17-letter words containing o, s, p, r
- brocot escapement — a type of anchor escapement.
- bulbous buttercup — a European buttercup, Ranunculus bulbosus, having yellow flowers in irregular branching clusters: a common weed in North America.
- by return of post — by the next mail in the opposite direction
- call-and-response — a form of interaction between a speaker and one or more listeners, in which every utterance of the speaker elicits a verbal or non-verbal response from the listener or listeners
- canine parvovirus — a highly contagious viral disease of dogs characterized by vomiting, haemorrhagic diarrhoea, depression, and, in severe cases, death
- cape barren goose — a greyish Australian goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae, having a black bill with a greenish cere
- carbon disulphide — a colourless slightly soluble volatile flammable poisonous liquid commonly having a disagreeable odour due to the presence of impurities: used as an organic solvent and in the manufacture of rayon and carbon tetrachloride. Formula: CS2
- cardio striptease — a form of keep-fit exercise in which people move their bodies in the manner of striptease artists
- cardiorespiratory — of, relating to, or affecting the heart and respiratory system.
- carolina allspice — any of a genus (Calycanthus) of hardy shrubs (family Calycanthaceae) of a dicotyledonous order (Laurales) of plants, bearing reddish-brown, sweet-smelling flowers
- 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
- 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
- catastrophization — The act or process of catastrophizing.
- causality paradox — the hypothetical cause-and-effect of time travel and making changes in the past that would affect current actions.
- chelsea pensioner — an old ex-soldier resident in the Chelsea Royal Hospital
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- chest compression — Chest compression is the act of applying pressure to someone's chest in order to help blood flow through the heart in an emergency situation.
- chord progression — movement from chord to chord
- chromolithographs — Plural form of chromolithograph.
- clipperton island — an uninhabited atoll in the E Pacific SW of Mexico, under French administration. Area: 6 sq km (2.3 sq miles)
- close corporation — a small private limited company
- close parenthesis — right parenthesis
- club subscription — an amount of money that someone pays regularly in order to belong to a club
- college professor — a lecturer or researcher who works in a college
- collodion process — wet plate process.
- colour separation — the division of a coloured original into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so that plates may be made for print reproduction. Separation may be achieved by electronic scanning or by photographic techniques using filters to isolate each colour
- colour supplement — A colour supplement is a colour magazine which is one of the sections of a newspaper, especially at weekends.
- come to handgrips — to engage in hand-to-hand fighting
- company secretary — A company secretary is a person whose job within a company is to keep the legal affairs, accounts, and administration in order.
- compartmentalised — Simple past tense and past participle of compartmentalise.
- compartmentalizes — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of compartmentalize.
- compensated grade — a grade that has been reduced along a curve to offset the additional resistance due to the curve.
- complementariness — forming a complement; completing.
- complementarities — Plural form of complementarity.
- complimentariness — The state or quality of being complimentary.
- compound interest — Compound interest is interest that is calculated both on an original sum of money and on interest which has previously been added to the sum. Compare simple interest.
- comprehensibility — capable of being comprehended or understood; intelligible.
- comprehensiveness — of large scope; covering or involving much; inclusive: a comprehensive study of world affairs.
- compressed speech — speech reproduced on tape at a faster rate than originally spoken, but without loss of intelligibility, by being filtered through a mechanism that deletes very small segments of the original signal at random intervals.
- compression ratio — the ratio of the volume enclosed by the cylinder of an internal-combustion engine at the beginning of the compression stroke to the volume enclosed at the end of it
- computer graphics — the use of a computer to produce and manipulate pictorial images on a video screen, as in animation techniques or the production of audiovisual aids
- computer security — security
- concurrent pascal — (language) An extension of a Pascal subset, Sequential Pascal, developed by Brinch Hansen in 1972-75. Concurrent Pascal was the first language to support monitors. It provided access to hardware devices through monitor calls and also supported processes and classes.
- conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
- consolation prize — A consolation prize is a small prize which is given to a person who fails to win a competition.
- conspiracy theory — A conspiracy theory is a belief that a group of people are secretly trying to harm someone or achieve something. You usually use this term to suggest that you think this is unlikely.
- conspiratorialist — a person who believes in or supports a conspiracy theory.
- consumer sampling — a research technique in which targeted consumers are polled or tested for their receptiveness to a product or service
- consumer spending — the percentage of an economy that is accounted for by what consumers spend
- contemporaneously — living or occurring during the same period of time; contemporary.