12-letter words starting with c
- casting vote — When a committee has given an equal number of votes for and against a proposal, the chairperson can give a casting vote. This vote decides whether or not the proposal will be passed.
- castor sugar — finely ground or powdered sugar.
- cat squirrel — the gray squirrel, as distinguished from the fox squirrel.
- cat standard — (in Britain) a standard accepted voluntarily by building societies relating to charges, access, etc, against which Individual Savings Accounts can be judged
- cat's cradle — a game played by making intricate patterns with a loop of string between the fingers
- catachrestic — Constituting or related to catachresis.
- catacoustics — the branch of acoustics dealing with echoes and reflected sounds
- catadioptric — involving a combination of reflecting and refracting components
- catallactics — political economy
- catalog code — the principles, rules, and regulations for entering and describing books or other library material in a catalog.
- catamountain — any of several wildcats, esp. the leopard or the European wildcat
- cataphoreses — Plural form of cataphoresis.
- cataphoresis — electrophoresis
- cataphracted — covered with an armor of horny or bony plates or scales.
- cataphractic — relating to or resembling a cataphract
- cataphyllary — a scale-like, simple form of a leaf, such as those which surround a bud
- cataphysical — perverse; contrary to nature
- catastrophal — (rare) Catastrophic.
- catastrophes — Plural form of catastrophe.
- catastrophic — Something that is catastrophic involves or causes a sudden terrible disaster.
- catbird seat — an enviable position, as of power
- catch a cold — to make a loss; lose one's investment
- catch a crab — to make a stroke in which the oar either misses the water or digs too deeply, causing the rower to fall backwards
- catch phrase — a phrase that attracts or is meant to attract attention.
- catch points — railway points designed to derail a train running back in the wrong direction to prevent collision with a following train
- catch stitch — a large cross-stitch used in finishing seams and in hemming.
- catch-phrase — A catch-phrase is a sentence or phrase which becomes popular or well-known, often because it is frequently used by a famous person.
- catching pen — a pen adjacent to a shearer's stand containing the sheep ready for shearing
- catchphrases — Plural form of catchphrase.
- catechetical — of or relating to teaching by question and answer
- catechumenal — Ecclesiastical. a person under instruction in the rudiments of Christianity, as in the early church; a neophyte.
- categorially — in a manner relating to or involving categories
- categoricity — The quality of being categorical.
- categorising — to arrange in categories or classes; classify.
- categorizing — Present participle of categorize.
- cater-cousin — a close friend
- caterpillars — Plural form of caterpillar.
- caterpillers — Archaic spelling of caterpillarst; Plural form of caterpiller.
- caterwauling — the shrieking and yowling made by a cat, for example when it is on heat or fighting
- catherine ii — known as Catherine the Great. 1729–96, empress of Russia (1762–96), during whose reign Russia extended her boundaries at the expense of Turkey, Sweden, and Poland: she was a patron of literature and the arts
- catheterized — Simple past tense and past participle of catheterize.
- catheterizes — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of catheterize.
- cathetometer — an instrument measuring minute height differences
- cathiodermie — a beauty treatment for the skin, which involves using electrotherapy
- cathode glow — a luminous region between the Aston dark space and the Crookes dark space in a vacuum tube, occurring when the pressure is low.
- cathode rays — a stream of electrons emitted from the surface of a cathode in a valve
- cathodically — in a cathodic manner, by using a cathode
- cathodograph — a picture taken using cathode rays
- catilinarian — pertaining to or resembling Catiline.
- cationically — in a cationic manner