16-letter words containing a, b, e, m, i
- el camino bignum — (humour) /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ The road mundanely called El Camino Real, a road through the San Francisco peninsula that originally extended all the way down to Mexico City and many portions of which are still intact. Navigation on the San Francisco peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which defines logical north and south even though it isn't really north-south many places. El Camino Real runs right past Stanford University. The Spanish word "real" (which has two syllables: /ray-al'/) means "royal"; El Camino Real is "the royal road". In the Fortran language, a "real" quantity is a number typically precise to seven significant digits, and a "double precision" quantity is a larger floating-point number, precise to perhaps fourteen significant digits (other languages have similar "real" types). When a hacker from MIT visited Stanford in 1976, he remarked what a long road El Camino Real was. Making a pun on "real", he started calling it "El Camino Double Precision" - but when the hacker was told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it "El Camino Bignum", and that name has stuck. (See bignum).
- elburz mountains — a mountain range in N Iran, parallel to the SW and S shores of the Caspian Sea. Highest peak: Mount Demavend, 5671 m (18 606 ft)
- embarkation card — an official document that allows travellers to leave a country by boarding a ship or plane
- embroidery frame — a frame in the form of a pair of (usually circular) rings, designed to keep the fabric taut while an embroiderer works on it
- emotional labour — work that requires good interpersonal skills
- erymanthian boar — a wild boar that ravaged the district around Mount Erymanthus: captured by Hercules as his fourth labour
- exhibition match — a sports match which is not part of a competition but instead serves the function of demonstrating the skills of the players
- fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two
- fisherman's bend — a knot made by taking a round turn on the object to which the rope is to be fastened, passing the end of the rope around the standing part and under the round turn, and securing the end.
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- fortin barometer — an adjustable cistern barometer, the most common of those employing mercury.
- four-masted brig — jackass bark (def 2).
- gingerbread palm — doom palm.
- gingerbread plum — a tree, Neocarya macrophylla, of western Africa, bearing a large, edible, starchy fruit.
- have a big mouth — to speak indiscreetly, loudly, or excessively
- hayes-compatible — (communications) A description of a modem which understands the same set of commands as one made by Hayes.
- hemangioblastoma — (medicine) Any of several benign neoplasm tumours of the brain.
- heterometabolism — insect development in which the young hatch in a form very similar to the adult and then mature without a pupal stage
- humanly possible — feasible, practical
- hyaloid membrane — the delicate, pellucid, and nearly structureless membrane enclosing the vitreous humor of the eye.
- hydration number — the number of molecules of water with which an ion can combine in an aqueous solution of given concentration.
- imaginary number — Also called imaginary, pure imaginary number. a complex number having its real part equal to zero.
- immeasurableness — The state or condition of being immeasurable.
- impenetrableness — The quality of being impenetrable.
- imperfectability — The quality of not being perfectable; of being forever imperfect.
- imperishableness — The characteristic or property of being imperishable.
- imperturbability — incapable of being upset or agitated; not easily excited; calm: imperturbable composure.
- in the same boat — a vessel for transport by water, constructed to provide buoyancy by excluding water and shaped to give stability and permit propulsion.
- incommensurables — Plural form of incommensurable.
- interminableness — The state or condition of being interminable.
- irremediableness — The state or quality of being irremediable.
- isoamyl benzoate — a colorless liquid, C 11 H 15 O 2 , having a sharp, fruitlike odor: used in cosmetics.
- king james bible — Authorized Version.
- latent ambiguity — uncertainty that arises when a seemingly clear written instrument is matched against an extrinsic fact, as when a description of something being sold fits two different items.
- lesbian cymatium — cyma reversa.
- liberal democrat — In Britain, a Liberal Democrat is a member of the Liberal Democrat Party.
- lord chamberlain — (in Britain) the chief official of the royal household
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- machine readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- machine washable — suitable for washing in a washing machine
- machine-readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- mackinaw blanket — a thick woolen blanket, often woven with bars of color, formerly used in the northern and western U.S. by Indians, loggers, etc.
- magnetic bearing — the bearing of a point relative to that of the nearest magnetic pole.
- magnolia warbler — a black and yellow wood warbler, Dendroica magnolia, of North America.
- maitre de ballet — ballet master.
- man booker prize — an annual prize for a work of Commonwealth or Irish fiction of £50,000, awarded as the Booker Prize from 1969–2002
- mari el republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Yoshkar-Ola. Pop: 728 000 (2002). Area: 23 200 sq km (8955 sq miles)
- marine barometer — a barometer for use on shipboard, especially one mounted on gimbals so as to minimize the effects of the motion of the vessel.
- marine biologist — scientist who studies sea life
- martin van buren — Martin, 1782–1862, 8th president of the U.S. 1837–41.