17-letter words containing t, b, o, n
- hold sb to ransom — If you say that someone is holding you to ransom in British English, or holding you for ransom in American English, you mean that they are using their power to try to force you to do something which you do not want to do.
- honorable mention — a citation conferred on a contestant, exhibit, etc., having exceptional merit though not winning a top honor or prize.
- hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
- hot on sb's heels — If you say that someone is hot on your heels, you are emphasizing that they are chasing you and are not very far behind you.
- hottentot's bread — elephant's-foot.
- hubble's constant — the ratio of the recessional velocity of galaxies to their distance from the sun, with current measurements of its value ranging from 50 to 100 km/sec per megaparsec.
- hung up on sb/sth — obsessively or exclusively interested in
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- i am bound to say — You can say 'I am bound to say' to introduce a statement expressing something that you find undesirable or unexpected.
- imitation doublet — a doublet formed entirely of glass.
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- in broad daylight — openly, in full public view
- in the background — behind the focus of attention
- incommunicability — incapable of being communicated, imparted, shared, etc.
- incompatibilities — not compatible; unable to exist together in harmony: She asked for a divorce because they were utterly incompatible.
- incompressibility — The quality of being incompressible, of not compressing under pressure.
- incubation period — the period between infection and the appearance of signs of a disease.
- inertial observer — a hypothetical observer who is not accelerated with respect to an inertial system. Newton's laws of motion and the special theory of relativity apply to the measurements which would be made by such observers
- insectivorous bat — any bat of the suborder Microchiroptera, typically having large ears and feeding on insects. The group includes common bats (Myotis species), vampire bats, etc
- insupportableness — The state of being insupportable; insufferableness.
- insurmountability — incapable of being surmounted, passed over, or overcome; insuperable: an insurmountable obstacle.
- inter-convertible — to subject to interconversion; interchange.
- interlibrary loan — a system by which one library obtains a work for a user by borrowing it from another library.
- internet backbone — (communications, networking) High-speed networks that carry Internet traffic. These communications networks are provided by companies such as AT&T, GTE, IBM, MCI, Netcom, Sprint, UUNET and consist of high-speed links in the T1, T3, OC1 and OC3 ranges. The backbones carry Internet traffic around the world and meet at Network Access Points (NAPs). The topology of the "backbone" and its interconnections may once have resembled a spine with ribs connected along its length but is now almost certainly more like a fishing net wrapped around the world with many circular paths.
- into one's barrow — suited to one's interests or desires
- inverted snobbery — the attitude of an inverted snob
- invisible exports — services sold to a foreign country or countries
- invisible imports — imports of services rather than goods
- irrational number — a number that cannot be exactly expressed as a ratio of two integers.
- irreconcilability — incapable of being brought into harmony or adjustment; incompatible: irreconcilable differences.
- job advertisement — an announcement in a newspaper, on television, or on a poster about a post of employment
- job specification — a detailed description of the qualifications, skills, and experience required for a particular post of employment
- job-order costing — a method of cost accounting by which the total cost of a given unit or quantity is determined by computing the costs that go into making a product as it moves through the manufacturing process.
- john wilkes booth — Ballington [bal-ing-tuh n] /ˈbæl ɪŋ tən/ (Show IPA), 1859–1940, founder of the Volunteers of America 1896 (son of William Booth).
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- lebanon mountains — a mountain range extending the length of Lebanon, in the central part. Highest peak, 10,049 feet (3063 meters).
- leibniz mountains — a mountain range on the SW limb of the moon, containing the highest peaks (10 000 metres) on the moon
- liability account — A liability account is an account recording a company's liabilities.
- liberal education — an education based primarily on the liberal arts, emphasizing the development of intellectual abilities as opposed to the acquisition of professional skills.
- light dawns on sb — If light dawns on you, you begin to understand something after a period of not being able to understand it.
- lithium carbonate — a colorless crystalline compound, Li 2 CO 3 , slightly soluble in water: used in ceramic and porcelain glazes, pharmaceuticals, and luminescent paints.
- little blue heron — a small heron, Egretta caerulea, of the warmer parts of the Western Hemisphere, having bluish-gray plumage.
- macroinvertebrate — (zoology) An invertebrate that is large enough to be seen without the use of a microscope.
- madiba generation — the generation born around 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first president of a multiracial South Africa
- make noises about — to give indications of one's intentions
- management buyout — A management buyout is the buying of a company by its managers. The abbreviation MBO is also used.
- medulla oblongata — the lowest or hindmost part of the brain, continuous with the spinal cord.
- methemoglobinemia — (medicine) A form of toxic anemia characterized by the presence of methemoglobin in the blood.
- methyltheobromine — caffeine.
- microinvertebrate — An invertebrate of microscopic size.