18-letter words containing a, h, n
- green-backed heron — a small, American heron, Butorides striatus, having glossy green wings.
- greenhouse warming — the increase in the mean temperature of the earth attributed to the greenhouse effect
- ha ha only serious — (SF fandom, originally as mutation of HHOK, "Ha Ha Only Kidding") A phrase (often seen abbreviated as HHOS) that aptly captures the flavour of much hacker discourse. Applied especially to parodies, absurdities, and ironic jokes that are both intended and perceived to contain a possibly disquieting amount of truth, or truths that are constructed on in-joke and self-parody. The Jargon File contains many examples of ha-ha-only-serious in both form and content. Indeed, the entirety of hacker culture is often perceived as ha-ha-only-serious by hackers themselves; to take it either too lightly or too seriously marks a person as an outsider, a wannabee, or in larval stage. For further enlightenment on this subject, consult any Zen master. See also AI koan.
- half-open interval — a set of numbers between two given numbers but including only one endpoint.
- hamilton's problem — Hamiltonian problem
- hand it to someone — to give credit to someone
- handkerchief table — corner table.
- handlebar mustache — A handlebar mustache is a long thick mustache with curled ends.
- handyman's special — fixer-upper.
- happy as a sandboy — very happy; high-spirited
- hardy-weinberg law — a principle stating that in an infinitely large, randomly mating population in which selection, migration, and mutation do not occur, the frequencies of alleles and genotypes do not change from generation to generation.
- harnessed antelope — any African antelope of the genus Tragelaphus, especially the bushbuck, having the body marked with white stripes and spots that resemble a harness, and, in the male, long, gently spiraling horns.
- hash house slinger — a person who serves in a cheap cafe
- haulage contractor — a person or firm that transports goods by lorry
- have a hand in sth — If you have a hand in something such as an event or activity, you are involved in it.
- have a thing about — If you have a thing about someone or something, you have very strong feelings about them.
- have eyes only for — the organ of sight, in vertebrates typically one of a pair of spherical bodies contained in an orbit of the skull and in humans appearing externally as a dense, white, curved membrane, or sclera, surrounding a circular, colored portion, or iris, that is covered by a clear, curved membrane, or cornea, and in the center of which is an opening, or pupil, through which light passes to the retina.
- have money to burn — to have more money than one needs, so that some can be spent foolishly
- have no hesitation — If you say that you have no hesitation in doing something, you are emphasizing that you will do it immediately or willingly because you are certain that it is the right thing to do.
- have on one's back — to be burdened with
- have one's ears on — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
- have one's moments — If you say that someone or something has their moments, you are indicating that there are times when they are successful or interesting, but that this does not happen very often.
- head and shoulders — If you say that someone or something stands head and shoulders above other people or things, you mean that they are a lot better than them.
- hearing impairment — partial deafness
- heart-lung machine — a device through which blood is shunted temporarily for oxygenation during surgery, while the heart or a lung is being repaired.
- heart-rate monitor — a machine that monitors or records a person's heart rate
- hearts and flowers — maudlin sentimentality: The play is a period piece, full of innocence abused and hearts and flowers.
- heat of combustion — the heat evolved when one mole of a substance is burnt in oxygen at constant volume
- heating degree-day — a degree-day below the standard temperature of 65°F or 19°C, used in estimating fuel consumption.
- hebdomadal council — the governing council or senate of Oxford University
- hedge fund manager — a person in charge of managing a hedge fund and making its investments
- hegelian dialectic — an interpretive method, originally used to relate specific entities or events to the absolute idea, in which some assertible proposition (thesis) is necessarily opposed by an equally assertible and apparently contradictory proposition (antithesis) the mutual contradiction being reconciled on a higher level of truth by a third proposition (synthesis)
- heimlich manoeuvre — a technique in first aid to dislodge a foreign body in a person's windpipe by applying sudden upward pressure on the upper abdomen
- helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
- hepatosplenomegaly — Enlargement of both the liver and spleen.
- heptadecanoic acid — a colourless crystalline water-insoluble carboxylic acid used in organic synthesis. Formula: CH3(CH2)15COOH
- herring bone weave — a pattern consisting of adjoining vertical rows of slanting lines, any two contiguous lines forming either a V or an inverted V , used in masonry, textiles, embroidery, etc.
- hexachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) Either of forty-two isomers of the polychlorinated biphenyl containing six chlorine atoms.
- high-grade mineral — a mineral fulfilling certain conditions as regards purity or other physical properties
- highbush cranberry — a shrub, Viburnum trilobum, of northern North America, having broad clusters of white flowers and edible scarlet berries.
- highlight halftone — dropout (def 7).
- histamine headache — cluster headache.
- historical fiction — the genre of literature, film, etc., comprising narratives that take place in the past and are characterized chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of historical events and personages.
- historical present — the present tense used in narrating a past event as if happening at the time of narration.
- hit-and-run driver — sb: leaves accident scene
- hither and thither — to or toward this place: to come hither.
- hold a reservation — If a hotel holds a reservation, it keeps a room for someone, and does not give it to someone else.
- hold up one's head — to be unashamed
- home entertainment — the aggregate of appliances, as stero systems, television, videocassette recorders, or computers, used for diversion in the home.
- homelands movement — the programme to resettle native Australians on their tribal lands