23-letter words containing a, l, u, e
- internal rate of return — an interest rate giving a net present value of zero when applied to the expected cash flow of a project. Its value, compared to the cost of the capital involved, is used to determine the project's viability
- internal reconstruction — the hypothetical reconstruction of an earlier stage of a language or of some part of it, as its phonology, by deductions from irregularities in its present structure, as the reconstruction of a stage in English when certain instances of r were related to s in a systematic way by comparing the pair was:were to other pairs, as lose:forlorn.
- internet public library — (IPL) A project at the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies to provide an on-line, 24 hour public library, chaired by an assemblage of librarians and information industry professionals. The library aims to provide library services to a target audience estimated to number 1/4 of the entire American population by the end of the century. The Internet Public Library is scheduled to go on-line in March 1995. Among the first services will be on-line reference; youth services; user education; and professional services for librarians. Mailing list: [email protected]
- islamic fundamentalists — Muslims who believe in, advocate or support a conservative adherence to literal or traditional interpretations of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah
- juan rodriguez cabrillo — Juan Rodríguez [rod-ree-ges] /rɒdˈri gɛs/ (Show IPA), (Joao Rodrigues Cabrilho) 1499?–1543, Spanish explorer, born in Portugal: discovered California.
- juvenile-onset diabetes — diabetes (def 3).
- l'apres-midi d'un faune — L'Après-midi d'un Faune.
- largemouth (black) bass — a black bass (Micropterus salmoides) found in warm, sluggish waters
- laughlin air force base — U.S. Air Force installation in SW Texas, SE of Del Rio.
- lead up the garden path — a plot of ground, usually near a house, where flowers, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, or herbs are cultivated.
- leave no stone unturned — the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist.
- leave well enough alone — in a good or satisfactory manner: Business is going well.
- lesser antillean iguana — a large tropical American arboreal herbivorous lizard (iguana delicatissima) native to the Lesser Antilles
- letter-quality printing — high-quality output in printed form from a printer linked to a word processor
- lieutenant junior grade — a commissioned officer ranking above an ensign and below a lieutenant.
- light and shade surface — (in architectural shades and shadows) a surface in a plane tangent to the parallel rays from the theoretical light source, treated as a shade surface.
- liquefied petroleum gas — a mixture of various petroleum gases, esp propane and butane, stored as a liquid under pressure and used as an engine fuel
- locally euclidean space — a topological space in which each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open set in a Euclidean space of specified dimension.
- lossy audio compression — (audio, compression) Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bit of data but only reproduces a signal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC.
- lymphoblastic leukaemia — a severe blood disorder in which abnormal leukocytes are identified as immature forms of lymphocytes
- made out of whole cloth — completely fictitious or false; made up
- magnetic susceptibility — the coefficient or set of coefficients of the magnetic intensity in any expression giving the components of magnetization as linear combinations of the components of magnetic intensity.
- make a fool of yourself — do sth stupid
- meaningful relationship — a romantic relationship based upon mutual respect and supportiveness and marked by a sense of commitment and fulfillment.
- mediterranean fruit fly — a small, black and white, irregularly banded two-winged fly, Ceratitis capitata, of many warm regions, that damages citrus and other succulent fruit crops by implanting eggs that hatch into maggots within the fruit.
- micro assembly language — (language) (MAL) A microprogramming language with high-level syntax, used in the reference below. See also Mic-1, Mac-1.
- micropachycephalosaurus — A very small pachycephalosaurid, ornithischian dinosaur of the genus Micropachycephalosaurus.
- multimedia compact disc — (storage) (MMCD) A CD-ROM standard for storing 4.7 GB of data including video. MMCD is being developed by a large numer of computer manufacturers and is expected to be shipped in late 1996 or early 1997. Initially it will be aimed at the consumer market, then perhaps in CD-ROM format for computers, and maybe later on erasble CD.
- multiple-risk insurance — insurance that covers several risks
- multiplicative identity — an identity that when used to multiply a given element in a specified set leaves that element unchanged, as the number 1 for the real-number system.
- murder in the cathedral — a verse drama (1935) by T. S. Eliot.
- national safety council — a non profit organization that promotes and ensures health and safety standards
- national superannuation — a means-related pension paid to elderly people
- netscape public license — Open source license
- new year's honours list — an Honour's List published at the beginning of a new year
- nondisclosure agreement — a legal contract in which one or more parties agree to keep information, as a trade secret, confidential and protected for a specific amount of time. Abbreviation: NDA.
- nonverbal communication — gesture and facial expression
- north ossetian republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the N slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains. Capital: Vladikavkaz. Pop: 709 900 (2002). Area: about 8000 sq km (3088 sq miles)
- not a hair out of place — If you say that someone has not a hair out of place, you are emphasizing that they are extremely smart and neatly dressed.
- nuclear test ban treaty — an agreement signed by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. in 1963, committing nations to halt atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons: by the end of 1963, 96 additional nations had signed the treaty.
- nuclear test-ban treaty — an agreement signed by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. in 1963, committing nations to halt atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons: by the end of 1963, 96 additional nations had signed the treaty.
- ordinary life insurance — life insurance with premiums paid throughout the lifetime of the insured.
- out of a clear blue sky — the region of the clouds or the upper air; the upper atmosphere of the earth: airplanes in the sky; cloudy skies.
- parasexual reproduction — reproduction by recombination of genes from genetically dissimilar nuclei within binucleate or multinucleate cells, as in filamentous fungi.
- particulate inheritance — the inheritance of discrete characters via genes that are independently expressed without the blending of characters from one generation to the next.
- peroxymonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
- pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
- photoelectric magnitude — the magnitude of a star determined using a photometer plus a filter to select light or other radiation of the desired wavelength
- plain old documentation — (text) (pod, occasionally "POD") A simple markup language used to embed documentation, literate programming-style, in Perl programs. Pod readers and converters are part of the standard Perl distribution and the documentation provided with Perl is all in pod format.
- polytetrafluoroethylene — any polymer, plastic, or resin having the formula (C 2 F 4) n , prepared from tetrafluoroethylene, noted for its slippery, nonsticking properties, and used in the manufacture of gaskets, electrical insulation, tubing, candy molds, container linings, frying-pan coatings, etc.