18-letter words containing a, b, s, i
- job classification — an arrangement of different types of employment within a company or industry, according to the skill, experience, or training required.
- kirtland's warbler — a wood warbler, Dendroica kirtlandii, breeding only in north-central Michigan and wintering in the Bahamas, bluish gray above, striped with black and pale yellow below: an endangered species.
- knotted cranesbill — a British wildflower, Geranium nodosum, an meadow geranium with bright pink or purple flowers
- lambda abstraction — A term in lambda-calculus denoting a function. A lambda abstraction begins with a lower-case lambda (represented as "\" in this document), followed by a variable name (the "bound variable"), a full stop and a lambda expression (the body). The body is taken to extend as far to the right as possible so, for example an expression, \ x . \ y . x+y is read as \ x . (\ y . x+y). A nested abstraction such as this is often abbreviated to: \ x y . x + y The lambda expression (\ v . E) denotes a function which takes an argument and returns the term E with all free occurrences of v replaced by the actual argument. Application is represented by juxtaposition so (\ x . x) 42 represents the identity function applied to the constant 42. A lambda abstraction in Lisp is written as the symbol lambda, a list of zero or more variable names and a list of zero or more terms, e.g. (lambda (x y) (plus x y)) Lambda expressions in Haskell are written as a backslash, "\", one or more patterns (e.g. variable names), "->" and an expression, e.g. \ x -> x.
- legislative branch — the branch of government having the power to make laws; the legislature.
- lincoln's birthday — February 12, a legal holiday in some states of the U.S., in honor of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
- little st. bernard — Great, a mountain pass between SW Switzerland and NW Italy, in the Pennine Alps: Napoleon led his army through it in 1800; location of a hospice. 8108 feet (2470 meters) high.
- logically possible — capable of being described without self-contradiction
- macroinvertebrates — Plural form of macroinvertebrate.
- malpighian tubules — one of a group of long, slender excretory tubules at the anterior end of the hindgut in insects and other terrestrial arthropods.
- manufacturing base — the manufacturing industries of an area or a country considered as a unit and a constituent part of the economy
- metabolic syndrome — Pathology. a group of medical conditions present simultaneously in a patient, as high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol levels, and an excess of abdominal fat, that increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Also called insulin resistance syndrome.
- microinvertebrates — Plural form of microinvertebrate.
- mobile data system — a system consisting of a client computer requesting information and a server supplying this information
- mohammed ibn-kasim — flourished early 8th century a.d, Muslim conqueror of the Sind region in India.
- multicast backbone — (MBONE) A virtual network on top of the Internet which supports routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission. MBONE gives public access desktop video communications. The quality is poor with only 3-5 frames per second instead of the 30 frames per second of commercial television. Its advantage is that it avoids all telecommunications costs normally associated with teleconferencing. An interesting innovation is the use of MBONE for audio communications and an electronic "whiteboard" where the computer screen becomes a shared workspace where two physically remote parties can draw on and edit shared documents in real-time.
- nebular hypothesis — the theory that the solar system evolved from a mass of nebular matter: prominent in the 19th century following its precise formulation by Laplace.
- notifiable disease — any one of a number of infectious diseases of humans and animals, that must be reported to the public health authorities
- objective idealism — a form of idealism asserting that the act of experiencing has a reality combining and transcending the natures of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer.
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- oriental alabaster — alabaster (def 2).
- passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
- play silly buggers — to fool around and waste time
- prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
- price on sb's head — If there is a price on someone 's head, an amount of money has been offered for the capture or killing of that person.
- protease inhibitor — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
- publishing company — a firm which publishes books
- pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
- punishment beating — a form of corporal punishment carried out by a paramilitary organization on a member of another sectarian organization, usually in Northern Ireland
- pyramus and thisbe — (in Greek legend) two lovers of Babylon: Pyramus, wrongly supposing Thisbe to be dead, killed himself and she, encountering him in his death throes, did the same
- rabbit's-foot fern — hare's-foot fern.
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- remains to be seen — If you say that it remains to be seen whether something will happen, you mean that nobody knows whether it will happen.
- reversionary bonus — a bonus added to the sum payable on death or at the maturity of a with-profits assurance policy
- rheims-douay bible — Douay Bible.
- ride a hobby horse — an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation: Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving.
- risk based testing — (testing) Testing based on identification of potential risks (or "candidate risks"), which should be analysed by the project stakeholder or which might appear during the project's development.
- rosebay willowherb — a perennial onagraceous plant, Chamerion (formerly Epilobium) angustifolium, that has spikes of deep pink flowers and is widespread in open places throughout N temperate regions
- rr lyrae variables — any of the very regular, short-period, pulsating variable stars having periods between 1.5 and 29 hours
- run in sb's family — If a characteristic runs in someone's family, it often occurs in members of that family, in different generations.
- safety-deposit box — a lockable metal box or drawer, especially in a bank vault, used for safely storing valuable papers, jewelry, etc.
- saint bernard pass — either of two passes over the Alps: the Great St Bernard Pass 2472 m (8110 ft) high, east of Mont Blanc between Italy and Switzerland, or the Little St Bernard Pass 2157 m (7077 ft) high, south of Mont Blanc between Italy and France
- saint john's bread — carob (def 2).
- saturation bombing — intense area bombing intended to destroy everything in the target area.
- schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
- scottish blackface — a common breed of hardy mountain sheep having horns and a black face, kept chiefly on the mainland of Scotland
- selective abortion — the aborting of particular embryos for medical or social reasons
- september holidays — a period of time in September when people do not have to go to school, college or work
- sierra blanca peak — a mountain in S New Mexico: highest peak in the Sacramento Mountains. 11,997 feet (3651 meters).
- significant symbol — a verbal or nonverbal gesture, as a word or smile, that has acquired a conventionalized meaning.