17-letter words containing l, d, c, o, n
- domestic violence — physical abuse in the home
- double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
- double track line — a railway line with double track
- drained of colour — colourless
- droplet infection — infection spread by airborne droplets of secretions from the nose, throat, or lungs.
- early closing day — a day on which most shops in a town or area close after lunch
- economic blockade — an embargo on trade with a country, esp one which prohibits receipt of exports from that country, with the intention of disrupting the country's economy
- electrodeposition — The deposition of a metal on a cathode during electrolysis; used as a method of purification.
- employee discount — When the employees of a store or other retail business are entitled to an employee discount, they do not have to pay the full price for goods they buy in the store.
- english shellcode — (security) A kind of malware that is embedded in ordinary English sentences. English shellcode attempts to avoid detection by antivirus software by making the code resemble, e.g. e-mail text or Wikipedia entries. It was first revealed by researchers at Johns Hopkins.
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exceptional child — a gifted child
- fendalton tractor — a four-wheel drive recreational vehicle
- flagrante delicto — Law. in the very act of committing the offense.
- floating dry dock — a dock that floats and can be lowered in the water for the entrance of a ship, and then raised for use as a dry dock
- fluid lubrication — lubrication in which bearing surfaces are separated by an oil film sustained by the motion of the parts
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- fractal dimension — (mathematics) A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
- french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
- full load current — A full load current is the largest current that a motor or other device is designed to carry under particular conditions.
- glycosphingolipid — (biochemistry) a lipid that contains at least one monosaccharide unit and either a sphingoid or a ceramide.
- grand union canal — a canal in S England linking London and the Midlands: opened in 1801
- grandfather clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
- haroun-al-raschid — Harun al-Rashid.
- henry cabot lodge — Henry Cabot, 1850–1924, U.S. public servant and author: senator 1893–1924.
- holistic medicine — incorporating the concept of holism, or the idea that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts, in theory or practice: holistic psychology.
- hollandaise sauce — a sauce of egg yolks, butter, lemon juice, and seasonings.
- homeland security — national defence
- homovanillic acid — the end product of dopamine metabolism, C 9 H 10 O 4 , found in human urine.
- hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
- hydrofluorocarbon — Any of a class of partly chlorinated and fluorinated hydrocarbons, used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons in foam production, refrigeration, and other processes.
- hydrogen chloride — a colorless gas, HCl, having a pungent odor: the anhydride of hydrochloric acid.
- hypochondriacally — In a hypochondriacal manner.
- hypodermic needle — a hollow needle used to inject solutions subcutaneously.
- identity politics — political activity or movements based on or catering to the cultural, ethnic, gender, racial, religious, or social interests that characterize a group identity.
- idiosyncratically — pertaining to the nature of idiosyncrasy, or something peculiar to an individual: The best minds are idiosyncratic and unpredictable as they follow the course of scientific discovery.
- indicial equation — an equation that is obtained from a given linear differential equation and that indicates whether a solution in power series form exists for the differential equation.
- indoleacetic acid — a crystalline, water-insoluble powder, C 10 H 9 NO 2 , a natural plant hormone, used especially for stimulating growth and root formation in plant cutting.
- industrial action — job action.
- industrial school — a school for teaching one or more branches of industry; trade or vocational school.
- injection molding — a method of forming thermoplastic or thermoset plastic, metal, or ceramic material by injection into a closed mold.
- integrated school — (in New Zealand) a private or church school that has joined the state school system
- knowledge economy — an economy in which information services are dominant as an area of growth
- lagging indicator — A lagging indicator is an economic indicator that changes following a change in the economy, such as unemployment.
- lago de nicaragua — Spanish name of Lake Nicaragua.
- lame-duck session — (formerly) the December to March session of those members of the U.S. Congress who were defeated for reelection the previous November.