18-letter words containing a, n, o, e, s
- 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.
- 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
- helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
- hepatosplenomegaly — Enlargement of both the liver and spleen.
- historical present — the present tense used in narrating a past event as if happening at the time of narration.
- 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
- homelands movement — the programme to resettle native Australians on their tribal lands
- honeysuckle family — the plant family Caprifoliaceae, typified by shrubs and woody vines having opposite leaves, clusters of usually flaring, narrow, tubular flowers, and various types of fruit, and including the elder, honeysuckle, snowberry, twinflower, and viburnum.
- honorary secretary — a unpaid person who is one of the managers of an organization
- honour moderations — (at Oxford University) the first public examination, in which candidates are placed into one of three classes of honours
- hungry programmers — (body) A group of programmers producing free software.
- hydroxytryptamines — Plural form of hydroxytryptamine.
- hyperaldosteronism — aldosteronism.
- hypernationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.
- hypersensitization — Photography. to treat (a film or emulsion) so as to increase its speed.
- hypersexualisation — Alternative spelling of hypersexualization.
- hypersexualization — The act or process of hypersexualizing.
- hysterical reasons — (Or "hysterical raisins") A variant on the stock phrase "for historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must be done in some stupid way for backward compatibility, and moreover that the feature it must be compatible with was the result of a bad design in the first place. "All IBM PC video adaptors have to support MDA text mode for hysterical reasons." Compare bug-for-bug compatible.
- ideas of reference — a schizophrenic symptom in which the patient thinks that things completely disconnected from him are influencing him or conveying messages to him
- imploded consonant — a consonant which is pronounced with or by implosion
- impressionableness — The quality of being impressionable.
- in another's shoes — in another's position
- in inverted commas — If you say in inverted commas after a word or phrase, you are indicating that it is inaccurate or unacceptable in some way, or that you are quoting someone else.
- in praise of folly — Latin Moriae Encomium. a prose satire (1509) by Erasmus, written in Latin and directed against theologians and church dignitaries.
- in propria persona — represented by oneself and not by an attorney. Abbreviation: in pro. per.
- in terrorem clause — a clause in a will stating that a beneficiary who contests the will shall lose his or her legacy.
- in the face of sth — If you take a particular action or attitude in the face of a problem or difficulty, you respond to that problem or difficulty in that way.
- in the last resort — You use in the last resort when stating the most basic or important fact that will still be true in a situation whatever else happens.
- in the name of sth — If you do something in the name of an ideal or an abstract thing, you do it in order to preserve or promote that thing.
- incommensurability — not commensurable; having no common basis, measure, or standard of comparison.
- inconsequentiality — of little or no importance; insignificant; trivial.
- inconsiderableness — Quality of being inconsiderable.
- infectious disease — illness spread by person to person
- information system — a computer system or set of components for collecting, creating, storing, processing, and distributing information, typically including hardware and software, system users, and the data itself: the use of information systems to solve business problems.
- infrared astronomy — the study of infrared radiation emitted by celestial objects.
- inner automorphism — an automorphism that maps an element x into an element of the form axa −1 where a −1 is the inverse of a.
- inquisitor-general — the head of the Spanish court of Inquisition
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- instrument station — station (def 14a).
- intensional object — the object of a propositional attitude that may or may not exist, as in Robert is dreaming of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. This must be an intensional (or opaque) context, for otherwise, since there is no pot of gold, Robert would be dreaming of nothing
- inter-relationship — reciprocal relation.
- intercartilaginous — (anatomy) Within cartilage.
- interinstitutional — Between institutions.
- internal secretion — a secretion, esp a hormone, that is absorbed directly into the blood
- interrelationships — Plural form of interrelationship.
- investment account — a bank account in which money is saved long-term to accrue interest
- investment company — a company that invests its funds in other companies and issues its own securities against these investments.