Words whose 10th letter is O

Abbreviator (n.) One of a college of seventy-two officers of the papal court whose duty is to make a short minute of a decision on a petition, or reply of the pope to a letter, and afterwards expand the minute into official form.

Acanthophorous (a.) Spine-bearing.

Accumulator (n.) A system of elastic springs for relieving the strain upon a rope, as in deep-sea dredging.

Adventitious (a.) Accidentally or sparingly spontaneous in a country or district; not fully naturalized; adventive; -- applied to foreign plants.

Aestivation (n.) The state of torpidity induced by the heat and dryness of summer, as in certain snails; -- opposed to hibernation.

Affirmation (n.) The act of affirming or asserting as true; assertion; -- opposed to negation or denial.

Aggravation (n.) The act of aggravating, or making worse; -- used of evils, natural or moral; the act of increasing in severity or heinousness; something additional to a crime or wrong and enhancing its guilt or injurious consequences.

Amphicoelous (a.) Having both ends concave; biconcave; -- said of vertebrae.

Ampullaceous (a.) Like a bottle or inflated bladder; bottle-shaped; swelling.

Antimonsoon (n.) The upper, contrary-moving current of the atmosphere over a monsoon.

Anarthropoda (n. pl.) One of the divisions of Articulata in which there are no jointed legs, as the annelids; -- opposed to Arthropoda.

Anguilliform (a.) Eel-shaped.

Anthophagous (a.) Eating flowers; -- said of certain insects.

Anthropology (n.) The science of man; -- sometimes used in a limited sense to mean the study of man as an object of natural history, or as an animal.

Apheliotropic (a.) Turning away from the sun; -- said of leaves, etc.

Apheliotropism (n.) The habit of bending from the sunlight; -- said of certain plants.

Arreptitious (a.) Snatched away; seized or possessed, as a demoniac; raving; mad; crack-brained.

Assignation (n.) An appointment of time and place for meeting or interview; -- used chiefly of love interviews, and now commonly in a bad sense.

Asynchronous (a.) Not simultaneous; not concurrent in time; -- opposed to synchronous.

Autochronograph (n.) An instrument for the instantaneous self-recording or printing of time.

Branchiopoda (n. pl.) An order of Entomostraca; -- so named from the feet of branchiopods having been supposed to perform the function of gills. It includes the fresh-water genera Branchipus, Apus, and Limnadia, and the genus Artemia found in salt lakes. It is also called Phyllopoda. See Phyllopoda, Cladocera. It is sometimes used in a broader sense.

Bronchophony (n.) A modification of the voice sounds, by which they are intensified and heightened in pitch; -- observed in auscultation of the chest in certain cases of intro-thoracic disease.

Brotherhood (n.) The whole body of persons engaged in the same business, -- especially those of the same profession; as, the legal or medical brotherhood.

Butting joint () A joint between two pieces of timber or wood, at the end of one or both, and either at right angles or oblique to the grain, as the joints which the struts and braces form with the truss posts; -- sometimes called abutting joint.

Calorisator (n.) An apparatus used in beet-sugar factories to heat the juice in order to aid the diffusion.

Carburettor (n.) One that carburets; specif., an apparatus in which air or gas is carbureted, as by passing it through a light petroleum oil. The carburetor for a gasoCacophonious (a.) Harsh-sounding.

Callyciflorous (a.) Having the petals and stamens adnate to the calyx; -- applied to a subclass of dicotyledonous plants in the system of the French botanist Candolle.

Carpophagous (a.) Living on fruits; fruit-consuming.

Castile soap () A kind of fine, hard, white or mottled soap, made with olive oil and soda; also, a soap made in imitation of the above-described soap.

Circulation (n.) The movement of the blood in the blood-vascular system, by which it is brought into close relations with almost every living elementary constituent. Also, the movement of the sap in the vessels and tissues of plants.

Clypeastroid (a.) Like or related to the genus Clupeaster; -- applied to a group of flattened sea urchins, with a rosette of pores on the upper side.

