17-letter words containing r, c, o
- pyroligneous acid — a yellowish, acidic, water-soluble liquid, containing about 10 percent acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood: used for smoking meats.
- pyrosulfuric acid — a strong, crystalline acid, H2S2O7, prepared commercially as a heavy, oily, fuming liquid: used in making explosives and dyes, as a sulfating agent, etc.
- pythagorean scale — the major scale as derived acoustically by Pythagoras from the perfect fifth.
- quadratic formula — the formula for determining theroots of a quadratic equation from its coefficients: .
- quattuordecillion — a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 45 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 84 zeros.
- quick on the draw — having fast reflexes
- rack one's brains — to strain in mental effort, esp to remember something or to find the solution to a problem
- radio alarm clock — an alarm clock which consists of a radio that can be set to play at a particular time
- radioactive decay — decay (def 8).
- radioactive waste — the radioactive by-products from the operation of a nuclear reactor or from the reprocessing of depleted nuclear fuel.
- radioluminescence — luminescence induced by nuclear radiation.
- rail detector car — a car equipped with special instruments and used to locate defects in rails.
- railroad crossing — place for vehicles to cross train tracks
- rainbow coalition — a political grouping together by several minority parties
- rational function — a function that can be written as the quotient of two polynomials with integral coefficients.
- read the riot act — an English statute of 1715 providing that if 12 or more persons assemble unlawfully and riotously, to the disturbance of the public peace, and refuse to disperse upon proclamation they shall be considered guilty of felony.
- receding forehead — a forehead which slopes backwards
- recoil escapement — anchor escapement.
- reconstructionism — a 20th-century movement among U.S. Jews, founded by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, advocating that Judaism, being a culture and way of life as well as a religion, is in sum a religious civilization requiring constant adaptation to contemporary conditions so that Jews can identify more readily and meaningfully with the Jewish community.
- reconstructionist — an advocate or supporter of Reconstruction or Reconstructionism.
- recorded delivery — If you send a letter or parcel recorded delivery, you send it using a Post Office service which gives you an official record of the fact that it has been posted and delivered.
- recording session — a period of time devoted to recording music in a studio
- recoverable error — a program error that can be corrected and does not cause the program to fail or irretrievably lose data.
- recovery position — a position in which an unconscious person can be lain on the floor, which minimises them from further risk
- recreation centre — a facility open to the public for leisure and recreation activities
- recreation ground — an open space for public recreation, esp one in a town, with swings and slides, etc, for children
- recreational drug — drug taken for pleasure
- recreationalist's — recreationist.
- recruiting office — an office where staff are recruited, esp by the military
- recrystallization — to become crystallized again.
- recursion formula — a formula for determining the next term of a sequence from one or more of the preceding terms.
- recursive acronym — (convention) A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support". See also mung.
- redemption center — a commercial establishment at which trading stamps of a specific brand may be exchanged for merchandise.
- reduce to silence — If someone or something reduces you to silence, they make you feel so upset or confused that you cannot speak.
- reduction formula — a formula, such as sin (90° ± A) = cos A, expressing the values of a trigonometric function of any angle greater than 90° in terms of a function of an acute angle
- reflection nebula — a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light of neighboring stars.
- refractory period — a short period after a nerve or muscle cell fires during which the cell cannot respond to additional stimulation.
- refuse collection — the collection of rubbish and waste, usually in a rubbish or refuse truck, before final disposal
- refuse destructor — someone responsible for or something that destructs or destroys rubbish and waste
- registered office — official business address
- registered stocks — stocks officially registered to the name of the owner
- remote-controlled — A remote-controlled machine or device is controlled from a distance by the use of radio or electronic signals.
- renaissance woman — a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.
- rental collection — a group of books, in a public or other free library, for which a borrower must pay a fee.
- repertory catalog — a catalog containing bibliographic records that indicate locations of materials in more than one library or in several units of one library.
- repertory company — repertory (def 2).
- repertory society — a group that supports amateur performances of plays by its members
- reproductive cell — gamete.
- republic of china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- republic of korea — a former country in E Asia, on a peninsula SE of Manchuria and between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea: a kingdom prior to 1910; under Japanese rule 1910–45; now divided at 38° N into North Korea and South Korea. Compare Korean War.