19-letter words containing a, o
- as old as the hills — very old
- as sick as a parrot — If you say that you feel as sick as a parrot, you feel very disappointed about something.
- as things/people go — You use expressions like as things go or as children go when you are describing one person or thing and comparing them with others of the same kind.
- asbestos cork award — (humour) Once, long ago at MIT, there was a flamer so consistently obnoxious that another hacker designed, had made, and distributed posters announcing that said flamer had been nominated for the "asbestos cork award". (Any reader in doubt as to the intended application of the cork should consult the etymology under flame.) Since then, it is agreed that only a select few have risen to the heights of bombast required to earn this dubious dignity - but there is no agreement on *which* few.
- 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.
- asperger's syndrome — a form of autism in which the person affected has limited but obsessive interests, and has difficulty relating to other people
- assistant professor — An assistant professor is a college teacher who ranks above an instructor but below an associate professor.
- associate professor — An associate professor is a college teacher who ranks above an assistant professor but below a professor.
- associative storage — a storage device in which the information is identified by content rather than by an address
- astra digital radio — (audio) Digital Radio over satellite, compatible with analog television transmissions. Alternatively the normal TV subcarriers can be modulated by a MPEG-1 Layer-2 48 kHz 192 kbps signal. Quality is better than analog carriers and only needs half the bandwidth (analog stereo = 2 carrier, digital stereo = 1 carrier). Quality is limited and the data rate can't be increased.
- at a (or one) blow — by one action
- at most/at the most — You use at most or at the most to say that a number or amount is the maximum that is possible and that the actual number or amount may be smaller.
- at once/all at once — If a number of different things happen at once or all at once, they all happen at the same time.
- at one's discretion — as one wishes
- at one's fingertips — readily available and within one's mental grasp
- at sb's convenience — If something is arranged to happen at your convenience, it happens at a time which is most suitable for you.
- at your convenience — at a time suitable to you
- atherton technology — (company) The comapny that developed the Software BackPlane CASE framework. Their Atherton Tool Integration Services were the basis for the ATIS standard.
- atmospheric braking — a technique of reentry in which the vehicle is maneuvered in the upper atmosphere so as to lose velocity by utilizing drag without overheating.
- atrial fibrillation — a local and uncontrollable twitching of muscle fibres that results in rapid and irregular heart and pulse rate
- attachment disorder — an emotional and behavioral disorder arising from a failure to form a strong bond with one’s primary caregiver in early childhood and affecting one’s social relationships in later childhood and adulthood. See also attachment (def 3a).
- attempt the life of — to try to kill
- 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.
- avogadro's constant — the number of atoms or molecules in a mole of a substance, equal to 6.022 52 × 1023
- awareness programme — a programme designed to increase awareness of something
- axiomatic semantics — (theory) A set of assertions about properties of a system and how they are effected by program execution. The axiomatic semantics of a program could include pre- and post-conditions for operations. In particular if you view the program as a state transformer (or collection of state transformers), the axiomatic semantics is a set of invariants on the state which the state transformer satisfies. E.g. for a function with the type: sort_list :: [T] -> [T] we might give the precondition that the argument of the function is a list, and a postcondition that the return value is a list that is sorted. One interesting use of axiomatic semantics is to have a language that has a finitely computable sublanguage that is used for specifying pre and post conditions, and then have the compiler prove that the program will satisfy those conditions. See also operational semantics, denotational semantics.
- baader-meinhof gang — a group of left-wing West German terrorists, active in the 1970s, who were dedicated to the violent overthrow of capitalist society
- bachelor of science — A Bachelor of Science is a first degree in a science subject. In British English, it can also mean a person with that degree. The abbreviation BSc or , BSc is also used.
- backward compatible — backward compatibility
- backward somersault — a somersault performed in a backward direction with the legs leading the rest of the body
- bacteriochlorophyll — a pale blue-gray form of chlorophyll that is unique to the photosynthetic but anaerobic purple bacteria.
- 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)
- balance of payments — A country's balance of payments is the difference, over a period of time, between the payments it makes to other countries for imports and the payments it receives from other countries for exports.
- 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
- ballistocardiograph — an instrument that records the slight recoil of the body, while on a special bed, caused by the contractions of the heart: used to measure cardiac pumping power and the elasticity of the aorta
- balloon angioplasty — angioplasty in which a balloon catheter is moved to a blocked area of a blood vessel where the balloon is inflated to expand or force open the vessel
- ballot-box stuffing — the act of illegally submitting more than one vote in a ballot in which only one vote is permitted
- balsam woolly aphid — any plant louse of the family Aphididae, characterized by a waxy secretion that appears like a jumbled mass of fine, curly, white cottony or woolly threads, as Eriosoma lanigerum (woolly apple aphid or American blight) and Prociphilus tessellatus (woolly alder aphid)
- banff national park — a national reserve, 2585 sq. mi. (6695 sq. km), in the Rocky Mountains, in SW Alberta, Canada.
- bang for one's buck — value for money
- bank reconciliation — A bank reconciliation is the process of adjusting a bank statement to show transactions that have occurred since the date of issue, or a document showing this.
- bankruptcy petition — an official request for protection under bankruptcy laws, which initiates bankruptcy proceedings