18-letter words containing a, d
- appraisal drilling — (in the oil industry) drilling carried out once oil or gas has been discovered in order to assess the extent of the field, the reserves, the possible rate of production, and the properties of the oil or gas
- armed intervention — an official response to a situation which involves the armed forces
- armed to the teeth — Someone who is armed to the teeth is armed with a lot of weapons or with very effective weapons.
- arrest of judgment — a stay of proceedings after a verdict, on the grounds of error or possible error
- arsenic trisulfide — a yellow or red crystalline substance, As 2 S 3 , occurring in nature as the mineral orpiment, and used as a pigment (king's yellow) and in pyrotechnics.
- as near as damn it — as near as possible; very near
- as sound as a bell — If something is as sound as a bell it is healthy and not damaged in any way.
- asciibetical order — (jargon, programming) /as'kee-be'-t*-kl or'dr/ Used to indicate that data is sorted in ASCII collated order rather than alphabetical order. The main difference is that, in ASCII, all the upper case letters come before any of the lower case letters so, e.g., "Z" comes before "a".
- associate director — a person who is joined with one or more other directors in an enterprise, business, etc, having equal or nearly equal status
- associated company — a company which is largely controlled by its parent company because the latter owns anything up to 50% of the shares
- asymptotic freedom — a property of the force between quarks, according to quantum chromodynamics, such that they behave almost like free particles when they are close together within a hadron.
- at boardroom level — among directors
- at one's wit's end — the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad: the end of a street; the end of a rope.
- at one's wits' end — at a loss to know how to proceed
- at sb's right hand — If someone is at a person's right hand, they work closely with that person so they can help and advise them.
- at/from a distance — If you are at a distance from something, or if you see it or remember it from a distance, you are a long way away from it in space or time.
- atmospheric window — wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be transmitted through the earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric windows occur in the visible, infrared, and radio regions of the spectrum
- attendance figures — the number of people present at events such as football matches or concerts
- attendance officer — someone whose job is to keep records of students' attendance at school and to encourage students to attend
- audio conferencing — the practice of conducting meetings by the use of audio telecommunications
- auditory phonetics — the branch of phonetics concerned with the perception of speech sounds by humans
- augmented interval — an interval that is a half step greater than the corresponding major or perfect interval
- australian doubles — an unusual formation in doubles in which the server's partner is positioned on the same side of the court as the server.
- authorized capital — the total amount of value of the shares that a company is allowed to distribute
- authorized version — the revised English translation of the Bible published in England in 1611 with the authorization of King James I
- autoimmune disease — a disease resulting from a disordered immune reaction in which antibodies are produced against one's own tissues, as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.
- avoirdupois weight — a British and American system of weights based on a pound of 16 ounces
- bach flower remedy — an alternative medicine consisting of a distillation from various flowers, designed to counteract negative states of mind and restore emotional balance
- back end generator — (tool) (BEG) A code generator developed by H. Emmelmann et al at GMD, University Karlsruhe, Germany. Its input language is Back End Generator Language (BEGL).
- back in the saddle — at work again
- back/down to earth — If you come down to earth or back to earth, you have to face the reality of everyday life after a period of great excitement.
- background reading — reading of related works in order to get contextual information on a topic that you are intending to study or write about
- bad news/good news — If you say that something is bad news, you mean that it will cause you trouble or problems. If you say that something is good news, you mean that it will be useful or helpful to you.
- balanced computing — (jargon) Matching computer tools to job activities so that the computer system structure parallels the organisation structure and work functions. Both personal computers and employees operate in a decentralised environment with monitoring of achievement of management objectives from centralised corporate systems.
- balanced scorecard — A balanced scorecard is a type of management report which includes both financial and non-financial measures.
- ball-and-claw foot — a foot having the form of a bird's claw grasping a ball.
- ballistic pendulum — a device consisting of a large mass hung from a horizontal bar by two rods, used to measure the velocity of an object, as a bullet, by retaining the object upon impact, its velocity being a function of the displacement of the mass.
- ballistocardiogram — a tracing made by a ballistocardiograph
- band-tailed pigeon — a wild pigeon, Columba fasciata, of western North America, having a gray band on its tail.
- banded rattlesnake — timber rattlesnake.
- barrow's goldeneye — See under goldeneye (def 1).
- bartholin's glands — two small reddish-yellow glands, one on each side of the vaginal orifice, that secrete a mucous lubricating substance during sexual stimulation in females
- basket-handle arch — an arch having a symmetrical form drawn from an odd number of radii in excess of one, which increase in length from the springing toward the center.
- battle of omdurman — a battle (1898) in which the Mahdi's successor and his Ansar followers were defeated by Lord Kitchener's British forces
- battleground-state — a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election: the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.
- be in good company — If you say that someone is in good company, you mean that they should not be ashamed of a mistake or opinion, because some important or respected people have made the same mistake or have the same opinion.
- be-all and end-all — the ultimate aim or justification
- bel and the dragon — a book of the Apocrypha that is included as chapter 14 of Daniel in the Douay Bible.
- bells and whistles — additional features or accessories which are nonessential but very attractive
- bend over backward — to try to an unusual degree (to please, pacify, etc.)