Contraption (n.) A contrivance; a new-fangled device; -- used scornfully.

Cocleariform (a.) Spoon-shaped.

Coerulignone (n.) A bluish violet, crystalCointension (n.) The condition of being of equal in intensity; -- applied to relations; as, 3:6 and 6:12 are relations of cointension.

Combination (n.) The result of combining or uniting; union of persons or things; esp. a union or alliance of persons or states to effect some purpose; -- usually in a bad sense.

Compensator (n.) One who, or that which, compensates; -- a name applied to various mechanical devices.

Competition (n.) The act of seeking, or endeavoring to gain, what another is endeavoring to gain at the same time; common strife for the same objects; strife for superiority; emulous contest; rivalry, as for approbation, for a prize, or as where two or more persons are engaged in the same business and each seeking patronage; -- followed by for before the object sought, and with before the person or thing competed with.

Composition (n.) A literary, musical, or artistic production, especially one showing study and care in arrangement; -- often used of an elementary essay or translation done as an educational exercise.

Concertino (n.) A piece for one or more solo instruments with orchestra; -- more concise than the concerto.

Conjugation (n.) A kind of sexual union; -- applied to a blending of the contents of two or more cells or individuals in some plants and lower animals, by which new spores or germs are developed.

Conning tower (n.) The shot-proof pilot house of a war vessel.

Consumption (n.) A progressive wasting away of the body; esp., that form of wasting, attendant upon pulmonary phthisis and associated with cough, spitting of blood, hectic fever, etc.; pulmonary phthisis; -- called also pulmonary consumption.

Contraction (n.) Something contracted or abbreviated, as a word or phrase; -- as, plenipo for plenipotentiary; crim. con. for criminal conversation, etc.

Correligionist (n.) A co-religion/ist.

Counterflory (a.) Adorned with flowers (usually fleurs-de-lis) so divided that the tops appear on one side and the bottoms on the others; -- said of any ordinary.

Crepusculous (a.) Flying in the twilight or evening, or before sunrise; -- said certain birds and insects.

Cultivation (n.) Bestowal of time or attention for self-improvement or for the benefit of others; fostering care.

Cultrivorous (a.) Devouring knives; swallowing, or pretending to swallow, knives; -- applied to persons who have swallowed, or have seemed to swallow, knives with impunity.

Cupuliferous (a.) Of, pertaining to, or resembling, the family of plants of which the oak and the chestnut are examples, -- trees bearing a smooth, solid nut inclosed in some kind of cup or bur; bearing, or furnished with, a cupule.

Decollation (n.) The act of beheading or state of one beheaded; -- especially used of the execution of St. John the Baptist.

Defalcation (n.) A lopping off; a diminution; abatement; deficit. Specifically: Reduction of a claim by deducting a counterclaim; set- off.

Dereliction (n.) A retiring of the sea, occasioning a change of high-water mark, whereby land is gained.

Destructionist (n.) One who believes in the final destruction or complete annihilation of the wicked; -- called also annihilationist.

Diminuendo (adv.) In a gradually diminishing manner; with abatement of tone; decrescendo; -- expressed on the staff by Dim., or Dimin., or the sign.

Disciflorous (a.) Bearing the stamens on a discoid outgrowth of the receptacle; -- said of a subclass of plants. Cf. Calycifloral.

Disdiapason (n.) An interval of two octaves, or a fifteenth; -- called also bisdiapason.

Disposition (n.) Natural or prevailing spirit, or temperament of mind, especially as shown in intercourse with one's fellow-men; temper of mind.

Dispositioned (a.) Having (such) a disposition; -- used in compounds; as, well-dispositioned.

Ditrichotomous (a.) Dividing into double or treble ramifications; -- said of a leaf or stem.

Etheostomoid (n.) Any fish of the genus Etheostoma and related genera, allied to the perches; -- also called darter. The etheostomoids are small and often bright-colored fishes inhabiting the fresh waters of North America. About seventy species are known. See Darter.

