15-letter words containing c
- atlantic-ridley — ridley (def 1).
- atmospherically — pertaining to, existing in, or consisting of the atmosphere: atmospheric vapors.
- atomic cocktail — an aqueous solution of radioactive substance administered orally as part of the treatment for cancer
- audience appeal — the quality of being attractive to an audience
- audience rating — a figure based on statistical sampling indicating what proportion of the total listening and viewing audience tune in to a specific programme or network
- audio frequency — a frequency in the range 20 hertz to 20 000 hertz. A sound wave of this frequency would be audible to the human ear
- audio recording — an electronic recording of sound
- audubon society — a North American organization devoted to the conservancy of birds
- augustus caesar — Also called Octavian (before 27 b.c.)(Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus; Augustus Caesar) 63 b.c.–a.d. 14, first Roman emperor 27 b.c.–a.d. 14: reformer, patron of arts and literature; heir and successor to Julius Caesar.
- authenticatable — to establish as genuine.
- authentications — Plural form of authentication.
- autocannibalism — The eating of part of one's own body.
- autocollimation — the process used in an autocollimator.
- autocorrelation — the condition occurring when successive items in a series are correlated so that their covariance is not zero and they are not independent
- autocorrelative — Relating to autocorrelation.
- autodestructive — likely to cause one's own destruction
- autodidacticism — any self-directed learning or self-education
- autofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or exhibiting autofluorescence.
- autoinoculation — the inoculation of microorganisms (esp viruses) from one part of the body into another, usually in the form of a vaccine
- automatic drive — an automotive transmission requiring either very little or no manual shifting of gears.
- automatic focus — a system in a camera which automatically adjusts the lens so that the object being photographed is in focus, often one using infrared light to estimate the distance of the object from the camera
- automatic pilot — An automatic pilot or an autopilot is a device in an aircraft that automatically keeps it on a particular course.
- automatic rifle — a type of light machine gun capable of firing automatically or in single shots.
- automorphically — in an automorphic manner
- autorhythmicity — The quality of being autorhythmic, or generating its own rhythm, as for example the cells of the cardiac muscle do.
- autoschediastic — offhand, with little forethought or preparation
- autostereoscopy — The display of stereoscopic images without the use of special viewing equipment.
- autotrophically — through an autotrophic process
- away-going crop — a crop planted by a tenant that matures after the expiration of the tenancy and is rightfully the tenant's to harvest.
- axiom of choice — the axiom of set theory that given any collection of disjoint sets, a set can be so constructed that it contains one element from each of the given sets.
- azuchi-momoyama — a period of Japanese art, 1568–1600, characterized by construction of imposing, elegant castles and small, unadorned teahouses, lavish decorative arts, and bright-colored painting.
- babinski effect — the reflex curling upwards of the toes (instead of inwards) when the sole of the foot is stroked, normal in infants below the age of two but a pathological condition in adults
- bacchanalianism — the practice of bacchanalian behaviour; drunken revelry
- back plastering — the introduction of partitions of lath and plaster between the inner and outer surfaces of a stud wall in order to improve the insulating properties of the wall.
- back projection — a method of projecting pictures onto a translucent screen so that they are viewed from the opposite side, used esp in films to create the illusion that the actors in the foreground are moving
- back-scratching — a reciprocal exchange of favors, aid, or compliments
- backseat driver — If you refer to a passenger in a car as a backseat driver, they annoy you because they constantly give you advice about how to drive.
- backup rotation — (operating system) Any system for re-using backup media, e.g. magnetic tape. One extreme would be to use the same media for every backup (e.g. copy disk A to disk B), the other extreme would be to use new media every time. The trade-off is between the cost of buying and storing media and the ability to restore any version of any file. One example is the Grandfather, Father, Son (GFS) scheme.
- backup software — (tool, software) Software for doing a backup, often included as part of the operating system. Backup software should provide ways to specify what files get backed up and to where. It may include its own scheduling function to automate the procedure or, preferably, work with generic scheduling facilities. It may include facilities for managing the backup media (e.g. maintaining an index of tapes) and for restoring files from backups. Examples are Unix's dump command and Windows's ntbackup.
- baconian method — induction (def 4a).
- baconian theory — the theory attributing the authorship of Shakespeare's plays to Francis Bacon.
- bacterial ghost — a bacterial cell that is emptied and filled artificially with another substance
- bacteriological — Of or relating to bacteriology or bacteria.
- bacteriophagous — Pertaining to the predation and consumption of bacterium.
- badminton court — the court on which games of badminton are played
- baggage reclaim — the process of passengers' getting back the baggage that they have checked in for a flight
- bait and switch — Bait and switch is used to refer to a sales technique in which goods are advertised at low prices in order to attract customers, although only a small number of the low-priced goods are available.
- bait-and-switch — denoting a deceptive method of selling, by which customers, attracted to a store by sale items, are told either that the advertised bargain item is out of stock or is inferior to a higher-priced item that is available.
- baja california — peninsula in Mexico, between the Pacific & the Gulf of California: divided into a northern state (Baja California), 27,071 sq mi (70,114 sq km), pop. 1,661,000, cap. Mexicali; and a southern state (Baja California Sur), 28,447 sq mi (73,677 sq km), pop. 318,000, cap. La Paz
- balance control — a state of equilibrium or equipoise; equal distribution of weight, amount, etc.