17-letter words containing o, t, e, c
- 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.
- trackless trolley — trolley bus.
- trade association — an association of people or companies in a particular business or trade, organized to promote their common interests.
- 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
- transfer function — The transfer function of a circuit is the ratio of the response to the input.
- transonic barrier — sound barrier.
- 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
- triboluminescence — luminescence produced by friction, usually within a crystalline substance.
- trichloroethylene — a colorless, poisonous liquid, C 2 HCl 3 , used chiefly as a degreasing agent for metals and as a solvent, especially in dry cleaning, for fats, oils, and waxes. Abbreviation: TCE.
- tropical maritime — a type of warm, wet air mass originating at low latitudes over ocean areas
- tropical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the study and treatment of diseases occurring in the tropics.
- trouble came back — (jargon) (TCB) An IBM term for an intermittent or difficult-to-reproduce problem that has failed to respond to neglect or shotgun debugging. Compare heisenbug.
- trucial sheikdoms — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- ts'ao hsueh-ch'in — (Ts'ao Chan) c1717–63, Chinese novelist: author of The Dream of the Red Chamber.
- turbosupercharger — (formerly) a turbocharger.
- turn of the screw — a short novel (1898) by Henry James.
- 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.
- turn-down service — In a hotel, a turn-down service is the preparation of a room for a guest to sleep in by slightly turning back the comforter on the bed, turning down the lights, and so on.
- ultraconservative — extremely conservative, especially in politics.
- ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
- uncle tom's cabin — an antislavery novel (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
- uncomfortableness — causing discomfort or distress; painful; irritating.
- uncompassionately — having or showing compassion: a compassionate person; a compassionate letter.
- unconscientiously — governed by conscience; controlled by or done according to one's inner sense of what is right; principled: She's a conscientious judge, who does not let personal prejudices influence her decisions.
- unconventionalist — not conventional; not bound by or conforming to convention, rule, or precedent; free from conventionality: an unconventional artist; an unconventional use of material.
- unconventionality — disregard for convention; the state or quality of being inconsistent with customs, rules, etc.; originality.
- uncooperativeness — working or acting together willingly for a common purpose or benefit.
- under the counter — (of merchandise) sold clandestinely.
- under-the-counter — (of merchandise) sold clandestinely.
- undercompensation — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- unofficial strike — a strike that is not approved by the strikers' trade union
- unreconstructible — not capable of being reconstructed.
- upper paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
- vacant possession — ownership of an unoccupied house or property, any previous owner or tenant having departed
- vacuum extraction — applying suction to a baby's head during birth to help it emerge
- valence electrons — an electron of an atom, located in the outermost shell (valence shell) of the atom, that can be transferred to or shared with another atom.
- velocity of money — the frequency with which a single unit of currency or the total money supply turns over within the economy in a given year.
- vernacularization — to translate into the natural speech peculiar to a people.
- vertical mobility — movement from one social level to a higher one (upward mobility) or a lower one (downward mobility) as by changing jobs or marrying.
- victor emmanuel i — 1759–1824, king of Sardinia 1802–21.
- victoriano huerta — Victoriano [beek-taw-ryah-naw] /ˌbik tɔˈryɑ nɔ/ (Show IPA), 1854–1916, Mexican general: provisional president of Mexico 1913–14.
- village community — an early form of community organization in which land belonged to the village, the arable land being allotted to the members or households of the community by more or less permanent arrangements and the waste or excess land remaining undivided.
- vitamin b complex — an important group of water-soluble vitamins containing vitamin B 1 , vitamin B 2 , etc.
- vittore carpaccio — Vittore [veet-taw-re] /vitˈtɔ rɛ/ (Show IPA), c1450–1525, Venetian painter.
- voice recognition — the control of a computer system by a voice or voices that the computer has been instructed to accept
- voice synthesizer — a computer system that is used to artificially produce the human voice
- voidable contract — a contract or agreement that is capable of being made of no legal effect or made void
- war correspondent — a reporter or commentator assigned to send news or opinions directly from battle areas.
- warehouse receipt — a receipt for goods placed in a warehouse.