Exalbuminous (a.) Having no albumen about the embryo; -- said of certain seeds.

Excarnation (n.) The act of depriving or divesting of flesh; excarnification; -- opposed to incarnation.

Exclamation (n.) A mark or sign by which outcry or emphatic utterance is marked; thus [!]; -- called also exclamation point.

Flabelliform (a.) Having the form of a fan; fan-shaped; flabellate.

Fulguration (n.) The sudden brightening of a fused globule of gold or silver, when the last film of the oxide of lead or copper leaves its surface; -- also called blick.

Galactophorous (a.) Milk-carrying; lactiferous; -- applied to the ducts of mammary glands.

Geodephagous (a.) Living in the earth; -- applied to the ground beetles.

Grenadillo (n.) A handsome tropical American wood, much used for making flutes and other wind instruments; -- called also Grenada cocos, or cocus, and red ebony.

Gymnocarpous (a.) Naked-fruited, the fruit either smooth or not adherent to the perianth.

Heteroecious (a.) Passing through the different stages in its life history on an alternation of hosts, as the common wheat-rust fungus (Puccinia graminis), and certain other parasitic fungi; -- contrasted with autoecious.

Hederiferous (a.) Producing ivy; ivy-bearing.

Heterogynous (a.) Having females very unlike the males in form and structure; -- as certain insects, the males of which are winged, and the females wingless.

Heterologous (a.) Characterized by heterology; consisting of different elements, or of like elements in different proportions; different; -- opposed to homologous; as, heterologous organs.

Heteromerous (a.) Having the femoral artery developed as the principal artery of the leg; -- said of certain birds, as the cotingas and pipras.

Hippophagous (a.) Feeding on horseflesh; -- said of certain nomadic tribes, as the Tartars.

Holometabolic (a.) Having a complete metamorphosis;-said of certain insects, as the butterflies and bees.

Homocategoric (a.) Belonging to the same category of individuality; -- a morphological term applied to organisms so related.

Homoeomerous (a.) Having the main artery of the leg parallel with the sciatic nerve; -- said of certain birds.

Homothermous (a.) Warm-blooded; homoiothermal; haematothermal.

Hydrometeor (n.) A meteor or atmospheric phenomenon dependent upon the vapor of water; -- in the pl., a general term for the whole aqueous phenomena of the atmosphere, as rain, snow, hail, etc.

Hypermetropy (n.) A condition of the eye in which, through shortness of the eyeball or fault of the refractive media, the rays of light come to a focus behind the retina; farsightedness; -- called also hyperopia. Cf. Emmetropia.

Hystricomorphous (a.) Like, or allied to, the porcupines; -- said of a group (Hystricomorpha) of rodents.

Idiomorphous (a.) Apperaing in distinct crystals; -- said of the mineral constituents of a rock.

Imagination (n.) The imagine-making power of the mind; the power to create or reproduce ideally an object of sense previously perceived; the power to call up mental imagines.

Importation (v. t.) The act or practice of importing, or bringing into a country or state; -- opposed to exportation.

Inauspicious (a.) Not auspicious; ill-omened; unfortunate; unlucky; unfavorable.

Insinuation (n.) The act of gaining favor, affection, or influence, by gentle or artful means; -- formerly used in a good sense, as of friendly influence or interposition.

Inspiration (n.) The act of inspiring or breathing in; breath; specif. (Physiol.), the drawing of air into the lungs, accomplished in mammals by elevation of the chest walls and flattening of the diaphragm; -- the opposite of expiration.

Intrapetiolar (a.) Situated between the petiole and the stem; -- said of the pair of stipules at the base of a petiole when united by those margins next the petiole, thus seeming to form a single stipule between the petiole and the stem or branch; -- often confounded with interpetiolar, from which it differs essentially in meaning.

