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17-letter words containing r, o, t, a, u

  • tetrafluoroethene — a dense colourless gas that is polymerized to make polytetrafluorethene (PTFE). Formula: F2C:CF2
  • the black country — the formerly heavily industrialized region of central England, northwest of Birmingham
  • the carboniferous — the Carboniferous period or rock system
  • the evil day/hour — If someone is putting off the evil day or the evil hour, they have to do something unpleasant and are trying to avoid doing it for as long as possible.
  • the major leagues — the two main leagues of professional baseball clubs in the U.S., the National League and the American League
  • the popular press — cheap newspapers with a mass circulation; the tabloid press
  • the rann of kutch — an extensive salt waste in W central India, and S Pakistan: consists of the Great Rann in the north and the Little Rann in the southeast; seasonal alternation between marsh and desert; some saltworks. In 1968 an international tribunal awarded about 10 per cent of the border area to Pakistan. Area: 23 000 sq km (9000 sq miles)
  • therapeutic touch — the laying on of hands by a healer
  • thermal diffusion — the separation of constituents, often isotopes, of a fluid under the influence of a temperature gradient.
  • thermal pollution — a rise in the temperature of rivers or lakes that is injurious to water-dwelling life and is caused by the disposal of heated industrial waste water or water from the cooling towers of nuclear power plants.
  • thermocoagulation — the coagulation of tissue by heat-producing high-frequency electric currents, used therapeutically to remove small growths or to create specific lesions in the brain.
  • thiosulfuric acid — an acid, H 2 S 2 O 3 , that may be regarded as sulfuric acid with one oxygen atom replaced by sulfur.
  • thread escutcheon — a raised metal rim around a keyhole.
  • three-course meal — A three-course meal is a meal that consists of three parts served one after the other.
  • thuringian forest — a forested mountain region in central Germany: a resort area.
  • to argue the toss — If you say that someone argues the toss, you are criticizing them for continuing to argue for longer than is necessary about something that is not very important.
  • to drag your feet — If you drag your feet or drag your heels, you delay doing something or do it very slowly because you do not want to do it.
  • to feel your oats — to feel exuberant or high-spirited
  • to keep your head — If you keep your head, you remain calm in a difficult situation. If you lose your head, you panic or do not remain calm in a difficult situation.
  • to show your face — If you show your face somewhere, you go there and see people, although you are not welcome, are rather unwilling to go, or have not been there for some time.
  • to take your time — If you take your time doing something, you do it quite slowly and do not hurry.
  • tolpuddle martyrs — six farm workers sentenced to transportation for seven years in 1834 for administering an unlawful oath to form a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset
  • tongue-and-groove — the technique of making a joint between two boards by means of a tongue along the edge of one board that fits into a groove along the edge of the other board
  • topological group — a set that is a group and a topological space and for which the group operation and the map of an element to its inverse are continuous functions.
  • torricellian tube — a vertical glass tube partly evacuated and partly filled with mercury, the height of which is used as a measure of atmospheric pressure
  • 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.
  • transfer function — The transfer function of a circuit is the ratio of the response to the input.
  • trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
  • tropical aquarium — an aquarium designed for the maintenance and breeding of tropical fish and kept at a suitably warm temperature.
  • 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.
  • turbinado (sugar) — a partially refined, granulated, pale-brown sugar obtained by washing raw sugar in a centrifuge until most of the molasses is removed
  • turbosupercharger — (formerly) a turbocharger.
  • 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.
  • ultraconservative — extremely conservative, especially in politics.
  • ultrametamorphism — metamorphism during which the temperature of a rock exceeds its melting point.
  • ultramicrobalance — a balance for weighing precisely, to a hundredth of a microgram or less, minute quantities of material.
  • uncomfortableness — causing discomfort or distress; painful; irritating.
  • unconformity trap — An unconformity trap is a hydrocarbon trap where the closure is made by an unconformity (= a formation of rock layers which represents a gap in the geological record).
  • uncooperativeness — working or acting together willingly for a common purpose or benefit.
  • undercompensation — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
  • undulatory theory — wave theory (def 1).
  • unemployment rate — percentage of population without jobs
  • uniformitarianism — supporting, conforming to, or derived from a theory or doctrine about uniformity, especially on the subject of geology.
  • unify corporation — (company)   Developers of the Unify relational database. At one time, before Sybase, they were a competitor of Oracle, et al.
  • unitary authority — (in the United Kingdom) a district administered by a single tier of local government, esp those districts of England that became administratively independent of the county councils in 1996–98
  • unofficial strike — a strike that is not approved by the strikers' trade union
  • unproportionately — proportioned; being in due proportion; proportional.
  • upper paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
  • urban development — the development or improvement of an urban area by building
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