20-letter words containing a, c, t, o, n
- application software — software designed for a specific need or purpose
- applications package — a specialized program or set of specialized programs and associated documentation designed to carry out a particular task
- applications program — a program that is written and designed for specific needs or purposes
- arches national park — a national park in E Utah: natural arch formations. 114 sq. mi. (295 sq. km).
- architectural bronze — a brass alloy of about 57 percent copper, 41 percent zinc, and 2 percent lead.
- artificial harmonics — harmonics of a note produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching a stopped sounded string.
- artificial selection — a process in the breeding of animals and in the cultivation of plants by which the breeder chooses to perpetuate only those forms having certain desirable inheritable characteristics.
- aschheim-zondek test — a test used to detect whether a woman is pregnant by noting the effect on the ovaries of an immature mouse or rabbit injected with her urine.
- asexual reproduction — reproduction, as budding, fission, or spore formation, not involving the union of gametes.
- assessment procedure — an established method of assessing students or workers
- association football — soccer
- association of stars — a sparsely populated group of between 10 and 1000 young stars of similar spectral type and common origin that are moving too fast to form a permanent, gravitationally bound system.
- astatic galvanometer — a galvanometer that is unaffected by the earth's magnetic field and is used for measuring small currents.
- at one's convenience — at a time, or in a place or manner, suitable to one
- at someone's service — ready to serve or cooperate with someone
- at the crack of dawn — If you say that someone does something at the crack of dawn, you are emphasizing that they do it very early in the morning.
- at two hours' notice — with notification only two hours in advance
- attendance allowance — (in Britain) a tax-free noncontributory welfare benefit for people over 65 years old who are so severely disabled that they need frequent attention or continual supervision for a period of six months or more
- automobile insurance — Automobile insurance is insurance coverage for cars.
- babylonian captivity — the exile of the Jews in Babylonia from about 586 to about 538 bc
- baccalaureate sermon — a farewell sermon addressed to a graduating class in some U.S. colleges and schools.
- back the wrong horse — to bet on a horse that loses the race
- back-of-the-envelope — (of a plan, calculation, etc) composed or performed quickly and without detailed analysis or research
- background radiation — low-intensity radiation from, for example, small amounts of radioisotopes in soil, air, building materials, etc
- basic lead carbonate — ceruse.
- bats-wing coral-tree — a small tree, Erythrina verspertilio, of tropical and subtropical Australia with red flowers and leaves shaped like the wings of a bat
- binomial coefficient — any of the numerical factors which multiply the successive terms in a binomial expansion; any term of the form n!/(n–k)!k!: written (nk), nCk, or Cnk
- blue screen of death — (humour) (BSOD) The infamous white-on-blue text screen which appears when Microsoft Windows crashes. BSOD is mostly seen on the 16-bit systems such as Windows 3.1, but also on Windows 95 and apparently even under Windows NT 4. It is most likely to be caused by a GPF, although Windows 95 can do it if you've removed a required CD-ROM from the drive. It is often impossible to recover cleanly from a BSOD. The acronym BSOD is sometimes used as a verb, e.g. "Windoze just keeps BSODing on me today".
- bolometric magnitude — the magnitude of a star derived either from the total energy that it radiates at all wavelengths or from the total energy of those of its wavelengths that are received on earth.
- born-again christian — person: evangelical
- boulogne billancourt — a suburb of Paris, in N France.
- boulogne-billancourt — an industrial suburb of SW Paris. Pop: 106 367 (1999)
- bring home the bacon — If you bring home the bacon, you achieve what you needed to achieve.
- broadcast journalism — journalism as practiced in radio and television.
- broadcasting station — a television or radio station
- buck's horn plantain — a Eurasian plant, Plantago coronopus, having leaves resembling a buck's horn: family Plantaginaceae
- buoyancy compensator — an inflatable vest used to control one's buoyancy underwater or to rest at the surface, usually having a connecting hose for inflation or deflation by mouth and a CO 2 cartridge for rapid, emergency inflation.
- bureau of the census — the division of the Department of Commerce that gathers, tabulates, and correlates census statistics.
- by their own account — If you say that something concerning a particular person is true by his or her own account, you mean that you believe it because that person has said it is true.
- by/from all accounts — If you say that something is true by all accounts or from all accounts, you believe it is true because other people say so.
- caesar and cleopatra — a comedy (1898) by G. B. Shaw.
- can do sth blindfold — If you say that you can do something blindfold, you are emphasizing that you can do it easily, for example because you have done it many times before.
- cancel a reservation — If you cancel a reservation, you stop it because someone who has booked a room has informed you that they no longer wish to stay there.
- canine leptospirosis — an often fatal intestinal disease in dogs, caused by any of several spirochetes of the genus Leptospira.
- cantabrian mountains — a mountain chain along the N coast of Spain, consisting of a series of high ridges that rise over 2400 m (8000 ft): rich in minerals (esp coal and iron)
- capillary attraction — a force that is the resultant of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension in liquids which are in contact with solids, as in a capillary tube: when the cohesive force is greater, the surface of the liquid tends to rise in the tube, as with mercury; when the adhesive force is greater, the surface tends to be depressed, as with water
- capital transactions — the flow of money and assets
- capitation allowance — an amount of money given to a school based on the number of students it has
- carbohydrate loading — the practice of eating high amounts of carbohydrates, sometimes after a period of low carbohydrate intake, for several days immediately before competing in an athletic event, especially a marathon, in order to store glycogen in the body, thereby providing greater reserves of energy.
- carbon sequestration — the prevention of greenhouse gas build-up in the earth's atmosphere by methods such as planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide or pumping carbon dioxide into underground reservoirs