Jacqueminot (n.) A half-hardy, deep crimson rose of the remontant class; -- so named after General Jacqueminot, of France.

Kamptulicon (n.) A kind of elastic floor cloth, made of India rubber, gutta-percha, linseed oil, and powdered cork.

Lachrymatory (n.) A "tear-bottle;" a narrow-necked vessel found in sepulchers of the ancient Romans; -- so called from a former notion that the tears of the deceased person's friends were collected in it. Called also lachrymal or lacrymal.

Lachrymiform (a.) Having the form of a tear; tear-shaped.

Laticiferous (a.) Containing the latex; -- applied to the tissue or tubular vessels in which the latex of the plant is found.

Leatherwood (n.) A small branching shrub (Dirca palustris), with a white, soft wood, and a tough, leathery bark, common in damp woods in the Northern United States; -- called also moosewood, and wicopy.

Levorotatory (a.) Turning or rotating the plane of polarization towards the left; levogyrate, as levulose, left-handed quartz crystals, etc.

Ligniperdous (a.) Wood-destroying; -- said of certain insects.

Lithophagous (a.) Eating or destroying stone; -- applied to various animals which make burrows in stone, as many bivalve mollusks, certain sponges, annelids, and sea urchins. See Lithodomus.

Malediction (n.) A proclaiming of evil against some one; a cursing; imprecation; a curse or execration; -- opposed to benediction.

Manichordon () The clavichord or clarichord; -- called also dumb spinet.

Melanochroite (n.) A mineral of a red, or brownish or yellowish red color. It is a chromate of lead; -- called also phoenicocroite.

Melanocomous (a.) Having very dark or black hair; black-haired.

Melanorrhoea (n.) An East Indian genus of large trees. Melanorrh/a usitatissima is the lignum-vitae of Pegu, and yelds a valuable black varnish.

Metagnathous (a.) Cross-billed; -- said of certain birds, as the crossbill.

Millimicron (n.) The thousandish part of a micron or the millionth part of a millimeter; -- a unit of length used in measuring light waves, etc.

Monomorphous (a.) Having but a single form; retaining the same form throughout the various stages of development; of the same or of an essentially similar type of structure; -- opposed to dimorphic, trimorphic, and polymorphic.

Monophyllous (a.) One-leaved; composed of a single leaf; as, a monophyllous involucre or calyx.

Monophyodont (a.) Having but one set of teeth; -- opposed to diphyodont.

Nycthemeron (n.) The natural day and night, or space of twenty-four hours.

Occultation (n.) The hiding of a heavenly body from sight by the intervention of some other of the heavenly bodies; -- applied especially to eclipses of stars and planets by the moon, and to the eclipses of satellites of planets by their primaries.

Octodecimo (n.) A book composed of sheets each of which is folded into eighteen leaves; hence; indicating more or less definitely a size of book, whose sheets are so folded; -- usually written 18mo or 18?, and called eighteenmo.

Onagrarieous (a.) Pertaining to, or resembling, a natural order of plants (Onagraceae or Onagrarieae), which includes the fuchsia, the willow-herb (Epilobium), and the evening primrose (/nothera).

Ophiophagous (a.) Feeding on serpents; -- said of certain birds and reptiles.

Ostentation (n.) The act of ostentating or of making an ambitious display; unnecessary show; pretentious parade; -- usually in a detractive sense.

Parasphenoid (a.) Near the sphenoid bone; -- applied especially to a bone situated immediately beneath the sphenoid in the base of the skull in many animals.

Peptohydrochloric (a.) Designating a hypothetical acid (called peptohydrochloric acid, pepsinhydrochloric acid, and chloropeptic acid) which is supposed to be formed when pepsin and dilute (0.1-0.4 per cent) hydrochloric acid are mixed together.

Perichaetous (a.) Surrounded by setae; -- said of certain earthworms (genus Perichaetus).

Permutation (n.) The arrangement of any determinate number of things, as units, objects, letters, etc., in all possible orders, one after the other; -- called also alternation. Cf. Combination, n., 4.

