17-letter words containing s, p, e, c, d
- esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
- fancy dress party — a party at which the guests wear fancy dress
- fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
- field penny-cress — the common penny-cress, Thlaspi arvense.
- field post office — a place to which mail intended for military units in the field is sent to be sorted and forwarded
- five-spice powder — a mixture of spices used especially in Chinese cooking, usually including cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, pepper, and star anise.
- foot-pound-second — of or relating to the system of units in which the foot, pound, and second are the principal units of length, mass, and time. Abbreviation: fps, f.p.s.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- frames per second — (unit) (fps) The unit of measurement of the frame rate of a moving image.
- freedom of speech — the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.
- greensand process — a process for casting iron with sand not previously heated.
- handicap register — a list of the disabled people in its area that a local authority had a duty to compile under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- identity politics — political activity or movements based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group identity.
- immunocompromised — having an impaired or compromised immune response; immunodeficient.
- incandescent lamp — a lamp that emits light due to the glowing of a heated material, especially the common device in which a tungsten filament enclosed within an evacuated glass bulb is rendered luminous by the passage of an electric current through it.
- indecent exposure — the intentional exposure of one's body's privates in a manner that gives offense against accepted or prescribed behavior.
- indicator species — See at indicator (def 6).
- integrated optics — an assembly of miniature optical elements of a size comparable to those used in electronic integrated circuits.
- interdependencies — the quality or condition of being interdependent, or mutually reliant on each other: Globalization of economies leads to an ever-increasing interdependence of countries.
- interdisciplinary — combining or involving two or more academic disciplines or fields of study: The economics and history departments are offering an interdisciplinary seminar on Asia.
- interrupted screw — a screw having the thread interrupted in one or more places by longitudinal channels, as in the breech of a cannon or the lead screw of a lathe.
- kaleidoscopically — of, relating to, or created by a kaleidoscope.
- landscape painter — artist who depicts natural scenery
- landscaped garden — a garden that has been artistically designed
- legal proceedings — court case
- lipopolysaccaride — a molecule, consisting of lipid and polysaccharide components, that is the main constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria
- load displacement — the weight, in long tons, of a cargo vessel loaded so that the summer load line touches the surface of the water.
- mercuric sulphide — a compound of mercury, usually existing as a black solid (metacinnabarite) or a red solid (cinnabar or vermilion), which is used as a pigment. Formula: HgS
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- moon and sixpence — a novel (1919) by W. Somerset Maugham.
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- non-corresponding — identical in all essentials or respects: corresponding fingerprints.
- nonproductiveness — The quality of being nonproductive.
- old contemptibles — the British expeditionary force to France in 1914
- paradoxical sleep — REM sleep.
- passive obedience — unquestioning obedience to authority
- peaches and cream — If you say that a woman or a girl has a peaches and cream complexion, you mean that she has very clear, smooth, pale skin.
- performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
- periodic sentence — a sentence that, by leaving the completion of its main clause to the end, produces an effect of suspense, as in Unable to join the others at the dance because of my sprained ankle, I went to a movie.
- personal distance — personal space.
- physical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury by means of physical agents, as manipulation, massage, exercise, heat, or water.
- physical pendulum — any apparatus consisting of a body of possibly irregular shape allowed to rotate freely about a horizontal axis on which it is pivoted (distinguished from simple pendulum).
- polar coordinates — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
- positive feedback — Electronics. the process of returning part of the output of a circuit, system, or device to the input, either to oppose the input (negative feedback) or to aid the input (positive feedback) acoustic feedback.
- post-independence — Also, independency. the state or quality of being independent.
- potassium cyanide — a white, granular, water-soluble, poisonous powder, KCN, having a faint almondlike odor, used chiefly in metallurgy and photography.
- pre-modifications — an act or instance of modifying.
- prescription drug — medication available only on doctor's instruction
- presiding officer — the person who presides over the Scottish Parliament or Welsh Assembly