12-letter words containing m, e, c, l
- bicycle pump — a hand pump for pumping air into the tyres of a bicycle
- bidialectism — proficient in or using two dialects of the same language.
- bimorph cell — a piezoelectric transducer consisting of two crystals cemented together, used in microphones, headphones, loudspeakers, etc. to convert vibrations into a voltage output or to convert a signal voltage into vibrations that can produce audible sounds
- biomolecular — relating to a biomolecule
- black comedy — a comedy dealing with an unpleasant situation in a pessimistic or macabre manner
- black market — If something is bought or sold on the black market, it is bought or sold illegally.
- black medick — a small European leguminous plant, Medicago lupulina, with trifoliate leaves, small yellow flowers, and black pods
- black stream — a warm ocean current in the Pacific, flowing N along the E coast of Taiwan, NE along the E coast of Japan, and continuing in an easterly direction into the open Pacific.
- black-market — to black-marketeer.
- blastomycete — any of a genus (Blastomyces) of yeastlike imperfect fungi that cause diseases in people and animals
- block system — the system whereby a railway is divided up into separate sections of track where only one train can travel at a time
- bombe glacée — a dessert of ice cream lined or filled with custard, cake crumbs, etc
- bracket lamp — a wall light that is attached to the wall by a bracket
- cabbage palm — a West Indian palm, Roystonea (or Oreodoxa) oleracea, whose leaf buds are eaten like cabbage
- cadmium cell — a photocell with a cadmium electrode that is especially sensitive to ultraviolet radiation
- calceamentum — (in ancient Rome) a sandal, boot, shoe, or other type of footwear
- call time on — If you call time on something, you end it.
- call-by-name — (reduction) (CBN) (Normal order reduction, leftmost, outermost reduction). An argument passing convention (first provided by ALGOL 60?) where argument expressions are passed unevaluated. This is usually implemented by passing a pointer to a thunk - some code which will return the value of the argument and an environment giving the values of its free variables. This evaluation strategy is guaranteed to reach a normal form if one exists. When used to implement functional programming languages, call-by-name is usually combined with graph reduction to avoid repeated evaluation of the same expression. This is then known as call-by-need. The opposite of call-by-name is call-by-value where arguments are evaluated before they are passed to a function. This is more efficient but is less likely to terminate in the presence of infinite data structures and recursive functions. Arguments to macros are usually passed using call-by-name.
- calorimeters — Plural form of calorimeter.
- calorimetric — the measurement of heat.
- calumet city — a city in NE Illinois, near Chicago.
- calycanthemy — the abnormal development of the calyx of a flower into a structure resembling a corolla
- cam follower — the slider or roller in contact with the cam that transmits the movement dictated by the cam profile
- camel's hair — the hair of the camel
- camel's-hair — made of camel's hair.
- camelopardus — a faint extensive constellation in the N hemisphere close to Ursa Major and Cassiopeia
- caméra stylo — the use of the camera as a means of personal expression, esp as practised by some directors of the New Wave
- cameralistic — of or relating to public finance.
- camerapeople — a person who operates a camera, especially a movie or TV camera.
- camomile tea — a medicinal beverage made from the fragrant leaves and flowers of any of these plants
- camp lejeune — a U.S. Marine Corps base in SE North Carolina SE of Jacksonville on Onslow Bay.
- canoe slalom — a competitive event in which a canoeist maneuvers through a slalom course, usually in white water.
- caper family — the plant family Capparidaceae (or Capparaceae), characterized by herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees having alternate, simple, or palmate leaves, irregular flowers with four petals, and fruit in the form of elongated capsules or berries, including the caper and cleome.
- caramelizing — Present participle of caramelize.
- carbamylurea — biuret.
- cardiomegaly — abnormal enlargement of the heart.
- carol stream — a town in NE Illinois.
- catechumenal — Ecclesiastical. a person under instruction in the rudiments of Christianity, as in the early church; a neophyte.
- caustic lime — lime1 (def 1).
- cellarmaster — a person in charge of a wine cellar.
- cement steel — steel produced by the cementation of wrought iron or mild steel.
- central time — standard time or daylight saving time in the time zone which includes the central states of the U.S.
- cephalometer — an instrument for positioning the human head for X-ray examination in cephalometry
- cephalometry — measurement of the dimensions of the human head by radiography: used mainly in orthodontics
- ceremonially — of, relating to, or characterized by ceremony; formal; ritual: a ceremonial occasion.
- cerium metal — any of a subgroup of rare-earth metals, of which the terbium and yttrium metals comprise the other two subgroups.
- chamberlains — Plural form of chamberlain.
- checkerbloom — a Californian malvaceous plant, Sidalcea malvaeflora, with pink or purple flowers
- child minder — a person who looks after children, esp those whose parents are working
- child-minder — a baby-sitter.