17-letter words containing an
- locked and loaded — [Military slang for an M-16 rifle with magazine inserted and prepared for firing] Said of a removable disk volume properly prepared for use - that is, locked into the drive and with the heads loaded. Ironically, because their heads are "loaded" whenever the power is up, this description is never used of Winchester drives (which are named after a rifle).
- lombrosian school — a school of criminology, promulgating the theories and employing the methods developed by Lombroso.
- long island sound — an arm of the Atlantic between Connecticut and Long Island. 90 miles (145 km) long.
- lose the exchange — to lose a rook in return for a bishop or knight
- louisiana tanager — western tanager.
- low-hanging fruit — the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
- luggage insurance — insurance against the loss of luggage while travelling
- luminous exitance — the ability of a surface to emit light expressed as the luminous flux per unit area at a specified point on the surface
- lymphangiographic — Relating to lymphangiography.
- macdonnell ranges — a mountain system of central Australia, in S central Northern Territory, extending about 160 km (100 miles) east and west of Alice Springs. Highest peak: Mount Zeil, 1531 m (5024 ft)
- macfarlane burnet — Sir (Frank) Macfarlane [muh k-fahr-luh n] /məkˈfɑr lən/ (Show IPA), 1899–1985, Australian physician: Nobel Prize in Physiology 1960.
- madonna and child — a representation of the Virgin Mary holding the infant Jesus.
- magellan barberry — an evergreen shrub, Berberis buxifolia, of southern Chile, having prickle-tipped leaves, dark-purple fruit, and orange-yellow flowers, rarely flowering in cultivation.
- magellanic clouds — either of two irregular galactic clusters in the southern heavens that are the nearest independent star system to the Milky Way.
- magnetic constant — the permeability of free space, which has the value 4π × 10–7 henry per metre
- magnetic meridian — a line on the earth's surface, passing in the direction of the horizontal component of the earth's magnetic field.
- magnetoresistance — a change in the electrical resistance of a material upon exposure to a magnetic field.
- maintenance costs — the costs associated with keeping a road, building, vehicle, or machine in good condition by regularly checking it and repairing it when necessary
- maintenance grant — an amount of money that a government or other institution gives to an individual, esp a student, in order to help them pay for the things that they need
- maintenance order — a court order stating that a divorced or legally separated man or woman must pay his or her former partner a regular sum in order to cover the costs of living
- malayo-polynesian — a family of languages extending from Madagascar to the central Pacific, including Malagasy, Malay, Indonesian, Tagalog, and Polynesian
- man enough to/for — If you say that a man is man enough to do something, you mean that he has the necessary courage or ability to do it.
- man in the street — the ordinary person; the average citizen: the political opinions of the man in the street.
- man on the street — man in the street.
- man's best friend — a dog, especially as a pet.
- management buyout — A management buyout is the buying of a company by its managers. The abbreviation MBO is also used.
- management course — a course provided by an educational establishment such as a university, which teaches skills concerning the management of a company, business, etc
- management skills — skills regarding the technique, practice, or science of managing a company, business, etc
- managing director — manager who oversees a project
- manchester school — a school of economists in England in the first half of the 19th century, devoted to free trade and the repeal of the Corn Law, led by Richard Cobden and John Bright.
- manganese dioxide — a blackish, crystalline or powdery substance, MnO2, that is a strong oxidizing agent, used in making batteries, matches, etc.
- manganese sulfate — a pink, water-soluble, usually tetrahydrate salt, MnSO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, used chiefly in fertilizers, paints, and varnishes.
- manhattan project — U.S. History. the unofficial designation for the U.S. War Department's secret program, organized in 1942, to explore the isolation of radioactive isotopes and the production of an atomic bomb: initial research was conducted at Columbia University in Manhattan.
- manicure scissors — scissors for manicuring or trimming the nails
- manifest function — any function of an institution or other social phenomenon that is planned and intentional.
- manitoulin island — an island in N Lake Huron belonging to Canada. 80 miles (130 km) long.
- mann-whitney test — a statistical test of the difference between the distributions of data collected in two experimental conditions applied to unmatched groups of subjects but comparing the distributions of the ranks of the scores
- manna from heaven — Bible: food from heaven
- manpower planning — a procedure used in organizations to balance future requirements for all levels of employee with the availability of such employees
- manual typewriter — a keyboard machine, operated entirely by hand, for writing mechanically in characters resembling print
- manufacturability — The condition of being manufacturable.
- manufactured home — a prefabricated house, assembled in modular sections.
- many-valued logic — the study of logical systems in which the truth-values that a proposition may have are not restricted to two, representing only truth and falsity
- margaret of anjou — 1430–82, queen of Henry VI of England.
- marketing manager — a person who is in charge of a marketing department or campaign
- marquesas islands — a group of volcanic islands in the S Pacific, in French Polynesia. Pop: 8712 (2002). Area: 1287 sq km (497 sq miles)
- marriage guidance — counselling for married couples
- mascarene islands — a group of islands in the Indian Ocean, E of Madagascar, including Mauritius, Reunion, and Rodrigues.
- mass merchandiser — a retailer or retail store that seeks to sell large quantities of goods quickly through such means as discounting, customer self-service, or unadorned display and packaging, as in a warehouse.
- mean piston speed — The mean piston speed is the distance traveled by a piston in a specified amount of time.