17-letter words containing s, e, t, r, c
- carlos de austria — Don [dawn] /dɔn/ (Show IPA), 1545–68, eldest son of Philip II of Spain: died during imprisonment for conspiracy against his father.
- 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
- cassette recorder — A cassette recorder is a machine that is used for recording and listening to cassettes.
- cast/run your eye — If you cast your eye or run your eye over something, you look at it or read it quickly.
- casting the runes — (jargon) What a guru does when you ask him or her to run a particular program because it never works for anyone else; especially used when nobody can ever see what the guru is doing different from what J. Random Luser does. Compare incantation, runes, examining the entrails; also see the AI koan about Tom Knight.
- castle in the air — a hope or desire unlikely to be realized; daydream
- cat scratch fever — a disorder characterized by fever and swelling of the lymph glands, caused by a viral infection resulting from the scratch or bite of a cat.
- cat-scratch fever — a disease of humans caused by an organism, Bartonella henselae, usually resulting from a scratch by a cat and characterized by lymph node enlargement
- catcher resonator — See under Klystron.
- cavalier servente — a lover; suitor.
- celestial equator — the great circle lying on the celestial sphere, the plane of which is perpendicular to the line joining the north and south celestial poles
- celestial horizon — the line or circle that forms the apparent boundary between earth and sky.
- cellulose nitrate — a compound made by treating cellulose with nitric and sulphuric acids, used in plastics, lacquers, and explosives: a nitrogen-containing ester of cellulose
- chamber orchestra — A chamber orchestra is a small orchestra which plays classical music.
- chapter and verse — If you say that someone gives you chapter and verse on a particular subject, you are emphasizing that they tell you every detail about it.
- character actress — an actress who specializes in playing odd or eccentric characters
- character defense — a personality trait, as a habitual tendency to idealize or rationalize, that serves some unconscious defensive purpose.
- character witness — a witness in a trial who testifies to the accused's general good character rather than providing evidence about the specific offence which has led to him or her being on trial
- characterisations — Plural form of characterisation.
- characterizations — portrayal; description: the actor's characterization of a politician.
- characterlessness — The state or condition of being characterless; lack of character.
- charles the great — ("Charles the Great") a.d. 742–814, king of the Franks 768–814; as Charles I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 800–814.
- charles townshend — Charles, 1725–67, English politician, chancellor of the exchequer for whom the Townshend Acts are named.
- charter of rights — a section of the Canadian Constitution containing a statement of the basic rights of citizens of Canada.
- chartered society — a society that has an official charter
- 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.
- chest measurement — the circumference of the trunk, measured around the middle of the chest
- chicken drumstick — a chicken leg, considered as food
- chiltern hundreds — (in Britain) short for Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds; a nominal office that an MP applies for in order to resign his seat
- chinese artichoke — a hairy plant, Stachys affinis, of China and Japan, having numerous small, white, edible tubers.
- chinese turkestan — the E part of the central Asian region of Turkestan: corresponds generally to the present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China
- chocolate soldier — a person who mistakenly believes that he or she is very powerful, important, or impressive
- christian science — Christian Science is a type of Christianity which emphasizes the use of prayer to cure illness.
- christmas cracker — a decorated cardboard tube that emits a bang when pulled apart, releasing a toy, a joke, or a paper hat.
- christmas disease — a relatively mild type of haemophilia, caused by lack of a protein (Christmas factor) implicated in the process of blood clotting
- christmas present — a present given at Christmas time, typically on Christmas Day
- circle the wagons — to take defensive action; prepare for an attack: from arranging a wagon train in a circular formation
- circumscriptively — In a circumscriptive manner.
- circumterrestrial — surrounding or revolving about the earth.
- cistern barometer — a mercury barometer in which the lower mercury surface has a greater area than the upper.
- citizen's charter — (formerly, in Britain) a government document setting out standards of service for public and private sector bodies, such as schools, hospitals, railway companies, water and energy suppliers, etc
- civil partnership — A civil partnership is a legal relationship between two people of the same sex that is similar to marriage.
- clear box testing — white box testing
- 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
- close the door on — rule out, exclude
- coal-tar creosote — impure phenol or carbolic acid, distinct from the creosote of wood tar.
- coarse-grain salt — salt with a much larger grain size than table salt