18-letter words containing a, c, u, l
- kentucky bluegrass — a grass, Poa pratensis, of the Mississippi valley, used for pasturage and lawns.
- krause's corpuscle — any of numerous encapsulated nerve endings occurring in the skin and mucous membranes, functioning as sensory cold receptors.
- laugh out of court — to express mirth, pleasure, derision, or nervousness with an audible, vocal expulsion of air from the lungs that can range from a loud burst of sound to a series of quiet chuckles and is usually accompanied by characteristic facial and bodily movements.
- launching ceremony — a ceremony that celebrates the launch of a ship for the first time into the water
- lean manufacturing — efficiency in the production of goods
- leatherback turtle — a sea turtle, Dermochelys coriacea, having the shell embedded in a leathery skin, reaching a length of more than 7 feet (2.1 meter) and a weight of more than 1000 pounds (450 kg): the largest living sea turtle; an endangered species.
- leave in the lurch — a situation at the close of various games in which the loser scores nothing or is far behind the opponent.
- lenticular process — a method for producing images with a three-dimensional effect by photographing on lenticulated film.
- lieutenant colonel — a commissioned officer ranking next below a colonel and next above a major.
- liqueur chocolates — chocolates containing liqueur
- lonely hearts club — a club for people who are trying to find a lover or a friend
- louisiana purchase — a treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
- luminous emittance — luminous flux emitted per unit area.
- maclaurin's series — an infinite sum giving the value of a function f(x) in terms of the derivatives of the function evaluated at zero: f(x) = f(0) + (f′(0)x)/1! + (f″(0)x2)/2! + …
- magnesium silicate — a white powder, 3MgSiO 3 ⋅5H 2 O, with variable hydration, insoluble in water or alcohol, used as a rubber filler, a bleaching agent, an odor absorbent, and in the manufacture of paints and resins.
- maksutov telescope — a reflecting telescope in which coma and spherical aberration are reduced to a minimum by a combination of a spherical mirror and a meniscus lens placed inside the radius of curvature of the mirror.
- malicious mischief — willful destruction of personal property motivated by ill will or resentment toward its owner or possessor.
- malicious wounding — the intentional violent wounding or injuring of someone
- mercury delay line — (storage, history) An archaic first-in first-out fixed time period data storage device using acoustic transducers to transmit data as waves in a trough or tube of mercury. EDSAC (Cambridge) and UNIVAC I used delay lines.
- mercury-vapor lamp — a lamp producing a light with a high actinic and ultraviolet content by means of an electric arc in mercury vapor.
- mergui archipelago — a group of over 200 islands in the Andaman Sea, off the Tenasserim coast of S Myanmar: mountainous and forested
- microencapsulation — the process of enclosing chemical substances in microcapsules.
- modular arithmetic — arithmetic in which numbers that are congruent modulo a given number are treated as the same. Compare congruence (def 2), modulo, modulus (def 2b).
- molecular genetics — a subdivision of genetics concerned with the structure and function of genes at the molecular level.
- molecular medicine — the study of disease or injury at the molecular or cellular level.
- molecular spectrum — the spectrum of light emitted or absorbed by a species of molecule.
- mordovian republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Saransk. Pop: 888 700 (2002). Area: 26 200 sq km (10 110 sq miles)
- mozambique channel — a channel in SE Africa, between Mozambique and Madagascar. 950 miles (1530 km) long; 250–550 miles (400–885 km) wide.
- mucopolysaccharide — (formerly) glycosaminoglycan.
- 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.
- multifunctionality — The condition of being multifunctional.
- multimedia machine — machines that allow users to control and manipulate sound, video, text and graphics
- muscular dystrophy — a hereditary disease characterized by gradual wasting of the muscles with replacement by scar tissue and fat, sometimes also affecting the heart.
- musical instrument — music
- mutual aid society — A mutual aid society is an organization that provides benefits or other help to its members when they are affected by things such as death, sickness, disability, old age, or unemployment.
- mutually exclusive — of or relating to a situation involving two or more events, possibilities, etc., in which the occurrence of one precludes the occurrence of the other: mutually exclusive plans of action.
- mutually recursive — recursion
- national insurance — In Britain, national insurance is the state system of paying money to people who are ill, unemployed, or retired. It is financed by money that the government collects from people who work, or from their employers.
- natural childbirth — childbirth involving little or no use of drugs or anesthesia and usually involving a program in which the mother is psychologically and physically prepared for the birth process.
- natural convection — Natural convection is the loss of heat from a hot solid or liquid into air which is not artificially agitated.
- natural resistance — natural immunity.
- naval architecture — the science of designing ships and other waterborne craft.
- neovascularization — the development of new blood vessels, especially in tissues where circulation has been impaired by trauma or disease.
- neural tube defect — any of a group of congenital abnormalities involving the brain and spinal cord, including spina bifida and meningocele, caused by failure of the neural tube to close properly during embryonic development.
- neurophysiological — the branch of physiology dealing with the functions of the nervous system.
- neuropsychological — Of or pertaining to neuropsychology, the relation or combination of brain and mind.
- no-fault insurance — Also called no-fault insurance. a form of automobile insurance designed to enable the policyholder in case of an accident to collect a certain basic compensation promptly for economic loss from his or her own insurance company without determination of liability.
- nocturnal emission — the release of semen during sleep, often during a sexual dream.
- non-accountability — the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.
- non-circumstantial — of pertaining to, or derived from circumstances: a circumstantial result.