18-letter words containing a, e, r, o
- alkali metaprotein — a metaprotein derived by means of a hydrolytic alkali.
- all over the place — If something is happening all over the place, it is happening in many different places.
- all the better for — improved as a result of
- almoner's cupboard — a cupboard with pierced doors, formerly used as a storage place for food.
- alternative comedy — a style of comedy originating in the UK in the 1980s that seeks to avoid racist or sexist stereotypes, and usually puts forward left-wing, anti-establishment views
- alternative school — any public or private school having a special curriculum, especially an elementary or secondary school offering a more flexible program of study than a traditional school.
- aluminum hydroxide — a white powder, Al(OH)3, obtained from bauxite and used to make glass, paper, etc. and in antacids
- american brooklime — any of various speedwells found along brooks, in marshes, etc., as Veronica americana (American brooklime) a creeping plant having leafy stems and loose clusters of small blue flowers.
- american chameleon — anole: lizards of this type (family Iguanidae) are incorrectly called “chameleons”
- american cockroach — a large, reddish-brown cockroach, Periplaneta americana, found originally in the southern U.S. but now widely distributed.
- ammonium carbamate — a white soluble crystalline compound produced by reaction between dry ammonia and carbon dioxide and used as a nitrogen fertilizer. Formula: (NH4)CO2NH2
- ammonium carbonate — an unstable pungent soluble white powder that is a double salt of ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium carbamate: used in the manufacture of baking powder, smelling salts, and ammonium compounds. Formula: (NH4)HCO3.(NH4)CO2NH2
- ammonium hydroxide — a compound existing only in aqueous solution, formed when ammonia dissolves in water to form ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. Formula: NH4OH
- ammonium purpurate — murexide.
- an overgrown child — an adult whose behaviour is characteristic of a child
- analogue recording — a sound recording process in which an audio input is converted into an analogous electrical waveform
- andorre la vieille — French name for the capital of Andorra, situated in the west of the principality. Pop: 22 035 (2003 est)
- angel of the north — a steel sculpture of an angel with outstretched wings, created in 1998 by British sculptor Antony Gormley, which stands on a hilltop outside Gateshead, NE England. It stands 20 m (85 ft) high and has a wingspan of 54 m (175 ft)
- angular dispersion — a measure of the angular separation of light rays of different wavelength or color traversing a prism or diffraction grating, equal to the rate of change of the angle of deviation with respect to the change in wavelength.
- anterior pituitary — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- anthropocentricity — the state or quality of being anthropocentric.
- anti-commercialism — the principles, practices, and spirit of commerce.
- anti-revolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- anticholinesterase — any of a group of substances that inhibit the action of cholinesterase
- anticipated profit — the profit that one expects to make from a deal, transaction, or project
- antiferromagnetism — the phenomenon exhibited by substances that resemble paramagnetic substances in the value of their relative permeability but that behave like ferromagnetic substances when their temperature is varied
- antisegregationist — opposed to the segregation of different races in any human activity
- antivirus software — (tool) Programs to detect and remove computer viruses. The simplest kind scans executable files and boot blocks for a list of known viruses. Others are constantly active, attempting to detect the actions of general classes of viruses. antivirus software should always include a regular update service allowing it to keep up with the latest viruses as they are released.
- aphrodite of melos — a Greek statue of Venus in marble, c200 b.c., found in 1820 on Melos and now in the Louvre, Paris.
- apocryphal gospels — accounts of Christ's life that are not recognized as part of the New Testament
- apparent solar day — the period of time between two successive passages of the sun's center across the same meridian.
- application server — 1.
A designer's or developer's suite of software that helps programmers isolate the business logic in their programs from the platform-related code. Application servers can handle all of the application logic and connectivity found in client-server applications. Many application servers also offer features such as transaction management, clustering and failover, and load balancing; nearly all offer ODBC support. 2. Production programs run on a mid-sized computer that handle all application operations between browser-based computers and an organisation's back-end business applications or databases. The application server works as a translator, allowing, for example, a customer with a browser to search an online retailer's database for pricing information. 3. The device on which application server software runs. Application Service Providers offer commercial access to such devices. - arbitration clause — a clause in a contract laying down that disputes between the parties should be settled by arbitration
- arctic archipelago — group of mostly large islands in the Arctic Ocean off the N coast of Canada
- aristotelian logic — the logical theories of Aristotle as developed in the Middle Ages, concerned mainly with syllogistic reasoning: traditional as opposed to modern or symbolic logic
- aristotles-lantern — a complex arrangement of muscles and calcareous teeth and plates forming an eversible organ in most echinoids, functioning in mastication.
- 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
- arrogance of power — presumption on the part of a nation that its power gives it the right to intervene in the affairs of less powerful nations.
- as far as possible — to the greatest possible extent
- 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".
- assessment process — a series of steps that constitute a method of assessing students or workers
- assignment problem — (mathematics, algorithm) (Or "linear assignment") Any problem involving minimising the sum of C(a, b) over a set P of pairs (a, b) where a is an element of some set A and b is an element of set B, and C is some function, under constraints such as "each element of A must appear exactly once in P" or similarly for B, or both. For example, the a's could be workers and the b's projects. The problem is "linear" because the "cost function" C() depends only on the particular pairing (a, b) and is independent of all other pairings.
- associate director — a person who is joined with one or more other directors in an enterprise, business, etc, having equal or nearly equal status
- association cortex — any of the regions of the cerebral cortex of the brain connected by numerous nerve fibers to all parts of both cerebral hemispheres and coordinating such higher activities as learning and reasoning.
- associative cortex — the part of the cortex that does not have direct connections to the senses or motor system and is thought to be involved in higher mental processes
- associative memory — content addressable memory
- assortative mating — the reproductive pairing of individuals that have more traits in common than would likely be the case if mating were random (contrasted with disassortative mating).
- ast computers, llc — (company) The private company formed in January 1999 when Mr. Beny Alagem, the former chairman of Packard Bell NEC, Inc., bought the name and intellectual property of AST Research, Inc.. AST Computers, LLC provide hardware, software, and services for small US businesses. Address: Los Angeles, CA, USA.