17-letter words containing m, a, y, o, r
- one-parent family — A one-parent family is a family that consists of one parent and his or her children living together.
- optical astronomy — the branch of observational astronomy using telescopes to observe or photograph celestial objects in visible light.
- organic chemistry — the branch of chemistry, originally limited to substances found only in living organisms, dealing with the compounds of carbon.
- out of harm's way — If someone or something is out of harm's way, they are in a safe place away from danger or from the possibility of being damaged.
- over my dead body — expressing complete refusal
- oyer and terminer — (in some U.S. states) any of various higher criminal courts.
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- parathyroidectomy — the excision of a parathyroid gland.
- parents anonymous — (in Britain) an association of local voluntary self-help groups offering help through an anonymous telephone service to parents who fear they will injure their children, or who have other problems in managing their children
- pastoral symphony — the Symphony No. 6 in F major (1807–08) by Ludwig van Beethoven.
- phantom pregnancy — the occurrence of signs of pregnancy, such as enlarged abdomen and absence of menstruation, when no embryo is present, due to hormonal imbalance
- pharmacologically — the science dealing with the preparation, uses, and especially the effects of drugs.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- polymorphonuclear — (of a leukocyte) having a lobulate nucleus.
- popular etymology — folk etymology.
- powder metallurgy — the art or science of manufacturing useful articles by compacting metal and other powders in a die, followed by sintering.
- primary dentition — the deciduous dentition
- primary education — junior, elementary schooling
- primary intention — Logic. See under intention (def 5a).
- primary processes — the generally unorganized mental activity characteristic of the unconscious and occurring in dreams, fantasies, and related processes.
- primary-intention — an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.
- professional army — an army of trained soldiers
- radial keratotomy — a surgical technique for correcting nearsightedness by making a series of spokelike incisions in the cornea to change its shape and focusing properties.
- read-write memory — a type of computer memory that you can write to as well as read from
- recursive acronym — (convention) A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support". See also mung.
- relative majority — the excess of votes or seats won by the winner of an election over the runner-up when no candidate or party has more than 50 per cent
- repertory company — repertory (def 2).
- role-playing game — a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master.
- ross and cromarty — a historic county in NW Scotland.
- semimicroanalysis — any analytical method in which the weight of the sample is between 10 and 100 milligrams.
- sodium pyroborate — borax1 .
- spiny-headed worm — any of a small group of endoparasites of the phylum Acanthocephala, as larvae parasitic in insects and crustaceans and as adults in various vertebrates.
- spongy parenchyma — the lower layer of the ground tissue of a leaf, characteristically containing irregularly shaped cells with relatively few chloroplasts and large intercellular spaces.
- stand on ceremony — to insist on or act with excessive formality
- statutory meeting — company shareholders' discussion
- strawberry tomato — the small, edible, tomato-like fruit of the plant Physalis pruinosa, of the nightshade family.
- sunbury-on-thames — a town in SE England, in N Surrey. Pop: 27 415 (2001)
- superaerodynamics — the branch of aerodynamics that deals with gases at very low densities.
- sydenham's chorea — a form of chorea affecting children, often associated with rheumatic fever
- synovial membrane — anatomy: connective tissue
- take sth by storm — If someone or something takes a place by storm, they are extremely successful.
- temporary account — A temporary account is an account which is closed out at the end of the year.
- terminal velocity — Physics. the velocity at which a falling body moves through a medium, as air, when the force of resistance of the medium is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force of gravity. the maximum velocity of a body falling through a viscous fluid.
- tertiary consumer — a carnivore at the topmost level in a food chain that feeds on other carnivores; an animal that feeds only on secondary consumers.
- to take your time — If you take your time doing something, you do it quite slowly and do not hurry.
- tolpuddle martyrs — six farm workers sentenced to transportation for seven years in 1834 for administering an unlawful oath to form a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset
- tridimensionality — having three dimensions.
- unconformity trap — An unconformity trap is a hydrocarbon trap where the closure is made by an unconformity (= a formation of rock layers which represents a gap in the geological record).
- unemployment rate — percentage of population without jobs
- urogenital system — the urinary tract and reproductive organs