19-letter words containing a, c, r, s
- intervertebral disc — any of the cartilaginous discs between individual vertebrae, acting as shock absorbers
- intracutaneous test — a test for immunity or allergy to a particular antigen by observing the local reaction following injection of a small amount of the antigen into the skin.
- invasion of privacy — an encroachment upon the right to be let alone or to be free from publicity.
- isenheim altarpiece — an altarpiece (1510?–15?) painted by Matthias Grünewald.
- italian east africa — a former Italian territory in E Africa, formed in 1936 by the merging of Eritrea and Italian Somaliland with newly conquered Ethiopia: taken by the British Imperial forces 1941.
- jacques montgolfier — Jacques Étienne [zhahk ey-tyen] /ʒɑk eɪˈtyɛn/ (Show IPA), 1745–99, and his brother Joseph Michel [zhaw-zef mee-shel] /ʒɔˈzɛf miˈʃɛl/ (Show IPA) 1740–1810, French aeronauts: inventors of the first practical balloon 1783.
- james clerk maxwell — Elsa, 1883–1963, U.S. professional hostess and author.
- jerusalem artichoke — Also called girasol. a sunflower, Helianthus tuberosus, having edible, tuberous, underground stems or rootstocks.
- job creation scheme — a governmental scheme to increase the number of jobs in an area, organization, etc
- juan de fuca strait — strait between Vancouver Island and NW Wash.: c. 100 mi (161 km) long
- judicial separation — a decree of legal separation of spouses that does not dissolve the marriage bond.
- junction transistor — a bipolar transistor consisting of two p-n junctions combined to form either an n-p-n or a p-n-p transistor, having the three electrodes, the emitter, base, and collector
- kansas-nebraska act — the act of Congress in 1854 annulling the Missouri Compromise, providing for the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and permitting these territories self-determination on the question of slavery.
- karachai-cherkessia — a constituent republic of W Russia, on the N side of the Caucasus Mountains. Capital: Cherkessk. Pop: 439 700 (2002). Area: 14 100 sq km (5440 sq miles)
- keep up appearances — If you keep up appearances, you try to behave and dress in a way that people expect of you, even if you can no longer afford it.
- king charles's head — a fixed idea; personal obsession
- king's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
- landscape architect — A landscape architect is the same as a landscape gardener.
- landscape gardening — the art or trade of designing or rearranging large gardens, estates, etc.
- lean over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
- least recently used — (operating systems) (LRU) A rule used in a paging system which selects a page to be paged out if it has been used (read or written) less recently than any other page. The same rule may also be used in a cache to select which cache entry to flush. This rule is based on temporal locality - the observation that, in general, the page (or cache entry) which has not been accessed for longest is least likely to be accessed in the near future.
- leisure occupations — activities which you enjoy and which you perform in your free time
- liability insurance — insurance covering the insured against losses arising from injury or damage to another person or property.
- library of congress — one of the major library collections in the world, located in Washington, D.C., and functioning in some ways as the national library of the U.S. although not officially designated as such: established by Congress in 1800 for service to its members, but now also serving government agencies, other libraries, and the public.
- licensing agreement — an agreement that sets out the fees and terms of use for something available only under licence
- like a cheshire cat — If someone is grinning like a Cheshire cat or like the Cheshire cat, they are smiling very widely.
- lipopolysaccharides — Plural form of lipopolysaccharide.
- liquorice all-sorts — a brand of assorted sweets containing liquorice as well as coloured candy made of sugar, gelatine, and coconut
- logical shift right — logical shift
- lyon office of arms — Heralds' Office.
- macaroni and cheese — pasta with cheese sauce
- machine instruction — (programming) The smallest element of a machine code program.
- machine translation — changing language of a text by computer
- maestro di cappella — a person in charge of an orchestra, esp a private one attached to the palace of a prince in Italy during the baroque period
- magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
- magnetic hysteresis — hysteresis in a ferromagnetic material; the lag in the response of magnetic induction to changes of magnetic intensity.
- major seventh chord — a chord much used in modern music, esp jazz and pop, consisting of a major triad with an added major seventh above the root
- make oneself scarce — insufficient to satisfy the need or demand; not abundant: Meat and butter were scarce during the war.
- malleable cast iron — white cast iron that has been malleablized.
- manchester autocode — (language, history) The predecessor of Mercury Autocode.
- manchester encoding — (communications, protocol) A method of transmitting bits which enables the receiver to easily synchronise with the sender. A simple way of signalling bits might be to transmit a high voltage for some period for a 1-bit and a low voltage for a 0 bit: Bits Sent: 1 1 0 0 Signal: High ___ Low |___ Time: -> . . . . . However, when several identical bits are sent in succession, this provides no information to the receiver about when each bit starts and stops. Manchester encoding splits each bit period into two, and ensures that there is always a transition between the signal levels in the middle of each bit. This allows the receiver to synchronise with the sender. In normal Manchester encoding, a 1-bit is transmitted with a high voltage in the first period, and a low voltage in the second, and vice verse for the 0 bit: Bits Sent: 1 1 0 0 Signal: High Low || |_| || Time: -> . ' . ' . ' . ' . In Differential Manchester encoding, a 1-bit is indicated by making the first half of the signal equal to the last half of the previous bit's signal and a 0-bit is indicated by making the first half of the signal opposite to the last half of the previous bit's signal. That is, a zero bit is indicated by a transition at the beginning of the bit. Like normal Manchester encoding, there is always a transition in the middle of the transmission of the bit. Differential Manchester Encoding Bits Sent: 1 1 0 0 Signal: High __ Low |_| || || Time: -> . ' . ' . ' . ' . With each bit period half as long, twice as much bandwidth is required when using either of the Manchester encoding schemes.
- maraschino cherries — cherries in a syrup flavored with maraschino or, now usually, imitation maraschino
- mary wollstonecraft — Mary (Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin) 1759–97, English author and feminist (mother of Mary Shelley).
- matthias i corvinus — ?1440–90, king of Hungary (1458–90): built up the most powerful kingdom in Central Europe. A patron of Renaissance art, he founded the Corvina library, one of the finest in Europe
- means of production — resources: equipment, workers
- megabits per second — (unit) (Mbps, Mb/s) Millions of bits per second. A unit of data rate. 1 Mb/s = 1,000,000 bits per second (not 1,048,576). E.g. Ethernet can carry 10 Mbps.
- melodic minor scale — minor scale (def 2).
- metaphosphoric acid — an acid, HPO 3 , derived from phosphorous pentoxide, and containing the smallest amount of water of the phosphoric acids.
- meter-candle-second — a unit of light-exposure equivalent to one lux for one second.
- miniature schnauzer — one of a German breed of sturdily built terriers resembling a smaller version of the standard schnauzer, having a wiry, pepper-and-salt, black, or black-and-silver coat, a rectangular head, bushy whiskers, and a docked tail, and originally developed as a farm dog but now raised primarily as a pet.