (2,965,550 sq. km); greatest known depth 14,436 feet (4400 meters).
- ménière's disease — a disease of the labyrinth of the ear, characterized by deafness, ringing in the ears, dizziness, and nausea.
- mentally impaired — with reduced or weakened mental capacity
- mercuric chloride — a white, crystalline, water-soluble, strongly acrid, highly poisonous solid, HgCl 2 , prepared by sublimation of chlorine with mercury, and used chiefly as an antiseptic.
- mercuric sulphide — a compound of mercury, usually existing as a black solid (metacinnabarite) or a red solid (cinnabar or vermilion), which is used as a pigment. Formula: HgS
- metaperiodic acid — the crystalline compound HIO4, an oxyacid of iodine
- methylidyne group — the trivalent group ≡CH.
- microdensitometer — a densitometer for measuring the density of minute areas of photographic negatives.
- microdermabrasion — A cosmetic treatment in which the face is sprayed with exfoliant crystals to remove dead epidermal cells.
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- microfiche reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfiche
- microminiaturized — Simple past tense and past participle of microminiaturize.
- microreproduction — a photographic image too small to be read by the unaided eye.
- mid-level network — (Or "regional network"). The kind of networks which make up the second level of the Internet hierarchy. They are the transit networks which connect the stub networks to the backbone networks.
- mid-oceanic ridge — the continuous, double-ridged chain of mountains on the ocean floor, extending through the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and into the Indian and Pacific oceans
- middle low german — Low German of the period c1100–c1500.
- middle of nowhere — a completely isolated, featureless, or insignificant place
- middle-age spread — an increase in bulk, especially in the waist and buttocks, associated with the onset of middle age and the body's decreasing ability to metabolize calories efficiently.