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22-letter words containing a, b, i, n

  • justification by works — the belief that a person becomes just before God by the performance of good works: the doctrine against which Luther protested in inaugurating the Protestant Reformation.
  • label switching router — (networking)   (LSR) A device that typically resides somewhere in the middle of a network and is capable of forwarding datagrams by label switching. In many cases, especially early versions of MPLS networks, a LSR will typically be a modified ATM switch that forwards datagrams based upon a label in the VPI/VCI field.
  • lady's not for burning — a verse play (1948) by Christopher Fry.
  • little st bernard pass — a pass over the Savoy Alps, between Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, and La Thuile, Italy: 11th-century hospice. Height: 2187 m (7177 ft)
  • lower canada rebellion — an uprising of 1837, quickly crushed by the British militia, against the British colonial administration in Quebec.
  • make a beeline for sth — If you make a beeline for a place, you go to it as quickly and directly as possible.
  • make contact (with sb) — If you make contact with someone, you find out where they are and talk or write to them.
  • make out like a bandit — a robber, especially a member of a gang or marauding band.
  • metasyntactic variable — (grammar)   Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
  • miniature bull terrier — one of an English breed of small muscular dogs resembling a smaller version of a standard bull terrier, with a short, flat, harsh coat of glossy white or white with brindle patches.
  • missing persons bureau — the part of the Police Force dealing with tracing missing people
  • motorcycle combination — a motorcycle with a sidecar attached
  • mozilla public license — Open source license
  • much ado about nothing — a comedy (1598?) by Shakespeare.
  • native elm bark beetle — elm bark beetle (def 2).
  • nickel-cadmium battery — a storage battery, with an alkaline electrolyte, having nickel oxide as the positive element and cadmium as the negative.
  • non-maskable interrupt — (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
  • object-oriented pascal — Object Pascal
  • obligational authority — the necessary authority that precedes budget spending by a government agency or department, granted by Congress through appropriations.
  • obtaining by deception — the offence of dishonestly obtaining the property of another by some deception or misrepresentation of facts
  • on a shoestring budget — with very little money to spend
  • one's ears are burning — one is aware of being the topic of another's conversation
  • para-aminobenzoic acid — part of the folic acid molecule, a white or yellowish, crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid, C 7 H 7 NO 2 , the para isomer of aminobenzoic acid: used chiefly in the manufacture of dyes and pharmaceuticals and in sunscreens to protect against ultraviolet light. Abbreviation: PABA.
  • partial-birth abortion — (term used chiefly by opponents of abortion) D & C.
  • peanut-butter sandwich — a sandwich with a filling of peanut-butter
  • portable standard lisp — (language)   (PSL) A dialect of Lisp from Utah University. PSL is available as a kit for 68000 and also runs on VAX. It compiles Lisp to C-code virtual machine language.
  • prawn-sandwich brigade — sports fans who are perceived to lack passion and commitment, and who it is supposed attend matches in order to eat food and buy merchandise rather than cheer on their team
  • preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
  • probationary assistant — a teacher in the first probationary years
  • public domain software — public domain
  • public limited company — A public limited company is the same as a public company. The abbreviation plc is used after such companies' names.
  • pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
  • punctuated equilibrium — theory of, Biology. a hypothesis holding that the evolution of species proceeds in a characteristic pattern of relative stability for long periods of time interspersed with much shorter periods during which many species become extinct and new species emerge. Also called punctuationalism. Compare gradualism (def 3).
  • rabbit-eared bandicoot — any of several bandicoots of the genus Macrotis, especially M. lagotis, of the Australian region, having leathery, rabbitlike ears and a long, pointed snout: an endangered species.
  • read between the lines — a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil, tool, etc., on a surface: a line down the middle of the page.
  • reliable communication — (communications)   Communication where messages are guaranteed to reach their destination complete and uncorrupted and in the order they were sent. This reliability can be built on top of an unreliable protocol by adding sequencing information and some kind of checksum or cyclic redundancy check to each message or packet. If the communication fails, the sender will be notified. Transmission Control Protocol is a reliable protocol used on Ethernet.
  • replacement cost basis — Replacement cost basis is a method of valuing insured property in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
  • research establishment — an establishment or institution where research or investigation into a subject, topic, etc, can be conducted
  • retroactive inhibition — the tendency for the retention of learned material or skills to be impaired by subsequent learning, esp by learning of a similar kind
  • rocky mountain bighorn — bighorn.
  • round-table discussion — a discussion held at a meeting of parties or people on equal terms
  • sainte anne de beaupre — a village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence River: shrine and basilica.
  • sainte-anne-de-beaupré — village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence: site of a Rom. Catholic shrine (established 1658): pop. 3,000
  • satellite broadcasting — the transmission of television or radio programmes from an artificial satellite at a power suitable for direct reception in the home
  • sb can whistle for sth — If you say that someone can whistle for a particular thing, you mean that you are not willing or able to give it to them.
  • scalable sampling rate — (compression, standard, algorithm)   (SSR) See, e.g., MPEG-4 AAC SSR.
  • scissors-and-paste job — if you describe a piece of work as a scissors and paste job, you mean that it has been mechanically compiled, as if by simply cutting and pasting different parts to make a new whole
  • search the fucking web — (web, jargon)   (Always abbreviated STFW) A response implying that an inquirer could have easily found an answer to his question using Google or some other web search engine. It is now often quicker and more productive to search the World-Wide Web than to RTFM.
  • shaken but not stirred — If you say that someone has been shaken but not stirred by an experience, you mean that they have been slightly disturbed or emotionally affected by it, but not deeply enough to change their behaviour or way of thinking.
  • simultaneous broadcast — a programme, etc, broadcast simultaneously on radio and television
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