19-letter words containing a, o, u
- armed response unit — (in Britain) a unit of police officers who are trained to use firearms in situations where unarmed police officers would be in danger
- as long as your arm — If you say that a list is as long as your arm, you are emphasizing that it is very long.
- ask for a signature — If you ask for a signature, you ask someone to write their name, in their own characteristic way, on a document.
- at your convenience — at a time suitable to you
- audio response unit — a device that enables a computer to give a spoken response by generating sounds similar to human speech.
- augmented cognition — the study of the augmenting of human mental functions by computer programs
- augsburg confession — the statement of beliefs and doctrines of the Lutherans, formulated by Melanchthon and endorsed by the Lutheran princes, which was presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 and which became the chief creed of the Lutheran Church.
- auriculoventricular — atrioventricular.
- austro-prussian war — the war (1866) in which Prussia, Italy, and some minor German states opposed Austria, Saxony, Hanover, and the states of southern Germany.
- author's alteration — a correction or change made in typeset copy that is not a correction of an error introduced by the compositor. Abbreviation: AA, A.A., a.a., aa.
- autoerotic asphyxia — asphyxia caused by intentionally strangling oneself while masturbating in order to intensify the orgasm through reduced oxygen flow to the brain.
- autotransplantation — autograft.
- ave regina coelorum — a Latin hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven.
- backward somersault — a somersault performed in a backward direction with the legs leading the rest of the body
- baja california sur — a state of NW Mexico, in the S part of the Lower California peninsula. Capital: La Paz. Pop: 423 516 (2000). Area: 73 475 sq km (28 363 sq miles)
- balfour declaration — the statement made by Arthur Balfour in 1917 of British support for the setting up of a national home for the Jews in Palestine, provided that the rights of "existing non-Jewish communities" in Palestine could be safeguarded
- ballot-box stuffing — the act of illegally submitting more than one vote in a ballot in which only one vote is permitted
- bang for one's buck — value for money
- bankruptcy petition — an official request for protection under bankruptcy laws, which initiates bankruptcy proceedings
- barometric pressure — atmospheric pressure as indicated by a barometer
- battle of the bulge — (in World War II) the final major German counteroffensive in 1944 when the Allied forces were pushed back into NE Belgium; the Germans were repulsed by Jan 1945
- battle-ground state — a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election: the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.
- battles of bull run — two battles fought at Manassas Junction near a stream named Bull Run, during the American Civil War (July, 1861 and August, 1862), in both of which the Federal army was routed by the Confederates
- baudotbetical order — (algorithm) /baw do bet' i k*l/ Sorted into an order where numerics and special characters are intermixed by sorting a 5-bit Baudot code file ignoring the numeric shift and unshift codes.
- be burnt to a crisp — If something is burnt to a crisp, it is completely burnt.
- beat about the bush — to avoid the point at issue; prevaricate
- beauty preparations — the cosmetics, creams etc used to improve someone's beauty
- beggar-my-neighbour — a card game in which one player tries to win all the cards of the other player
- behavioural science — the application of scientific methods to the study of the behaviour of organisms
- below par/under par — If you feel below par or under par, you feel tired and unable to perform as well as you normally do.
- beta-naphthyl group — See under naphthyl.
- bilingual education — schooling in which those not fluent in the standard or national language are taught in their own language.
- bill of particulars — an itemized statement of claims or counterclaims provided to the opposing party of a lawsuit
- binocular disparity — the small differences in the positions of the parts of the images falling on each eye that results when each eye views the scene from a slightly different position; these differences make stereoscopic vision possible
- black forest gateau — a chocolate sponge cake containing morello cherries and whipped cream, with a topping of chocolate icing
- black-billed cuckoo — a black-billed North American cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus, that, unlike most cuckoos, constructs its own nest and rears its own young.
- blue stellar object — any of a class of blue celestial objects, at one time thought to be stars, that do not emit appreciable radio waves. Abbreviation: BSO.
- blue-tongued lizard — a large Australian lizard, Tiliqua scincoides, characterized by having a cobalt-blue tongue.
- board of trade unit — a unit of electrical energy equal to 1 kilowatt-hour
- bound hand and foot — with hands and feet tied
- boundary commission — (in Britain) a body established by statute to undertake periodic reviews of the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies and to recommend changes to take account of population shifts
- brown paper bag bug — (programming) A programming bug that is so stupid that it makes the programmer want to put a brown paper bag over his head.
- brush-tailed possum — any of several widely-distributed Australian possums of the genus Trichosurus
- building contractor — an individual or company that contracts for the construction of houses, etc
- bulbourethral gland — Cowper's gland
- business accounting — the keeping of detailed accounts relating to a business or businesses
- buster brown collar — a medium-sized, starched collar with rounded edges, lying flat on the shoulders, worn by women and girls.
- butabarbital sodium — a barbiturate, C 10 H 15 N 2 NaO 3 , used as a sedative and hypnotic.
- buy a pig in a poke — to buy, get, or agree to something without sight or knowledge of it in advance
- by leaps and bounds — with unexpectedly rapid progess