17-letter words containing i, s, t, r
- lewis with harris — the northernmost island of the Hebrides, in NW Scotland. 825 sq. mi. (2135 sq. km).
- lexical insertion — the process in which actual morphemes of a language are substituted either for semantic material or for place-fillers in the course of a derivation of a sentence
- liberal democrats — (in Britain) a political party with centrist policies; established in 1988 as the Social and Liberal Democrats when the Liberal Party merged with the Social Democratic Party; renamed Liberal Democrats in 1989
- liberty of speech — freedom of speech.
- librocubicularist — (rare) A person who reads in bed.
- life imprisonment — long-term prison sentence
- lighthouse keeper — a person who mans a lighthouse and makes sure that the light is working properly
- linear assignment — assignment problem
- lithostratigraphy — the study or character of stratified rocks based solely on their physical and petrographic features.
- 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.
- loco supra citato — l.s.c.
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- louisiana tanager — western tanager.
- macro-linguistics — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macroinstructions — Plural form of macroinstruction.
- magnetic roasting — roasting of a nonmagnetic ore to render it magnetic so that it can be separated from gangue by means of a magnetic field.
- magnetoresistance — a change in the electrical resistance of a material upon exposure to a magnetic field.
- mains electricity — electricity supplied to a building through wires
- maintainer script — (Debian) One of the scripts (preinst, prerm, postinst, postrm) that may be included in a Debian binary package. These scripts may create and/or remove symlinks, files or directories that, for some reason, could not be done directly by dpkg. Maintainer scripts frequently create or update the symlinks in the /etc/rc?.d directories and start, stop, or restart daemons.
- majority decision — a decision supported by more than half the people involved
- make conversation — If you make conversation, you talk to someone in order to be polite and not because you really want to.
- make inroads into — to start to use up the supply of something
- maladministration — to administer or manage badly or inefficiently: The mayor was a bungler who maladministered the city budget.
- man in the street — the ordinary person; the average citizen: the political opinions of the man in the street.
- man's best friend — a dog, especially as a pet.
- 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).
- marital relations — a euphemistic term for sexual intercourse between married partners
- martha's vineyard — an island off SE Massachusetts: summer resort. About 100 sq. mi. (259 sq. km).
- massage therapist — sb who gives body rubs
- master of science — a master's degree given usually in a specific branch of the natural sciences, mathematics, or technology.
- materialistically — excessively concerned with physical comforts or the acquisition of wealth and material possessions, rather than with spiritual, intellectual, or cultural values.
- materials science — the study of the characteristics and uses of various materials, as glass, plastics, and metals.
- maternal instinct — motherly urge to protect and nurture
- mean-spiritedness — the quality of being mean-spirited
- 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).
- meiji restoration — revolution in Japanese life and government that occurred after the accession of Emperor Mutsuhito (1867), characterized by the downfall of the shogun and feudalism and the creation of a modern state
- mensural notation — a system of musical notation of the 13th to the late 16th centuries, marked by the use of note symbols such as the longa and brevis, the absence of bar lines and ties, and the equivalence in value of one note to either two or three of the next smaller degree.
- mercantile system — a system of political and economic policy, evolving with the modern national state and seeking to secure a nation's political and economic supremacy in its rivalry with other states. According to this system, money was regarded as a store of wealth, and the goal of a state was the accumulation of precious metals, by exporting the largest possible quantity of its products and importing as little as possible, thus establishing a favorable balance of trade.
- merchant shipping — shipping which is involved in commerce (rather than defence, etc)
- mercy otis warren — Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.
- messier catalogue — a catalogue of 103 nonstellar objects, such as nebulae and galaxies, prepared in 1781–86. An object is referred to by its number in this catalogue, for example the Andromeda Galaxy is referred to as M31
- metalloproteinase — (enzyme) Any of several proteinases that have a metal atom (often zinc) at their active centre.
- microconstituents — a microscopically small constituent of a metal or alloy.
- microdensitometer — a densitometer for measuring the density of minute areas of photographic negatives.
- microdistillation — the distillation of minute quantities of material.
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- microinstructions — Plural form of microinstruction.
- micromanipulators — Plural form of micromanipulator.
- microsoft network — The Microsoft Network
- microsoft project — (product) A Microsoft Windows program offering various project management tools.