18-letter words containing l, h
- chuck-will's-widow — a large North American nightjar, Caprimulgus carolinensis, similar to the whippoorwill
- church of scotland — the established church in Scotland, Calvinist in doctrine and Presbyterian in constitution
- 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
- circular dichroism — selective absorption of one of the two possible circular polarizations of light.
- claustrophobically — In a claustrophobic way.
- clean as a whistle — If you describe something as clean as a whistle, you mean that it is completely clean.
- climbing hydrangea — a woody vine, Hydrangea anomala, of eastern Asia, having shiny, egg-shaped leaves and flat-topped white flower clusters, and climbing by aerial rootlets.
- cling like a leech — to cling or adhere persistently to something
- clinical pathology — the branch of pathology dealing with the study of disease and disease processes by means of chemical, microscopic, and serologic examinations.
- clobbering machine — pressure to conform with accepted standards
- closed scholarship — a scholarship for which only certain people, such as those from a particular school or with a particular surname, are eligible
- clothing allowance — an amount of money to compensate for the purchase of clothes for work, school, etc
- cognitive ethology — a branch of ethology concerned with the influence of conscious awareness and intention on the behaviour of an animal
- collection charges — the charges levied to cover expenses for the collection of debt
- colossus of rhodes — a giant bronze statue of Apollo built on Rhodes in about 292–280 bc; destroyed by an earthquake in 225 bc; one of the Seven Wonders of the World
- colour photography — the art or process of taking and developing photographs in colour
- come to light with — to find or produce
- commercial attache — an attaché in an embassy or legation representing the commercial interests of his or her country.
- commercial vehicle — a vehicle for carrying goods or (less commonly) passengers
- common-law husband — a man considered to be a woman's husband after the couple have cohabited for several years
- commonwealth games — an event held every four years in which sportspeople from the countries of the Commonwealth compete
- community hospital — (in the US) a local hospital
- comprehensibleness — The quality of being comprehensible; comprehensibility.
- computer telephony — Computer Telephone Integration
- considered harmful — (programming, humour) A type of phrase based on the title of Edsger W. Dijkstra's famous note in the March 1968 Communications of the ACM, "Goto Statement Considered Harmful", which fired the first salvo in the structured programming wars. Amusingly, the ACM considered the resulting acrimony sufficiently harmful that it will (by policy) no longer print articles taking so assertive a position against a coding practice. In the ensuing decades, a large number of both serious papers and parodies bore titles of the form "X considered Y". The structured-programming wars eventually blew over with the realisation that both sides were wrong, but use of such titles has remained as a persistent minor in-joke.
- continental shield — any of the large, low-lying areas in the Earth's crust that are composed of Precambrian crystalline rocks
- controllable-pitch — (of a marine or aircraft propeller) having blades whose pitch can be changed during navigation or flight; variable-pitch.
- cordless telephone — a portable battery-powered telephone with a short-range radio link to a fixed base unit
- corpuscular theory — the theory, originally proposed by Newton, and revived with the development of the quantum theory, that light consists of a stream of particles
- cranial osteopathy — osteopathy that focuses on the cranium and the spine
- crested flycatcher — any of various tyrant flycatchers (esp. genus Myiarchus) with a prominent crest
- crystal microphone — a microphone that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert sound energy into electrical energy
- cyclic pitch lever — a lever in a helicopter to change the angle of attack of individual rotor blades, causing the helicopter to move forwards, backwards, or sideways
- daisywheel printer — (printer) A kind of impact printer where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy). The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter. One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different typefaces.
- dear john (letter) — a letter from one's fiancée or girlfriend breaking off an engagement or love affair, or from one's wife asking for a divorce
- death by chocolate — a very rich type of chocolate dessert or cake
- death-valley curve — a curve on a graph showing how the capital of a new company plotted against time declines sharply as the venture capital is used up before income reaches predicted levels
- decachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) The fully chlorinated polychlorinated biphenyl containing ten chlorine atoms.
- dendrochronologist — One who carries out dendrochronology.
- desktop publishing — Desktop publishing is the production of printed materials such as newspapers and magazines using a desktop computer and a laser printer, rather than using conventional printing methods. The abbreviation DTP is also used.
- devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
- dichloracetic acid — a highly corrosive acid. Formula: C2H2Cl2O2
- didaskaleinophobia — The fear of going to school.
- dielectric heating — the heating of a nonconducting substance caused by dielectric loss when the material is placed in a variable electric field.
- diethylstilbestrol — a nonsteroidal synthetic estrogen, C 18 H 20 O 2 , used in medicine chiefly in the treatment of menopausal symptoms and in animal feeds for chemical caponization: formerly used during pregnancy for the prevention of miscarriage but discontinued owing to its association with an increased risk of vaginal and cervical cancers in women having had fetal exposure. Abbreviation: DES.
- dig in one's heels — to refuse to give up or modify one's opinion, policy, attitude, etc., esp. when faced with opposition
- dig one's heels in — to refuse stubbornly to move or be persuaded
- digital humanities — (used with a singular verb) the study of literature, philosophy, etc., as facilitated by computer technology or digital media: Digital humanities uses data analysis to find patterns in large bodies of text. the set of methodologies used in such scholarship.
- digital switchover — the process of changing the method of transmitting television from analogue to digital format
- digital technology — the branch of scientific or engineering knowledge that deals with the creation and practical use of digital or computerized devices, methods, systems, etc.: advances in digital technology.