17-letter words containing a, t, h, l, i
- local anaesthesia — the use of anaesthetics that affect a particular area of the body
- local anaesthetic — sth injected to numb a body part for pain relief
- low-hanging fruit — the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
- lower paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- maintained school — a school financially supported by the state
- make light of sth — If you make light of something, you treat it as though it is not serious or important, when in fact it is.
- margaret hamilton — (person) (born 1936-08-17) A computer scientist, systems engineer and business owner, credited with coining the term software engineering. Margaret Hamilton published over 130 papers, proceedings and reports about the 60 projects and six major programs in which she has been involved. In 1965 she became Director of Software Programming at MIT's Charles Stark Draper Laboratory and Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, which developed on-board flight software for the Apollo space program. At NASA, Hamilton pioneered the Apollo on-board guidance software that navigated to and landed on the Moon and formed the basis for software used in later missions. At the time, programming was a hands-on, engineering descipline; computer science and software engineering barely existed. Hamilton produced innovations in system design and software development, enterprise and process modelling, development paradigms, formal systems modelling languages, system-oriented objects for systems modelling and development, automated life-cycle environments, software reliability, software reuse, domain analysis, correctness by built-in language properties, open architecture techniques for robust systems, full life-cycle automation, quality assurance, seamless integration, error detection and recovery, man-machine interface systems, operating systems, end-to-end testing and life-cycle management. She developed concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and Human-in-the-loop decision capability, which became the foundation for modern, ultra-reliable software design. The Apollo 11 moon landing would have aborted when spurious data threatened to overload the computer, but thanks to the innovative asynchronous, priority based scheduling, it eliminated the unnecessary processing and completed the landing successfully. In 1986, she founded Hamilton Technologies, Inc., developed around the Universal Systems Language and her systems and software design paradigm of Development Before the Fact (DBTF).
- may/might as well — If you say that you might as well do something, or that you may as well do it, you mean that you will do it although you do not have a strong desire to do it and may even feel slightly unwilling to do it.
- mechanical tissue — a plant tissue made up of hard, thick-walled cells that add strength to an organ
- mechanoelectrical — Describing the production of electricity by mechanical motion; especially in a transducer.
- memetic algorithm — (algorithm) A genetic algorithm or evolutionary algorithm which includes a non-genetic local search to improve genotypes. The term comes from the Richard Dawkin's term "meme". One big difference between memes and genes is that memes are processed and possibly improved by the people that hold them - something that cannot happen to genes. It is this advantage that the memetic algorithm has over simple genetic or evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are useful in solving complex problems, such as the "Travelling Salesman Problem," which involves finding the shortest path through a large number of nodes, or in creating artificial life to test evolutionary theories. Memetic algorithms are one kind of metaheuristic. (07 July 1997)
- mental arithmetic — sums done in your head
- metabolic pathway — biochemistry: sequence of reactions within a cell or organism
- methemoglobinemia — (medicine) A form of toxic anemia characterized by the presence of methemoglobin in the blood.
- methyl isocyanate — Chemistry. a highly toxic, flammable, colorless liquid, CH 3 NCO, used as an intermediate in the manufacture of pesticides: in 1984, the accidental release of a cloud of this gas in Bhopal, India, killed more than 1700 people and injured over 200,000.
- methyl salicylate — a colorless, water-soluble liquid, C 8 H 8 O 3 , produced synthetically or by maceration and subsequent distillation from birch or gaultheria: used chiefly in perfumery and flavoring, and in medicine as a counterirritant in external preparations.
- methylacetic acid — propionic acid.
- minion of the law — a policeman.
- miss lonelyhearts — a novel (1933) by Nathanael West.
- mitochondrial dna — DNA found in mitochondria, which contains some structural genes and is generally inherited only through the female line
- modulo arithmetic — modular arithmetic
- mongolian hot pot — a stewlike dish of sliced meat, seafood, and vegetables cooked together in hot broth, often in a clay pot, and seasoned with a hot sauce.
- monochromatically — of or having one color.
- monolith catalyst — A monolith catalyst is a type of catalyst whose surface is flat.
- mont-saint-michel — a rocky islet near the coast of NW France, in an inlet of the Gulf of St. Malo: famous abbey and fortress.
- mystical theology — the branch of theology dealing with mysticism and mystical experiences.
- nanotechnological — Of, pertaining to, or by means of nanotechnology.
- nathaniel currier — Nathaniel, 1813–88, U.S. lithographer. Compare Ives (def 4).
- national heritage — country's cultural legacy
- national seashore — an area of seacoast set aside and maintained by the U.S. government for purposes of recreation or wildlife study.
- nationalist china — China, Republic of.
- natural harmonics — harmonics of a note produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching an open or unstopped sounded string.
- natural hat trick — three goals scored in succession by one player in one game or one period.
- natural logarithm — a logarithm having e as a base. Symbol: ln.
- nautical twilight — the period of time during which the sun is 12° below the horizon
- navigation lights — lights on an aircraft
- negative theology — a theological approach or tradition in which the nature of God is thought to be unknowable and is only understood through negative statements. See also apophasis (def 2).
- neo-malthusianism — a view or doctrine advocating population control, especially by contraception.
- neo-scholasticism — a contemporary application of Scholasticism to modern problems and life.
- nephelometrically — By means of nephelometry.
- neuropathological — (medicine) Of, pertaining to, or arising from neuropathology, the pathology of nerve tissue.
- nightshade family — the plant family Solanaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, trees, shrubs, and vines having alternate, simple or pinnate leaves, conspicuous flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry or capsule, and including belladonna, eggplant, nightshade, peppers of the genus Capsicum, petunia, potato, tobacco, and tomato.
- non-thermoplastic — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
- nonaccomplishment — Something that does not achieve the intended goal.
- north lanarkshire — a council area of central Scotland: consists mainly of the NE part of the historical county of Lanarkshire; formerly (1974–96) part of Strathclyde Region: engineering and metalworking industries. Administrative centre: Motherwell. Pop: 321 820 (2003 est). Area: 1771 sq km (684 sq miles)
- nothing less than — You can use nothing less than to emphasize your next words, often indicating that something seems very surprising or important.
- nuclear chemistry — the branch of chemistry concerned with nuclear reactions
- old south arabian — a group of four closely related Semitic languages, having a writing system and used from about the eighth to the fifth centuries b.c. in the southern part of Arabia.
- old spanish trail — an overland route from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to Los Angeles, Calif., first marked out in 1776 by Spanish explorers and missionaries.