18-letter words containing s, e, n, c, t
- helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
- herringbone stitch — a type of cross-stitch in embroidery similar to the catch stitch in sewing, consisting of an overlapped V -shaped stitch that when worked in a continuous pattern produces a twill-weave effect.
- heuristics testing — failure-directed testing
- high speed connect — (hardware) (HSC) A Hewlett-Packard bus like EISA.
- histamine headache — cluster headache.
- historical present — the present tense used in narrating a past event as if happening at the time of narration.
- honorary secretary — a unpaid person who is one of the managers of an organization
- hotel receptionist — a person who looks after guests when they first arrive at a hotel, checking them in, giving them their keys, etc
- hypernationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.
- hysterical reasons — (Or "hysterical raisins") A variant on the stock phrase "for historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must be done in some stupid way for backward compatibility, and moreover that the feature it must be compatible with was the result of a bad design in the first place. "All IBM PC video adaptors have to support MDA text mode for hysterical reasons." Compare bug-for-bug compatible.
- imploded consonant — a consonant which is pronounced with or by implosion
- in inverted commas — If you say in inverted commas after a word or phrase, you are indicating that it is inaccurate or unacceptable in some way, or that you are quoting someone else.
- in terrorem clause — a clause in a will stating that a beneficiary who contests the will shall lose his or her legacy.
- in that/which case — You say in that case or in which case to indicate that what you are going to say is true if the possible situation that has just been mentioned actually exists.
- in the face of sth — If you take a particular action or attitude in the face of a problem or difficulty, you respond to that problem or difficulty in that way.
- in the first place — firstly
- incentive discount — a discount on goods offered to customers, usually as a reward for repeated business or for bringing in other customers
- incidental charges — Incidental charges are costs of items and services that are not part of the main bill.
- incidental damages — law: incurred by contract breach
- incommensurability — not commensurable; having no common basis, measure, or standard of comparison.
- inconsequentiality — of little or no importance; insignificant; trivial.
- independent clause — a clause that can stand alone as a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate with a finite verb, as I was there in the sentence I was there when he arrived.
- independent school — (in Britain) a school that is neither financed nor controlled by the government or local authorities
- indestructibleness — The quality of being indestructible.
- indirect discourse — discourse consisting not of an exact quotation of a speaker's words but of a version transformed from them for grammatical inclusion in a larger sentence. He said he was hungry is an example of indirect discourse.
- indiscriminateness — The state of being indiscriminate.
- industrial vehicle — a vehicle designed for use in industry
- infectious disease — illness spread by person to person
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- insurance adjuster — An insurance adjuster is the same as a claims adjuster.
- intelligence corps — a military department that gathers and analyzes information
- intensional object — the object of a propositional attitude that may or may not exist, as in Robert is dreaming of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This must be an intensional (or opaque) context, for otherwise, since there is no pot of gold, Robert would be dreaming of nothing
- intercartilaginous — (anatomy) Within cartilage.
- interconnectedness — the quality or condition of being interconnected; interrelatedness: the interconnectedness of all nations working toward world peace.
- interface analysis — (testing) A software test which checks the interfaces between program elements for consistency and adherence to predefined rules or axioms.
- intermetrics, inc. — AverStar
- internal secretion — a secretion, esp a hormone, that is absorbed directly into the blood
- interstellar space — astronomy: space between the stars
- investment account — a bank account in which money is saved long-term to accrue interest
- investment casting — a casting process in which an expendable pattern is surrounded by an investment compound and then baked so that the investment is hardened to form a mold and the pattern material may be melted and run off.
- investment company — a company that invests its funds in other companies and issues its own securities against these investments.
- involuntary muscle — muscle: contracts involuntarily
- iridescent seaweed — a red alga, Irideae cordata, found on the Pacific coast of North America, having broad, leathery, iridescent blades.
- japanese artichoke — Chinese artichoke.
- john birch society — an ultraconservative organization, founded in December 1958 by Robert Welch, Jr., chiefly to combat alleged Communist activities in the U.S.
- josephson junction — a high-speed switch, used in experimental computers, that operates on the basis of a radiative phenomenon (Jo·sephson effect) exhibited by a pair of superconductors separated by a thin insulator.
- justice department — the United States federal department for enforcing federal laws
- keep at a distance — to be reserved or cool toward; treat aloofly
- kentucky bluegrass — a grass, Poa pratensis, of the Mississippi valley, used for pasturage and lawns.
- king of the castle — most powerful figure