24-letter words containing a, t, s, o, m, e
- mutual insurance company — an insurance company owned by the policyholders and not by shareholders
- network operating system — (operating system) (NOS) The operating system on Control Data Corporation's Cyber Computer.
- nonparametric statistics — the branch of statistics that studies data measurable on an ordinal or nominal scale, to which arithmetic operations cannot be applied
- northern mariana islands — a US commonwealth territory in the N Pacific, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (1947–87). Capital: Saipan island (Capitol Hill). Pop: 51 170 (2013 est). Area: 477 sq km (184 sq miles)
- object management system — In an IPSE, the system which maintains information about the system under development.
- open system architecture — (operating system) (OSA) A competitor to IBM's SNA.
- operational requirements — (programming) Qualitative and quantitative parameters that specify the desired capabilities of a system and serve as a basis for determining the operational effectiveness and suitability of a system prior to deployment.
- organization and methods — a systematic examination of an organization's structure, procedures, management and control, with a view to determining its comparative efficiency in achieving defined organizational aims
- people's liberation army — See under Huk (def 1).
- photomechanical transfer — a method of producing photographic prints or offset printing plates from paper negatives by a chemical transfer process rather than by exposure to light
- physiological atmosphere — ecosphere.
- polymer matrix composite — A polymer matrix composite is a material consisting of a composite made stronger by adding fibers or particles to it.
- portable scheme debugger — (PSD) A package for source code debugging of R4RS-compliant Scheme under GNU Emacs by Kellom ?ki Pertti <[email protected]>. Version 1.1. Distributed under GNU GPL. It works with scm, Elk and Scheme->C.
- potassium cobaltinitrite — a yellow, crystalline, slightly water-soluble powder, K 3 Co(NO 2) 6 , used as a pigment in oil and watercolor paints, and for coloring surfaces of glass, porcelain, etc.
- present company excepted — If you are making a general, unfavourable comment about a particular type of person, and you are with people of that type, you can say 'present company excepted' as a way of making your comment sound more polite.
- progressive assimilation — assimilation in which a preceding sound has an effect on a following one, as in shortening captain to cap'm rather than cap'n.
- pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
- rapid eye movement sleep — REM sleep.
- representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- research and development — the part of a commercial company's activity concerned with applying the results of scientific research to develop new products and improve existing ones
- reverse annuity mortgage — a type of home mortgage under which an elderly homeowner is allowed a long-term loan in the form of monthly payments against his or her paid-off equity as collateral, repayable when the home is eventually sold. Abbreviation: RAM.
- rocky mountain whitefish — mountain whitefish.
- san bernardino mountains — mountain range in S Calif., south of the Mojave Desert: highest peak, 11,502 ft (3,506 m)
- santa coloma de gramanet — a city in NE Spain.
- see someone hanged first — to refuse absolutely to do what one has been asked
- senegambia confederation — an economic and political union (1982–89) between Senegal and The Gambia
- sequentially compact set — a set in which every sequence has a subsequence that converges to a point of the set.
- simultaneous translation — a form of translation in which the interpreter translates into the target language as quickly as possible while the speaker is still speaking in the source language
- sodium hexametaphosphate — See under Calgon.
- solution based modelling — (SBM) A software development process described in the book "Developing Object-Oriented Software for the Macintosh" written by Neal Goldstein and Jeff Alger, published by Addison Wesley in 1992.
- special development area — an area earmarked for special development by the government
- st.-bruno-de-montarville — a town in S Quebec, in E Canada, near Montreal.
- stab someone in the back — If you say that someone has stabbed you in the back, you mean that they have done something very harmful to you when you thought that you could trust them. You can refer to an action of this kind as a stab in the back.
- stratified random sample — a random sample of a population in which the population is first divided into distinct subpopulations, or strata, and random samples are then taken separately from each stratum.
- take someone at his word — to assume that someone means, or will do, what he or she says
- take someone for granted — If you say that someone takes you for granted, you are complaining that they benefit from your help, efforts, or presence without showing that they are grateful.
- tear someone off a strip — to rebuke (someone) angrily
- the last of the mohicans — a historical novel (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper.
- the ravages of something — the destructive effects of something
- the realm of possibility — If you say that something is not beyond the realms of possibility, you mean that it is possible.
- the suffragette movement — a movement advocating of the extension of the franchise to women, as in Britain at the beginning of the 20th century
- the whole shooting match — everything; the whole lot
- thompson sub-machine-gun — a .45 calibre sub-machine-gun
- to break someone's heart — If someone breaks your heart, they make you very sad and unhappy, usually because they end a love affair or close relationship with you.
- to carry sth to extremes — to overdo something
- to cramp someone's style — If someone or something cramps your style, their presence or existence restricts your behaviour in some way.
- to keep something at bay — If you keep something or someone at bay, or hold them at bay, you prevent them from reaching, attacking, or affecting you.
- to lay something to rest — If you lay something such as fears or rumours to rest or if you put them to rest, you succeed in proving that they are not true.
- to make boundary changes — to change the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies, because of population shifts
- to make up for lost time — If someone is making up for lost time, they are doing something actively and with enthusiasm because they have not had the opportunity to do it before or when they were younger.