17-letter words containing s, y, r, o
- foreign secretary — foreign minister.
- four-eyed opossum — a small opossum, Metachirops (Philander) opossum, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, having a white spot above each eye.
- four-stroke cycle — A four-stroke cycle is the cycle of engine operation which requires four strokes of the piston: for induction, compression, ignition, and exhaust.
- fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
- garlic mayonnaise — mayonnaise flavoured with garlic
- gastroenterostomy — the making of a new passage between the stomach and the duodenum (gastroduodenostomy) or, especially, the jejunum (gastrojejunostomy)
- gastrojejunostomy — See under gastroenterostomy.
- geological survey — U.S. Government. a division of the Department of the Interior, created in 1879, that studies the nation's water and mineral resources, makes topographic surveys, and classifies and leases public lands.
- glastonbury chair — a folding chair having legs crossed front-to-back and having arms connected to the back and to the front seat rail.
- globus hystericus — the sensation of having a lump in the throat or difficulty in swallowing for which no medical cause can be found.
- glory-of-the-snow — any of several plants belonging to the genus Chionodoxa, of the lily family, native to the Old World, having showy, blue, white, or pink flowers that bloom early in the spring.
- guardhouse lawyer — a person in military service, especially an inmate of a guardhouse or brig, who is or claims to be an authority on military law, regulations, and soldiers' rights.
- gulf war syndrome — a group of symptoms occurring in some Gulf War veterans, most commonly including headache and memory loss, muscle pain, skin disorders, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments, possibly caused by exposure to chemical weapons, vaccines, infectious diseases, or other factors.
- haematocrystallin — Alternative form of hematocrystallin.
- harmonic analysis — the calculation of Fourier series and their generalization.
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- hippocampal gyrus — a convolution on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum, bordering the hippocampus.
- homeland security — national defence
- household cavalry — (in Britain) cavalry units forming part of the ceremonial guard of the monarch.
- how's-your-father — sexual intercourse
- http proxy server — (web) A proxy server for HTTP requests. Typically an HTTP proxy or "web proxy" accepts HTTP requests containing URLs with a special prefix. The proxy removes the prefix and looks for the resulting URL in its local cache (if it is a caching proxy). If found, it returns the document immediately, otherwise it fetches it from the remote server, saves a copy in its cache and returns it to the requester. The cache will usually have an expiry algorithm which flushes documents according to their age, size and access history. The purpose is to reduce the amount of data flowing over the proxy's Internet connection and to speed up clients' access to frequently requested pages, e.g. at an ISP or on a large company's firewall. The proxy may also reject requests where the URL or content matches certain conditions. The Apache HTTP server can be configured to act as a proxy server. Another popular software proxy is Squid.
- hurler's syndrome — a medical condition characterized by physical deformity and mental deficiency
- hydrogasification — a high-temperature, high-pressure process for producing liquid or gaseous fuels from fine particles of coal and hydrogen gas
- hydrogen sulphide — Chemistry
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- hyperbolic cosine — one of a group of functions of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances of a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes; cosh
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- hyperpolarisation — Alternative spelling of hyperpolarization.
- hypochlorous acid — a weak, unstable acid, HOCl, existing only in solution and in the form of its salts, used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant.
- hypocholesteremia — an abnormally low amount of cholesterol in the blood.
- hypoglossal nerve — either one of the twelfth pair of cranial nerves, consisting of motor fibers that innervate the muscles of the tongue.
- hysteron proteron — a figure of speech in which the logical order of two elements in discourse is reversed, as in “bred and born” for “born and bred.”.
- ichthyosarcotoxin — a term applied to any poison found in the flesh of poisonous fishes.
- idiosyncratically — pertaining to the nature of idiosyncrasy, or something peculiar to an individual: The best minds are idiosyncratic and unpredictable as they follow the course of scientific discovery.
- illinois waterway — a waterway system in N Illinois made up of canals and rivers connecting Lake Michigan in Chicago with the Mississippi River. 336 miles (541 km) long.
- implosion therapy — a form of behavior therapy involving intensive recollection and review of anxiety-producing situations or events in a patient's life in an attempt to develop more appropriate responses to similar situations in the future.
- implosive-therapy — a form of behavior therapy involving intensive recollection and review of anxiety-producing situations or events in a patient's life in an attempt to develop more appropriate responses to similar situations in the future.
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- improvisationally — In an improvisational way.
- incomprehensively — In an incomprehensive manner.
- incompressibility — The quality of being incompressible, of not compressing under pressure.
- infantry division — a military division composed of infantry
- insurance company — company that sells insurance policies
- insurmountability — incapable of being surmounted, passed over, or overcome; insuperable: an insurmountable obstacle.
- intersectionality — the theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class, contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual (often used attributively): Her paper uses a queer intersectionality approach.
- inversion therapy — a method used to stretch and align the body, especially the lower back, by suspending the entire body upside down from an apparatus that grips or supports the feet or knees.
- inverted snobbery — the attitude of an inverted snob
- irrigation system — a system of supplying (land) with water by means of artificial canals, ditches, etc, esp to promote the growth of food crops
- isopropyl alcohol — a colorless, flammable, water-soluble liquid, C 3 H 8 O, produced from propylene by the action of sulfuric acid and hydrolysis: used chiefly in the manufacture of antifreeze and rubbing alcohol and as a solvent.