23-letter words containing a, t, v
- productivity bargaining — the process of reaching an agreement (productivity agreement) through collective bargaining whereby the employees of an organization agree to changes which are intended to improve productivity in return for an increase in pay or other benefits
- progressive cavity pump — A progressive cavity pump is a pump with an electric motor that rotates rods to make fluid in cavities move upward.
- provocative maintenance — [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
- 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).
- 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.
- relativity of knowledge — the theory that all knowledge is relative to the mind, or that things can be known only through their effects on the mind, and that consequently there can be no knowledge of reality as it is in itself
- residual current device — a circuit-breaking device installed in electrical equipment to protect the operator from electrocution
- reverse polish notation — postfix notation
- roentgen equivalent man — the dose of ionizing radiation that produces the same effect in man as one roentgen of x- or gamma-radiation
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- the haves and have-nots — the people who are very wealthy and the people who are very poor
- the royal naval reserve — the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom
- to drive a hard bargain — If people drive a hard bargain, they argue with determination in order to achieve a deal which is favourable to themselves.
- to have a police record — If you say that somebody has a police record, you mean that they have committed a crime or crimes and the police have a record of this.
- to have an axe to grind — If someone has an axe to grind, they are doing something for selfish reasons.
- to have feelings for sb — to be emotionally or sexually attracted to
- to have your hands full — If you have your hands full with something, you are very busy because of it.
- to save someone's bacon — If someone or something saves your bacon, they get you out of a dangerous or difficult situation.
- to turn over a new leaf — If you say that you are going to turn over a new leaf, you mean that you are going to start to behave in a better or more acceptable way.
- to win the popular vote — to get a majority as regards the votes cast by individual voters
- tongue-and-groove joint — a long, narrow cut or indentation in a surface, as the cut in a board to receive the tongue of another board (tongue-and-groove joint) a furrow, or a natural indentation on an organism.
- topological equivalence — the property of two topological spaces such that there is a homeomorphism from one to the other.
- transverse presentation — presentation in which the fetus is turned with its long axis across the mouth of the uterus, at right angles to the axis of the birth canal.
- two gentlemen of verona — a comedy (1594–95) by Shakespeare.
- universal character set — (character, standard) (UCS, ISO/IEC 10646) A 1993 ISO and IEC standard character set, also known as "Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set". UCS comes in a 16-bit variant called UCS-2 and a 32-bit variant called UCS-4, which is composed of 16-bit UCS-2 "planes". So far only one 16-bit plane has been defined, which is known as the Basic Multilingual Plane. The implementation of UCS is still in its infancy, though some moves, such as the Java language defining a character to be 16 bits, are suggestive.
- university of minnesota — (body, education) The home of Gopher. Address: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
- urban conservation area — an urban area that is protected, preserved and carefully managed
- van de graaff generator — a device for producing high-voltage static electricity.
- van der waals' equation — an equation of state relating the pressure, volume, and absolute temperature of a gas, taking into account the finite size of the molecules and the attractive force between them.
- variable contrast paper — printing paper in which the contrast of the image is controlled by the color of the printing light.
- velocity of circulation — the frequency with which a single unit of currency or the total money supply turns over within the economy in a given year.
- ventricular tachycardia — a cardiac arrhythmia in which the muscles of the ventricles contract irregularly in a rapid, uncoordinated manner, impairing the normal pumping of blood.
- verifiability principle — the doctrine that if a nonanalytic statement is to be cognitively meaningful it must be empirically verifiable.
- vestibulocochlear nerve — either one of the eight pairs of cranial nerves that supply the cochlea and semicircular canals of the internal ear and contribute to the sense of hearing