17-letter words containing n, o, a, r, t
- the past anterior — a French tense: the pluperfect
- the rann of kutch — an extensive salt waste in W central India, and S Pakistan: consists of the Great Rann in the north and the Little Rann in the southeast; seasonal alternation between marsh and desert; some saltworks. In 1968 an international tribunal awarded about 10 per cent of the border area to Pakistan. Area: 23 000 sq km (9000 sq miles)
- the winter season — the season of the year that covers the winter months
- theatricalization — to put into dramatic or theatrical form; dramatize.
- thermal diffusion — the separation of constituents, often isotopes, of a fluid under the influence of a temperature gradient.
- thermal expansion — expansion caused by heat
- thermal pollution — a rise in the temperature of rivers or lakes that is injurious to water-dwelling life and is caused by the disposal of heated industrial waste water or water from the cooling towers of nuclear power plants.
- thermal radiation — electromagnetic radiation emitted by all matter above a temperature of absolute zero because of the thermal motion of atomic particles.
- thermocoagulation — the coagulation of tissue by heat-producing high-frequency electric currents, used therapeutically to remove small growths or to create specific lesions in the brain.
- third commandment — “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”: third of the Ten Commandments.
- thread escutcheon — a raised metal rim around a keyhole.
- three-dimensional — having, or seeming to have, the dimension of depth as well as width and height.
- throat microphone — a microphone worn around the throat and actuated by vibrations of the larynx, used when background noise would obscure the sound of speech, as in an airplane cockpit.
- thuringian forest — a forested mountain region in central Germany: a resort area.
- to a large extent — greatly
- to break the bank — If you say that the cost of something will not break the bank, you mean that it will not cost a large sum of money.
- to have a tin ear — If you say that someone has a tin ear for something, you mean that they do not have any natural ability for it and cannot appreciate or understand it fully.
- to read sb's mind — If you can read someone's mind, you know what they are thinking without them saying anything.
- to throw a wrench — If someone throws a wrench or throws a monkey wrench into a process, they prevent something happening smoothly by deliberately causing a problem.
- tongue-and-groove — the technique of making a joint between two boards by means of a tongue along the edge of one board that fits into a groove along the edge of the other board
- torricellian tube — a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure
- touch a raw nerve — If you say that you have touched a nerve or touched a raw nerve, you mean that you have accidentally upset someone by talking about something that they feel strongly about or are very sensitive about.
- trade association — an association of people or companies in a particular business or trade, organized to promote their common interests.
- traditional logic — formal logic based on syllogistic formulas, especially as developed by Aristotle.
- traffic diversion — a special route arranged for traffic to follow when the normal route cannot be used
- traffic policeman — a policeman controlling traffic, esp while stationed at an intersection, or enforcing traffic regulations
- traffic violation — driving offence
- transfer function — The transfer function of a circuit is the ratio of the response to the input.
- transferable vote — a vote that is transferred to a second candidate indicated by the voter if the first is eliminated from the ballot
- transformationist — transformist.
- transignification — (in the Eucharist) a change in the significance of the bread and wine to symbolize the body and blood of Christ.
- transition region — a thin and very irregular layer of the sun's atmosphere that separates the hot corona from the much cooler chromosphere.
- transitory action — an action that can be brought in any country regardless of where it originated
- transmission line — a system of conductors, as coaxial cable, a wave guide, or a pair of parallel wires, used to transmit signals.
- transonic barrier — sound barrier.
- trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
- travancore-cochin — a former Indian state that was a merger of Travancore and Cochin, two former princely states of India, and which became part of Kerala state in 1956
- travelling people — Gypsies or other itinerant people: a term used esp by such people of themselves
- tridimensionality — having three dimensions.
- trifoliate orange — a spiny, Chinese orange tree, Poncirus trifoliata, used as a stock in grafting and for hedges.
- trobriand islands — a group of coral islands in the Solomon Sea, north of the E part of New Guinea: part of Papua New Guinea. Area: about 440 sq km (170 sq miles)
- tropical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the study and treatment of diseases occurring in the tropics.
- try one's hand at — to attempt (to do something), esp. for the first time
- turbinado (sugar) — a partially refined, granulated, pale-brown sugar obtained by washing raw sugar in a centrifuge until most of the molasses is removed
- turn on the charm — If someone turns on the charm, they behave in a way that seems very friendly but which you think is insincere, often in order to obtain something or deceive someone.
- two-toed anteater — silky anteater.
- ultraconservative — extremely conservative, especially in politics.
- ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
- uncomfortableness — causing discomfort or distress; painful; irritating.
- 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).