17-letter words containing o, r, s, i
- april fool's joke — (humour, event) (AFJ) Elaborate April Fool's hoaxes are a long-established tradition on Usenet and Internet; see kremvax for an example. In fact, April Fool's Day is the *only* seasonal holiday marked by customary observances on the hacker networks.
- archconservatives — Plural form of archconservative.
- aristolochiaceous — belonging to the Aristolochiaceae, the birthwort family of plants.
- arlington heights — village in NE Ill.: suburb of Chicago: pop. 76,000
- armchair shopping — buying goods using a computer, telephone, or television in the home or via the postal system
- arresting officer — the police officer making an arrest
- arsenic poisoning — poisoning by arsenic
- artificial person — a human being, whether an adult or child: The table seats four persons.
- artistic director — a person in charge of the artistic direction of a theatre company
- as far as it goes — If you say that something is good as far as it goes or true so far as it goes, you mean that it is good or true only to a limited extent.
- as the crow flies — If you say that a place is a particular distance away as the crow flies, you mean that it is that distance away measured in a straight line.
- ascertained goods — specific goods
- associate of arts — a degree granted especially by junior colleges after completion of two years of study. Abbreviation: A.A.
- association fiber — any of several nerve fibers connecting different areas of the cerebral cortex in the same hemisphere.
- associative array — (programming) (Or "hash", "map", "dictionary") An array where the indices are not just integers but may be arbitrary strings.
- assyro-babylonian — of or relating to Assyria and Babylonia.
- astral projection — the departure of the astral body from the physical body, in order to travel to the astral plane
- astronomical unit — a unit of distance used in astronomy equal to the mean distance between the earth and the sun. 1 astronomical unit is equivalent to 1.495 × 1011 metres or about 9.3 × 107 miles
- astronomical year — year (def 4b).
- at one's own risk — If you tell someone that they are doing something at their own risk, you are warning them that, if they are harmed, it will be their own responsibility.
- at swords' points — ready to quarrel or fight
- at the service of — To be at the service of a person or organization means to be available to help or be used by that person or organization.
- attorneys-in-fact — a person authorized by power of attorney to act on the authorizer's behalf outside a court of law.
- attraction sphere — centrosphere (sense 1)
- audio description — a facility provided for visually impaired people in which a film, television programme, or play is described through audio technology
- aurea mediocritas — the golden mean.
- australian ballot — an official ballot listing candidates for election to public office and issues, levies, etc., distributed inside the polling place to be marked by the voter in secret: it originated in Australia and is widely used in the U.S.
- australopithecine — any of various extinct apelike primates of the genus Australopithecus and related genera, remains of which have been discovered in southern and E Africa. Some species are estimated to be over 4.5 million years old
- authoritativeness — having due authority; having the sanction or weight of authority: an authoritative opinion.
- auxiliary storage — secondary storage.
- aviation industry — a collective term for the companies involved in air transport
- avoirdupois pound — a pound weighing 16 ounces
- axis of ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
- axis-of-ordinates — y-axis (def 1).
- babi yar symphony — a symphony (1962) by Dimitri Dimitrievich Shostakovich.
- back on the rails — If something is back on the rails, it is beginning to be successful again after a period when it almost failed.
- bacon's rebellion — an unsuccessful uprising by frontiersmen in Virginia in 1676, led by Nathaniel Bacon against the colonial government in Jamestown.
- bacteriorhodopsin — a purple protein containing retinal and found in the plasma membrane of certain bacteria (genus Halobacterium): it directly supplies electrochemical energy from sunlight
- barber of seville — Italian Il barbiere di Siviglia. a comic opera (1816) by Gioacchino Rossini based on a comedy (1775) by Beaumarchais.
- barrel distortion — distortion of an image produced by an optical system that causes straight lines at image margins to bulge outwards
- barrow-in-furness — an industrial town in NW England, in S Cumbria. Pop: 47 194 (2001)
- bartholin's gland — either of two small glands near the vaginal opening: during sexual excitement they secrete a mucous lubricating substance
- baseboard heating — a heating system by pipes, through which steam or hot water circulates, near the base of the walls of rooms
- basic proposition — protocol (def 6).
- bathroom fittings — plumbing fixtures or accessories suitable for use in a bathroom
- be a box of birds — to be very well indeed
- be well rid of sb — If you say that someone is well rid of someone, you think it is good that the person has gone because you did not like them or you think they caused a lot of problems.
- beat one's brains — to try hard to remember, understand, or solve something
- before one's time — prematurely
- bell laboratories — One of AT&T's research sites, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA. It was the birthplace of the transistor, Unix, C and C++ and the current home of research on Plan 9 and ODE.