17-letter words containing s, p, e, a
- basketball player — someone who plays basketball
- beauty specialist — a person who helps someone to improve their beauty, such as a make-up artist
- bell-shaped curve — bell curve
- bent out of shape — very angry, upset, or agitated
- beyond comparison — outstanding, without equal
- bitmapped display — bitmap display
- bjarne stroustrup — (person) The father of C++ and author of the C++ bible.
- blasphemous libel — In Britain, previously, the crime committed if a person insults, offends, or vilifies the deity, Christ, or the Christian religion
- blowpipe analysis — a type of chemical analysis in which the intensely hot flame of a blowpipe vaporizes a mineral or other substance with a characteristically colored flame and a unique odor, so as to identify chemical elements in a substance
- boileau-despreaux — Nicolas [nee-kaw-lah] /ni kɔˈlɑ/ (Show IPA), 1636–1711, French critic and poet.
- boothia peninsula — a peninsula of N Canada: the northernmost part of the mainland of North America, lying west of the Gulf of Boothia, an arm of the Arctic Ocean
- boulder raspberry — a shrub, Rubus deliciosus, of Colorado, having large white flowers and purple fruit.
- breach of promise — (formerly) failure to carry out one's promise to marry
- brocot escapement — a type of anchor escapement.
- café-au-lait spot — a brown patch on the skin that can occur normally in small numbers or in neurofibromatosis, when they are more numerous
- calcium phosphate — the insoluble nonacid calcium salt of orthophosphoric acid (phosphoric(V) acid): it occurs in bones and is the main constituent of bone ash. Formula: Ca3(PO4)2
- call-and-response — a form of interaction between a speaker and one or more listeners, in which every utterance of the speaker elicits a verbal or non-verbal response from the listener or listeners
- camp-fire-members — a U.S. organization for girls and boys that emphasizes the building of character and good citizenship through work, health, and love; originally founded for girls (Camp Fire girls) in 1910, it is now open to both boys and girls (Camp Fire members)
- campus university — a university in which the buildings, often including shops and cafés, are all on one site
- cancer specialist — a medical professional who specializes in the treatment or study of malignant growths or tumours
- candidate species — any plant or animal species that is a candidate for designation as an endangered species or threatened species.
- canine parvovirus — a highly contagious viral disease of dogs characterized by vomiting, haemorrhagic diarrhoea, depression, and, in severe cases, death
- cape barren goose — a greyish Australian goose, Cereopsis novaehollandiae, having a black bill with a greenish cere
- capital structure — the way that a company finances its assets through a combination of equity, debt etc
- capital-intensive — Capital-intensive industries and businesses need the investment of large sums of money. Compare labour-intensive.
- carbon disulphide — a colourless slightly soluble volatile flammable poisonous liquid commonly having a disagreeable odour due to the presence of impurities: used as an organic solvent and in the manufacture of rayon and carbon tetrachloride. Formula: CS2
- cardio striptease — a form of keep-fit exercise in which people move their bodies in the manner of striptease artists
- cardiorespiratory — of, relating to, or affecting the heart and respiratory system.
- carolina allspice — any of a genus (Calycanthus) of hardy shrubs (family Calycanthaceae) of a dicotyledonous order (Laurales) of plants, bearing reddish-brown, sweet-smelling flowers
- 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
- catholic epistles — the epistles of James, I and II Peter, I John, and Jude, which were addressed to the universal Church rather than to an individual or a particular church
- chadless keypunch — (hardware) A card punch which cut little U-shapes in punched cards, rather than punching out a circle or rectangle. The U's made a hole when folded back. One of the Jargon File's correspondents believed that the term "chad" derived from the Chadless keypunch. Obviously, if the Chadless keypunch didn't make them, then the stuff that other keypunches made had to be "chad". The assertion that the keypunch was named after its inventor is not supported by any record in US or UK patents or surname references.
- 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.
- checkable deposit — a checking account
- chelsea pensioner — an old ex-soldier resident in the Chelsea Royal Hospital
- chemotherapeutics — chemotherapy.
- christmas present — a present given at Christmas time, typically on Christmas Day
- chukchi peninsula — a peninsula in the extreme NE of Russia, in NE Siberia: mainly tundra
- civil partnership — A civil partnership is a legal relationship between two people of the same sex that is similar to marriage.
- class-a amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output current flows for the whole of the input signal cycle
- class-b amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output flows for half of the input signal cycle
- class-c amplifier — an electronic amplifier in which the output current flows for less than half of the input cycle
- 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 punctuation — punctuation in which many commas, full stops, etc, are used
- closed-captioning — (of a television program, film, or video) distributed with synchronized transcription of speech and written descriptions of other relevant audio elements, as for the hearing-impaired, that are visible only when the option to display them is selected. Abbreviation: CC.
- clumber (spaniel) — a short-legged spaniel with a heavy body and a thick coat of straight, white hair marked with yellow or orange
- colour separation — the division of a coloured original into cyan, magenta, yellow, and black so that plates may be made for print reproduction. Separation may be achieved by electronic scanning or by photographic techniques using filters to isolate each colour
- come to handgrips — to engage in hand-to-hand fighting