17-letter words containing o, c, t, a, n
- california nutmeg — a tall, pungently aromatic California evergreen tree, Torreya californica, of the yew family, having a fissured, gray-brown bark and small, purple-streaked, green fruit.
- california privet — a privet, Ligustrum ovalifolium, of the olive family, native to Japan, having glossy, oval leaves and long clusters of white flowers, widely used for hedges in the U.S.
- can't be bothered — If you say that you can't be bothered to do something, you mean that you are not going to do it because you think it is unnecessary or because you are too lazy.
- canadian football — a game resembling American football, played on a grass pitch between two teams of 12 players
- cannot choose but — to be obliged to
- cape horn current — the part of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current flowing E at Cape Horn.
- capital allowance — the practice of allowing a certain amount of money spent by a company on fixed assets to be taken off the profits of the company before tax is imposed
- capital formation — the net additions to a capital stock in an accounting period
- carbon offsetting — a program in which a company, country, etc., reduces or offsets its carbon emissions through the funding of activities and projects that improve the environment: Carbon offsetting does not always have a quantifiable impact on the planet.
- cardiac tamponade — tamponade (def 2).
- cardiac-tamponade — Medicine/Medical. the use of a tampon, as to stop a hemorrhage.
- cariboo mountains — a mountain range in SW Canada, in SE British Columbia. Highest peak: Mount Sir Wilfrid Laurier, 3520 m (11 549 ft)
- carolina parakeet — an extinct New World parakeet, Conuropsis carolinensis, that ranged into the northern U.S., having yellowish-green plumage with an orange-yellow head.
- cartesian product — the set of all ordered pairs of members of two given sets. The product A × B is the set of all pairs <a, b> where a is a member of A and b is a member of B
- cartoon character — one of the people or animals in an animated film
- cast/run your eye — If you cast your eye or run your eye over something, you look at it or read it quickly.
- castor and pollux — the twin sons of Leda: Pollux was fathered by Zeus, Castor by the mortal Tyndareus. After Castor's death, Pollux spent half his days with his half-brother in Hades and half with the gods in Olympus
- cat-o'-nine-tails — a rope whip consisting of nine knotted thongs, used formerly to flog prisoners
- catastrophization — The act or process of catastrophizing.
- catch one's death — to contract a severe cold
- catcher resonator — See under Klystron.
- categoric contact — behavior toward an individual on the basis of the type or group of people that person represents rather than on the basis of personal makeup.
- cationic cocktail — (hardware) (Or "Downy cocktail") Diluted fabric softener sprayed on computer room carpets to prevent static electricity from being built up by feet shuffling on carpet. The canonical cationic cocktail is one part unscented liquid fabric softener (in the US, usually "Downy" brand) to five parts water. "Cationic" is the chemical term for the most common active ingredient in fabric softeners. The use of the term "cocktail" may be influenced by its use in other jargons, especially pharmacological and chemical, to denote a mixture which, like cationic cocktail, typically contains no alcohol and would be unwise to drink.
- celestial horizon — the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.
- cellulose nitrate — a compound made by treating cellulose with nitric and sulphuric acids, used in plastics, lacquers, and explosives: a nitrogen-containing ester of cellulose
- center of gravity — The center of gravity of an object is a point in it. If this point is above the base of the object, it stays stable, rather than falling over.
- centi-call second — (spelling) No, it's centum call second.
- central committee — (in Communist parties) the body responsible for party policy between meetings of the party congress: in practice, it is in charge of day-to-day operations of the party bureaucracy
- centre of gravity — The centre of gravity of an object is a point in it. If this point is above the base of the object, it stays stable, rather than falling over.
- centrifugal force — In physics, centrifugal force is the force that makes objects move outwards when they are spinning around something or travelling in a curve.
- centripetal force — a force that acts inwards on any body that rotates or moves along a curved path and is directed towards the centre of curvature of the path or the axis of rotation
- chacun a son gout — each to his own taste
- change one's tune — to alter one's attitude or tone of speech
- characterisations — Plural form of characterisation.
- characterizations — portrayal; description: the actor's characterization of a politician.
- charles townshend — Charles, 1725–67, English politician, chancellor of the exchequer for whom the Townshend Acts are named.
- chart of accounts — A chart of accounts is a list of all the accounts used in a business to classify transactions or report balances.
- chartered company — a company formed for the purpose of exploration and colonization
- chemical equation — a representation of a chemical reaction using symbols of the elements to indicate the amount of substance, usually in moles, of each reactant and product
- chemical reaction — a process that involves changes in the structure and energy content of atoms, molecules, or ions but not their nuclei
- china grass cloth — grass cloth.
- chincoteague pony — a wild pony found on certain islands off the Virginia coast, apparently descended from Moorish ponies shipwrecked in this vicinity in the 16th century.
- chinese artichoke — a hairy plant, Stachys affinis, of China and Japan, having numerous small, white, edible tubers.
- chloracetophenone — chloroacetophenone.
- chloronaphthalene — either of two isomeric naphthalene compounds containing one chlorine atom.
- chlortetracycline — an antibiotic used in treating many bacterial and rickettsial infections: obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces aureofaciens. Formula: C22H23ClN2O8
- choanoflagellates — Plural form of choanoflagellate.
- chugach mountains — a coastal mountain range in S Alaska, extending W from the St. Elias Mountains. Highest peak, Mount Marcus Baker, 13,176 feet (4016 meters).
- circle the wagons — to take defensive action; prepare for an attack: from arranging a wagon train in a circular formation
- circular function — trigonometric function (def 1).