Photoheliometer (n.) A double-lens instrument for measuring slight variations of the sun's diameter by photography, utilizing the common chord of two overlapping images.

Photophilous (n.) Light-loving; growing in strong light, as many plants.

Phaneroglossal (a.) Having a conspicious tongue; -- said of certain reptiles and insects.

Philanthropinism (n.) A system of education on so-called natural principles, attempted in Germany in the last century by Basedow, of Dessau.

Philanthropy (n.) Love to mankind; benevolence toward the whole human family; universal good will; desire and readiness to do good to all men; -- opposed to misanthropy.

Phytolithology (n.) The branch of science which treats of fossil plants; -- usually called paleobotany, sometimes paleophytology.

Pianissimo (a.) Very soft; -- a direction to execute a passage as softly as possible. (Abbrev. pp.)

Planifolious (a.) Flat-leaved.

Pleurosteon (n.) The antero-lateral piece which articulates the sternum of birds.

Polychromous (a.) Of or pertaining to polychromy; many-colored; polychromatic.

Polymorphosis (n.) The assumption of several structural forms without a corresponding difference in function; -- said of sponges, etc.

Polymorphous (a.) Having, or occurring in, several distinct forms; -- opposed to monomorphic.

Polyphyllous (a.) Many-leaved; as, a polyphyllous calyx or perianth.

Pomacentroid (a.) Pertaining to the Pomacentridae, a family of bright-colored tropical fishes having spiny opercula; -- often called coral fishes.

Preignition (n.) Ignition in an internal-combustion engine while the inlet valve is open or before compression is completed.

Preposition (n.) A word employed to connect a noun or a pronoun, in an adjectival or adverbial sense, with some other word; a particle used with a noun or pronoun (in English always in the objective case) to make a phrase limiting some other word; -- so called because usually placed before the word with which it is phrased; as, a bridge of iron; he comes from town; it is good for food; he escaped by running.

Procuration (n.) A sum of money paid formerly to the bishop or archdeacon, now to the ecclesiastical commissioners, by an incumbent, as a commutation for entertainment at the time of visitation; -- called also proxy.

Progressionist (n.) One who maintains the doctrine of progression in organic forms; -- opposed to uniformitarian.

Propitiatory (n.) The mercy seat; -- so called because a symbol of the propitiated Jehovah.

Quadrillion (n.) According to the French notation, which is followed also upon the Continent and in the United States, a unit with fifteen ciphers annexed; according to the English notation, the number produced by involving a million to the fourth power, or the number represented by a unit with twenty-four ciphers annexed. See the Note under Numeration.

Rapscallion (n.) A rascal; a good-for-nothing fellow.

Rarefaction (n.) The act or process of rarefying; the state of being rarefied; -- opposed to condensation; as, the rarefaction of air.

Regenerator (n.) A device used in connection with hot-air engines, gas-burning furnaces, etc., in which the incoming air or gas is heated by being brought into contact with masses of iron, brick, etc., which have been previously heated by the outgoing, or escaping, hot air or gas.

Retardation (n.) The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to acceleration.

Retardation (n.) The keeping back of an approaching consonant chord by prolonging one or more tones of a previous chord into the intermediate chord which follows; -- differing from suspension by resolving upwards instead of downwards.

Rhizocarpous (a.) Having perennial rootstocks or bulbs, but annual flowering stems; -- said of all perennial herbs.

Rhizophagous (a.) Feeding on roots; root-eating.

Ritardando (a.) Retarding; -- a direction for slower time; rallentado.

Saltarello (n.) A popular Italian dance in quick 3-4 or 6-8 time, running mostly in triplets, but with a hop step at the beginning of each measure. See Tarantella.

Sanguivorous (a.) Subsisting upon blood; -- said of certain blood-sucking bats and other animals. See Vampire.

