17-letter words containing h, u, c
- dutch elm disease — a disease of elms characterized by wilting, yellowing, and falling of the leaves and caused by a fungus, Ceratostomella ulmi, transmitted by bark beetles.
- dutch west indies — a Netherlands overseas territory in the Caribbean Sea, N and NE of Venezuela; includes the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, and St. Eustatius, and the S part of St. Martin: considered an integral part of the Dutch realm. 366 sq. mi. (948 sq. km). Capital: Willemstad.
- dwarf huckleberry — tangleberry.
- ethnomusicologist — A researcher in the field of ethnomusicology.
- fashion-conscious — interested in, and wanting to wear, fashionable clothes
- female chauvinist — a female who patronizes, disparages, or otherwise denigrates males in the belief that they are inferior to females and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.
- female-chauvinist — a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic, especially one devoted to military glory.
- fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- freight insurance — insurance paid on goods in transport
- french revolution — the revolution that began in 1789, overthrew the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons and the system of aristocratic privileges, and ended with Napoleon's overthrow of the Directory and seizure of power in 1799.
- functional change — a change in the grammatical function of a word, as in the use of the noun input as a verb or the noun fun as an adjective.
- further education — adult education.
- gaucher's disease — a rare inherited disorder of fat metabolism that causes spleen and liver enlargement, abnormal fragility and pain of the bones, and progressive neurologic disturbances, leading to early death.
- 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.
- go to the country — If a head of government or a government goes to the country, they hold a general election.
- grande chartreuse — the Carthusian monastery at Grenoble, France: the chief monastery of the Carthusians until 1903.
- graphic equalizer — an equalizer in an audio system that is controlled by sliders that show graphically and correct the frequency response within the preset frequency range.
- greenhouse effect — an atmospheric heating phenomenon, caused by short-wave solar radiation being readily transmitted inward through the earth's atmosphere but longer-wavelength heat radiation less readily transmitted outward, owing to its absorption by atmospheric carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and other gases; thus, the rising level of carbon dioxide is viewed with concern.
- hairline fracture — a very fine crack in a bone
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- hammered dulcimer — dulcimer (sense 1)
- hard nut to crack — a dry fruit consisting of an edible kernel or meat enclosed in a woody or leathery shell.
- haroun-al-raschid — Harun al-Rashid.
- hasbrouck heights — a borough in NE New Jersey.
- heimlich maneuver — an emergency rescue procedure for application to someone choking on a foreign object, in which the rescuer places a fist between the victim's lower ribs or upper abdomen from behind and exerts sudden pressure in the form of thrusts of sufficient force to help eject the object from the windpipe.
- herbaceous border — A herbaceous border is a flower bed containing a mixture of plants that flower every year.
- heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
- high muckety-muck — high muck-a-muck
- hippocampal gyrus — a convolution on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum, bordering the hippocampus.
- hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
- homeland security — national defence
- horseradish sauce — a piquant sauce made from horseradish root, vinegar, etc, and traditionally eaten in Britain with roast beef
- horticulturalists — Plural form of horticulturalist.
- houndstooth check — a pattern of broken checks, used in woven material for jackets, shirts, etc.
- household cavalry — (in Britain) cavalry units forming part of the ceremonial guard of the monarch.
- household effects — domestic belongings
- housekeeping cart — A housekeeping cart is a large metal basket on wheels which is used by a cleaner in a hotel to move clean bed linen, towels, and cleaning equipment.
- 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.
- human trafficking — the illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation.
- humpbacked bridge — A humpbacked bridge or humpback bridge is a short and very curved bridge with a shape similar to a semi-circle.
- hundred-percenter — a completely patriotic, sometimes jingoistic person.
- hurricane warning — a storm warning given for winds with speeds exceeding 63 knots (72 mph, 32 m/sec) when the source of the winds is a tropical cyclone.
- huygens principle — the principle that all points on a wave front of light are sources of secondary waves and that surfaces tangential to these waves define the position of the wave front at any point in time.
- huygens' eyepiece — a telescope eyepiece consisting of two planoconvex lenses separated by a distance equal to half the sum of their focal lengths, which are in the ratio of three to one, and oriented so that their curved surfaces face the incident light
- hydraulic circuit — a circuit through which water or another liquid, instead of electric current, flows, but which otherwise operates in the same way as an electric circuit
- hydrofluoric acid — a colorless, fuming, corrosive liquid, HF, an aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride, used chiefly for etching glass.
- hydrofluorocarbon — Any of a class of partly chlorinated and fluorinated hydrocarbons, used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons in foam production, refrigeration, and other processes.
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.