17-letter words containing n, o, k
- counterparty risk — the risk that a person who is a party to a contract will default on their obligations under that contract
- crossover network — an electronic network in a loudspeaker system that separates the signal into two or more frequency bands, the lower frequencies being fed to a woofer, the higher frequencies to a tweeter
- dark-complexioned — (of a person) having a dark complexion
- dictionary attack — an attempt to hack into a computer or network by submitting every word in a dictionary as a possible password
- dictionary-making — the work or activity of compiling dictionaries
- double track line — a railway line with double track
- drawn-thread work — ornamental needlework done by drawing threads out of the fabric and using the remaining threads to form lacelike patterns
- drinking fountain — a water fountain that ejects a jet of water for drinking without a cup.
- economic blockade — an embargo on trade with a country, esp one which prohibits receipt of exports from that country, with the intention of disrupting the country's economy
- elastic stockings — something made of elastic which you wear on your legs to aid circulation
- ethylmethylketone — (organic compound) The industrial solvent butanone.
- feel like oneself — to perceive or examine by touch.
- fermentation lock — a valve placed on the top of bottles of fermenting wine to allow bubbles to escape
- figure-eight knot — a kind of knot
- fishnet stockings — leg coverings for women, made from an open mesh fabric resembling netting
- floating dry dock — a dock that floats and can be lowered in the water for the entrance of a ship, and then raised for use as a dry dock
- for heaven's sake — expressing frustration
- frankenstein food — any foodstuff that has been genetically modified
- general knowledge — commonly known facts
- get one's back up — the rear part of the human body, extending from the neck to the lower end of the spine.
- goldbeater's skin — the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used by goldbeaters to lay between the leaves of the metal while they beat it into gold leaf.
- golden hand-shake — a special incentive, as generous severance pay, given to an older employee as an inducement to elect early retirement.
- government broker — the government-appointed stockbroker whose job is to sell government securities on the stock exchange, as instructed by the Bank of England
- grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- green book cd-rom — A standard CD-ROM format developed by Philips for CD-i. It is ISO 9660 compliant and uses mode 2 form 2 addressing. It can only be played on drives which are XA (Extended Architecture) compatible. Many Green Book discs contain CD-i applications which can only be played on a CD-i player but many others contain films or music videos. Video CDs in Green Book format are normally labelled "Digital Video on CD" Green Book was obsoleted by White book CD-ROM in March 1994.
- hard nut to crack — a dry fruit consisting of an edible kernel or meat enclosed in a woody or leathery shell.
- hawking radiation — the emission of particles by a black hole. Pairs of virtual particles in the intense gravitational field around a black hole may live long enough for one to move outward when the other is pulled into the black hole, making it appear that the black hole is emitting radiation
- heart of darkness — a short novel (1902) by Joseph Conrad.
- helen keller mode — 1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e. accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion into deep space. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller, whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also go flatline, catatonic. 2. On IBM PCs under MS-DOS, refers to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in over an ill-behaved application which bypasses the very interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are to try to get from the program's current state through a successful save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a crash.
- histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
- hodgkin's disease — a type of cancer characterized by progressive chronic inflammation and enlargement of the lymph nodes of the neck, armpit, groin, and mesentery, by enlargement of the spleen and occasionally of the liver and the kidneys, and by lymphoid infiltration along the blood vessels.
- horatio kitchener — Horatio Herbert (1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and of Broome) 1850–1916, English field marshal and statesman.
- houndstooth check — a pattern of broken checks, used in woven material for jackets, shirts, etc.
- housekeeping cart — A housekeeping cart is a large metal basket on wheels which is used by a cleaner in a hotel to move clean bed linen, towels, and cleaning equipment.
- i'll thank you to — used ironically to intensify a command, request, etc
- icing on the cake — a sweet mixture, cooked or uncooked, for coating or filling cakes, cookies, and the like; icing.
- immigrant workers — people who work in a country they arrived to in order to settle there
- in all likelihood — very probably
- in the background — behind the focus of attention
- in the market for — an open place or a covered building where buyers and sellers convene for the sale of goods; a marketplace: a farmers' market.
- in/out of keeping — If one thing is in keeping with another, it is suitable in relation to that thing. If one thing is out of keeping with another, it is not suitable in relation to that thing.
- indian rope-trick — the supposed Indian feat of climbing an unsupported rope
- intelligence work — spying
- intent to package — (Debian) (ITP) A notice, posted to the Debian developer mailing list, announcing a developer's intent to make a new Debian package, including a brief description of the package and its license.
- internet backbone — (communications, networking) High-speed networks that carry Internet traffic. These communications networks are provided by companies such as AT&T, GTE, IBM, MCI, Netcom, Sprint, UUNET and consist of high-speed links in the T1, T3, OC1 and OC3 ranges. The backbones carry Internet traffic around the world and meet at Network Access Points (NAPs). The topology of the "backbone" and its interconnections may once have resembled a spine with ribs connected along its length but is now almost certainly more like a fishing net wrapped around the world with many circular paths.
- japanese knotweed — Mexican bamboo.
- john wilkes booth — Ballington [bal-ing-tuh n] /ˈbæl ɪŋ tən/ (Show IPA), 1859–1940, founder of the Volunteers of America 1896 (son of William Booth).
- karitane hospital — a hospital for young babies and their mothers
- kastor and pollux — Castor and Pollux.