Sarcophagous (a.) Feeding on flesh; flesh-eating; carnivorous.

Seminiferous (a.) Seed-bearing; producing seed; pertaining to, or connected with, the formation of semen; as, seminiferous cells or vesicles.

Siphonophora (n. pl.) An order of pelagic Hydrozoa including species which form complex free-swimming communities composed of numerous zooids of various kinds, some of which act as floats or as swimming organs, others as feeding or nutritive zooids, and others as reproductive zooids. See Illust. under Physallia, and Porpita.

Siphonostomatous (a.) Having the front edge of the aperture of the shell prolonged in the shape of a channel for the protection of the siphon; -- said of certain gastropods.

Solmization (n.) The act of sol-faing.

Spermatozoid (n.) The male germ cell in animals and plants, the essential element in fertilization; a microscopic animalcule-like particle, usually provided with one or more cilia by which it is capable of active motion. In animals, the familiar type is that of a small, more or less ovoid head, with a delicate threadlike cilium, or tail. Called also spermatozoon. In plants the more usual term is antherozoid.

Squamozygomatic (a.) Of or pertaining to both the squamosal and zygomatic bones; -- applied to a bone, or a center of ossification, in some fetal skulls.

Stiacciato (n.) The lowest relief, -- often used in Italian sculpture of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Subconscious (a.) Occurring without the possibility or the fact of an attendant consciousness; -- said of states of the soul.

Suppression (n.) Complete stoppage of a natural secretion or excretion; as, suppression of urine; -- used in contradiction to retention, which signifies that the secretion or excretion is retained without expulsion.

Suprachoroidal (a.) Situated above the choroid; -- applied to the layer of the choroid coat of the eyeball next to the sclerotic.

Tardigradous (a.) Moving slowly; slow-paced.

Telengiscope (n.) An instrument of such focal length that it may be used as an observing telescope for objects close at hand or as a long-focused microscope.

Teleutospore (n.) The thick-celled winter or resting spore of the rusts (order Uredinales), produced in late summer. See Illust. of Uredospore.

Telotrochous (a.) Having both a preoral and a posterior band of cilla; -- applied to the larvae of certain annelids.

Thalamiflorous (a.) Bearing the stamens directly on the receptacle; -- said of a subclass of polypetalous dicotyledonous plants in the system of De Candolle.

Thoroughgoing (a.) Going all lengths; extreme; thoroughplaced; -- less common in this sense.

Thunderstone (n.) A thunderbolt, -- formerly believed to be a stone.

Tracheobronchial (a.) Pertaining both to the tracheal and bronchial tubes, or to their junction; -- said of the syrinx of certain birds.

Translation (n.) Motion in which all the points of the moving body have at any instant the same velocity and direction of motion; -- opposed to rotation.

Trichomatose (a.) Affected with a disease which causes agglutination and matting together; -- said of the hair when affected with plica. See Plica, 1.

Trichotomous (a.) Divided into three parts, or into threes; three-forked; as, a trichotomous stem.

Tridiapason (n.) A triple octave, or twenty-second.

Trumpetwood (n.) A tropical American tree (Cecropia peltata) of the Breadfruit family, having hollow stems, which are used for wind instruments; -- called also snakewood, and trumpet tree.

Vinegarroon (n.) A whip scorpion, esp. a large Mexican species (Thelyphonus giganteus) popularly supposed to be very venomous; -- from the odor that it emits when alarmed.

Witenagemote (n.) A meeting of wise men; the national council, or legislature, of England in the days of the Anglo-Saxons, before the Norman Conquest.

Zalambdodont (a.) Of or pertaining to a tribe (Zalambdodonta) of Insectivora in which the molar teeth have but one V-shaped ridge.

Zygomorphous (a.) Symmetrical bilaterally; -- said of organisms, or parts of organisms, capable of division into two symmetrical halves only in a single plane.

About the author

Mark McCracken Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".

Copyright © 2011 by Mark McCracken, All Rights Reserved.