23-letter words containing a, s, v
- have a way of doing sth — If you say that someone or something has a way of doing a particular thing, you mean that they often do it.
- have bats in the belfry — to be mad or eccentric; have strange ideas
- have one's act together — anything done, being done, or to be done; deed; performance: a heroic act.
- have one's heart set on — Anatomy. a hollow, pumplike organ of blood circulation, composed mainly of rhythmically contractile smooth muscle, located in the chest between the lungs and slightly to the left and consisting of four chambers: a right atrium that receives blood returning from the body via the superior and inferior vena cavae, a right ventricle that pumps the blood through the pulmonary artery to the lungs for oxygenation, a left atrium that receives the oxygenated blood via the pulmonary veins and passes it through the mitral valve, and a left ventricle that pumps the oxygenated blood, via the aorta, throughout the body.
- have one's work cut out — to have as much work as one can manage
- have struck/hit paydirt — If you say that someone has struck paydirt or has hit paydirt, you mean that they have achieved sudden success or gained a lot of money very quickly.
- have the makings of sth — If you say that a person or thing has the makings of something, you mean it seems possible or likely that they will become that thing, as they have the necessary qualities.
- have tickets on oneself — to be conceited
- heaviside unit function — the function that is zero for any number less than zero and that is 1 for any number greater than or equal to zero.
- juvenile-onset diabetes — diabetes (def 3).
- lady chatterley's lover — a novel (1928) by D. H. Lawrence.
- lawrence livermore labs — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- leave no stone unturned — the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist.
- masters of the universe — extremely powerful and wealthy members of the financial professions
- national health service — In Britain, the National Health Service is the state system for providing medical care. It is paid for by taxes.
- on one's best behaviour — behaving with careful good manners
- on one's own initiative — without being prompted
- on someone's wavelength — having similar views, feelings, or thoughts (as someone else)
- on the same wave length — Physics. the distance, measured in the direction of propagation of a wave, between two successive points in the wave that are characterized by the same phase of oscillation.
- order of the visitation — a religious order of nuns founded in 1610 by St Francis of Sales and dedicated to contemplation and the cultivation of humility, gentleness, and sisterly love
- participant observation — a technique of field research, used in anthropology and sociology, by which an investigator (participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in its activities.
- positive discrimination — special opportunities
- presidential government — a system of government in which the powers of the president are constitutionally separate from those of the legislature.
- print services facility — (printer) (PSF) IBM's system software which generates native IBM printer language, IPDS and, depending on the version, PostScript and LaserJet PCL. See also: Advanced Function Presentation.
- progressive cavity pump — A progressive cavity pump is a pump with an electric motor that rotates rods to make fluid in cavities move upward.
- quantum flavourdynamics — a gauge theory of the electromagnetic and weak interactions
- quote chapter and verse — [by analogy with the mainstream phrase] To cite a relevant excerpt from an appropriate bible. "I don't care if "rn" gets it wrong; "Followup-To: poster" is explicitly permitted by RFC 1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if you don't believe me." See also legalese, language lawyer, RTFS (sense 2).
- refuse disposal service — a place or facility where rubbish and waste can be disposed
- regressive assimilation — assimilation in which a following sound has an effect on a preceding one, as in pronouncing have in have to as [haf] /hæf/ (Show IPA) influenced by the voiceless (t) in to.
- relative molecular mass — the sum of all the relative atomic masses of the atoms in a molecule; the ratio of the average mass per molecule of a specified isotopic composition of a substance to one-twelfth the mass of an atom of carbon-12
- relative sunspot number — a number indicating the degree of sunspot activity on the sun as a factor of observer idiosyncrasies, the number of sunspot groups, and the number of individual sunspots.
- residual current device — a circuit-breaking device installed in electrical equipment to protect the operator from electrocution
- reverse polish notation — postfix notation
- rotation-inversion axis — an axis of a crystal such that rotating about the axis and then inverting the crystal brings the crystal back to its original position.
- saint christopher-nevis — St. Kitts-Nevis.
- schematic type variable — generic type variable
- secondary seventh chord — a chord formed by superposition of three thirds upon any degree of the scale except the dominant.
- self extracting archive — (file format) (SEA) An archive format used on the Apple Macintosh. Double-clicking a file of this type should extract its contents.
- self-addressed envelope — addressed to self
- seneca falls convention — a women's rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
- separation of variables — a grouping of the terms of an ordinary differential equation so that associated with each differential is a factor consisting entirely of functions of the independent variable appearing in the differential.
- severinus de monzambano — Samuel von [zah-moo-uh l fuh n] /ˈzɑ mu əl fən/ (Show IPA), ("Severinus de Monzambano") 1632–94, German jurist and historian.
- small-saver certificate — a savings certificate issued in a small denomination.
- software developers kit — (jargon, product) (SDK, or "Software Development Kit") Software provided by a software vendor to allow their products to be used with those of other software vendors.
- sovereignty association — (in Canada) a proposed arrangement by which Quebec would become independent but would maintain a formal association with Canada
- soviet of nationalities — the legislature of the former Soviet Union and its successor states, consisting of an upper house (Soviet of the Union or Council of the Union) whose delegates are elected on the basis of population, and a lower house (Soviet of Nationalities or Council of Nationalities) whose delegates are elected to represent the various nationalities.
- survival of the fittest — (not in technical use) natural selection.
- sustainable development — supporting economy via renewable resources
- swine vesicular disease — a viral disease of swine characterized by vesicular lesions on the feet, legs, snout, and tongue
- talk/speak of the devil — People say speak of the devil, or in British English talk of the devil, if someone they have just been talking about appears unexpectedly.