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21-letter words containing a, e, l, u

  • bulletin board system — (communications, application)   (BBS, bboard /bee'bord/, message board, forum; plural: BBSes) A computer and associated software which typically provides an electronic message database where people can log in and leave messages. Messages are typically split into topic groups similar to the newsgroups on Usenet (which is like a distributed BBS). Any user may submit or read any message in these public areas. The term comes from physical pieces of board on which people can pin messages written on paper for general consumption - a "physical bulletin board". Ward Christensen, the programmer and operator of the first BBS (on-line 1978-02-16) called it a CBBS for "computer bulletin board system". Since the rise of the World-Wide Web, the term has become antiquated, though the concept is more popular than ever, with many websites featuring discussion areas where users can post messages for public consumption. Apart from public message areas, some BBSes provided archives of files, personal electronic mail and other services of interest to the system operator (sysop). Thousands of BBSes around the world were run from amateurs' homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each. Although BBSes were traditionally the domain of hobbyists, many connected directly to the Internet (accessed via telnet), others were operated by government, educational, and research institutions. Fans of Usenet or the big commercial time-sharing bboards such as CompuServe, CIX and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they helped connect hackers and users in the personal-micro and let them exchange code. Use of this term for a Usenet newsgroup generally marks one either as a newbie fresh in from the BBS world or as a real old-timer predating Usenet.
  • businessman's holiday — busman's holiday.
  • by fair means or foul — If someone tries to achieve something by fair means or foul, they use every means possible in order to achieve it, and they do not care if their behaviour is dishonest or unfair.
  • cantilever foundation — a building foundation supporting its load partly or wholly upon cantilevers.
  • caroline of brunswick — 1768–1821, wife of George IV of the United Kingdom: tried for adultery (1820)
  • central european time — the standard time adopted by Western European countries one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time, corresponding to British Summer Time
  • charge-coupled device — an electronic device, used in imaging and signal processing, in which information is represented as packets of electric charge that are stored in an array of tiny closely spaced capacitors and can be moved from one capacitor to another in a controlled way
  • charles edward stuart — a member of the royal family that ruled in Scotland from 1371 to 1714 and in England from 1603 to 1714.
  • chequebook journalism — Chequebook journalism is the practice of paying people large sums of money for information about crimes or famous people in order to get material for newspaper articles.
  • clayton-bulwer treaty — an agreement between the U.S. and Great Britain in 1850 guaranteeing that any canal built to connect the Atlantic and Pacific across Central America would be jointly controlled, open to all nations, and unfortified.
  • closed-angle glaucoma — angle-closure glaucoma. See under glaucoma.
  • column address strobe — (hardware)   (CAS) A signal sent from a processor (or memory controller) to a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) (qv) circuit to indicate that the column address lines are valid.
  • comfortably-furnished — containing comfortable furniture
  • completing the square — a method, usually of solving quadratic equations, by which a quadratic expression, as x 2 − 4 x + 3, is written as the sum or difference of a perfect square and a constant, x 2 − 4 x + 4 + 3 − 4 = (x − 2) 2 − 1, by addition and subtraction of appropriate constant terms.
  • confidence and supply — denoting an arrangement in a hung parliament in which an opposition party agrees not to vote against a minority government in votes of confidence or budgetary matters but reserves the right to oppose other legislation
  • congregational church — any evangelical Protestant Christian Church that is governed according to the principles of Congregationalism. In 1972 the majority of churches in the Congregational Church in England and Wales voted to become part of the United Reformed Church
  • constitutional strike — a stoppage of work by the workforce of an organization, with the approval of the trade union concerned, in accordance with the dispute procedure laid down in a collective agreement between the parties
  • consultation document — a report that is the result of a consultation process
  • contextual definition — definition of a word or symbol by explaining the meaning of the phrase or statement in which it occurs.
  • convertible insurance — any form of life or health insurance, either individual or group, that enables the insured to change or convert the insurance to another form, as term to whole life insurance or group to individual health insurance.
  • coordination language — (networking, protocol)   A language defined specifically to allow two or more parties (components) to communicate in order to accomplish some shared goal. Examples of coordination languages are Linda and Xerox's CLF (STITCH).
  • coquilles st. jacques — an appetizer of minced scallops in a wine and cream sauce topped with grated cheese and browned under a broiler: usually served in scallop shells.
  • cosmological argument — one of the arguments that purport to prove the existence of God from empirical facts about the universe, esp the argument to the existence of a first cause
  • cottony-cushion scale — a small scale insect, Icerya purchasi, that is a pest of citrus trees in California: it is controlled by introducing an Australian ladybird, Rodolia cardinalis, into affected areas
  • countably compact set — a set for which every cover consisting of a countable number of sets has a subcover consisting of a finite number of sets.
  • counter-revolutionary — Counter-revolutionary activities are activities intended to reverse the effects of a previous revolution.
  • court of common pleas — (formerly) a superior court exercising jurisdiction in civil actions between private citizens
  • credit life insurance — insurance guaranteeing payment of the unpaid portion of a loan if the debtor should die.
  • croscarmellose sodium — Croscarmellose sodium is a substance used in tablets and capsules as a disintegrant.
  • crude oil dehydration — Crude oil dehydration is the removal of water or water vapor from crude oil, by separating the oil from the water, often in a rotating centrifuge.
  • cyclical unemployment — unemployment caused by fluctuations in the level of economic activity inherent in trade cycles
  • dataflow architecture — a means of arranging computer data processing in which operations are governed by the data present and the processing it requires rather than by a prewritten program that awaits data to be processed
  • delusions of grandeur — If someone has delusions of grandeur, they think and behave as if they are much more important or powerful than they really are.
  • demand-pull inflation — inflation in which rising demand results in a rise in prices.
  • deoxyribonucleic acid — DNA
  • development education — an area of study that aims to give pupils an understanding of their involvement in world affairs
  • differential calculus — the branch of mathematics that deals with differentials and derivatives.
  • differential equation — an equation involving differentials or derivatives.
  • differential quotient — derivative (def 6).
  • differential-quotient — something that has been derived.
  • distributed smalltalk — ["The Design and Implementation of Distributed Smalltalk", J. Bennett, SIGPLAN Notices 22(12):318-330 (Dec 1980)].
  • double predestination — the doctrine that God has foreordained both those who will be saved and those who will be damned.
  • double spanish burton — a tackle having one standing block and two running blocks, giving a mechanical advantage of five, neglecting friction.
  • dumfries and galloway — a region in S Scotland. 2460 sq. mi. (6371 sq. km).
  • eccles-jordan circuit — flip-flop
  • ecological succession — succession (def 6).
  • ecological-succession — the coming of one person or thing after another in order, sequence, or in the course of events: many troubles in succession.
  • educational sociology — the application of sociological principles and methods to the solution of problems in an educational system.
  • electromagnetic pulse — a surge of electromagnetic radiation, esp one resulting from a nuclear explosion, which can disrupt electronic devices and, occasionally, larger structures and equipment
  • empire state building — New York City skyscraper
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