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19-letter words containing a, u, b, d

  • fahd ibn abdul aziz — 1923–2005, king of Saudi Arabia (1982–2005)
  • fault-based testing — (testing)   Software testing using test data designed to demonstrate the absence of a set of pre-specified faults; typically, frequently occurring faults. For example, to demonstrate that the software handles or avoids divide by zero correctly, the test data would include zero.
  • financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
  • foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
  • functional database — (database, language)   A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
  • giraldus cambrensis — literary name of Gerald de Barri. ?1146–?1223, Welsh chronicler and churchman, noted for his accounts of his travels in Ireland and Wales
  • goldbach conjecture — an unproved theorem that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers.
  • handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
  • have one's blood up — to be or cause to be angry or inflamed
  • hydroxybutyric acid — ketone body.
  • hydroxydaunorubicin — Doxorubicin.
  • industrial tribunal — (in Northern Ireland and formerly elsewhere in the UK) a tribunal that rules on disputes between employers and employees regarding unfair dismissal, redundancy, etc
  • installed user base — user base
  • ipratropium bromide — an anticholinergic bronchodilator, C 20 H 30 BrNO 3 , used in the treatment of chronic bronchitis and in airway obstruction diseases.
  • judgment by default — a judgment in the plaintiff's favour when the defendant fails to plead or to appear
  • keyboard instrument — any musical instrument that is played using a keyboard
  • look sb up and down — If someone looks you up and down, they direct their eyes from your head to your feet, in a rude and superior way and often as though they disapprove of you.
  • mary mcleod bethune — Mary McLeod [muh-kloud] /məˈklaʊd/ (Show IPA), 1875–1955, U.S. educator and civil-rights leader.
  • mordvinian republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Saransk. Pop: 888 700 (2002). Area: 26 200 sq km (10 110 sq miles)
  • municipal bond fund — a mutual fund that invests in municipal bonds.
  • neighbourhood watch — a scheme under which members of a community agree together to take responsibility for keeping an eye on each other's property, as a way of preventing crime
  • non-distinguishable — to mark off as different (often followed by from or by): He was distinguished from the other boys by his height.
  • normal distribution — a theoretical frequency distribution represented by a normal curve.
  • objectfuscated code — (humour, programming)   Object-oriented code which has been abstracted to so many levels that no-one can understand it anymore. A play on obfuscated code.
  • olive-backed thrush — Swainson's thrush.
  • optical double star — two stars that appear as one if not viewed through a telescope with adequate magnification, such as two stars that are separated by a great distance but are nearly in line with each other and an observer (optical double star) or those that are relatively close together and comprise a single physical system (physical double star)
  • parliament building — structure housing legislative offices
  • perpetual debenture — a bond or debenture that can either never be redeemed or cannot be redeemed on demand
  • profitability study — a study of how much profit a company, organization, etc, makes or how profitable it is
  • pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
  • pseudorandom number — (programming)   One of a sequence of numbers generated by some algorithm so as to have an even distribution over some range of values and minimal correlation between successive values. Pseudorandom numbers are used in simulation and encryption. They are pseudorandom not random because the sequence eventually repeats exactly and is entirely determined by the initial conditions. One of the simplest algorithms is x[i+1] = (a * x[i] + c) mod m but this repeats after at most m numbers and successive numbers are closely related. Better algorithms generally use more previous numbers to calculate the next number.
  • put on the feed bag — Also called nose bag. a bag for feeding horses, placed before the mouth and fastened around the head with straps.
  • republic of irelandJohn, 1838–1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888–1918.
  • specialized subject — a school or university subject that concentrates on a particular field of knowledge
  • standing broad jump — a jump for distance from a standing position.
  • stationery cupboard — a cupboard where things like paper, pens and paper clips are kept
  • subjective idealism — a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas.
  • submandibular gland — either of a pair of salivary glands located one on each side of and beneath the lower jaw.
  • tarnished plant bug — a bug, Lygus lineolaris, of the family Miridae, that is a common and widely distributed pest of alfalfa and other legumes and of peach and other fruit trees.
  • to be headquartered — to be based; to have headquarters (in a place)
  • to break new ground — If you break new ground, you do something completely different or you do something in a completely different way.
  • to hold your breath — If you hold your breath, you make yourself stop breathing for a few moments, for example because you are under water.
  • to turn a blind eye — If you say that someone is turning a blind eye to something bad or illegal that is happening, you mean that you think they are pretending not to notice that it is happening so that they will not have to do anything about it.
  • turn a blind eye to — to pretend not to notice or ignore deliberately
  • turn and turn about — one after another; alternately
  • under the banner of — If someone does something under the banner of a particular cause, idea, or belief, they do it saying that they support that cause, idea, or belief.
  • united presbyterian — a member of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, founded in Pittsburgh in 1858 by a union of two Presbyterian groups.
  • unlimited liability — liability that is not restricted to any unpaid portion of nominal capital invested in a business
  • west dunbartonshire — a council area of W central Scotland, on Loch Lomond and the Clyde estuary: corresponds to part of the historical county of Dunbartonshire; part of Strathclyde Region from 1975 to 1996: engineering industries. Administrative centre: Dumbarton. Pop: 92 320 (2003 est). Area: 162 sq km (63 sq miles)
  • zero-base budgeting — a process in government and corporate finance of justifying an overall budget or individual budgeted items each fiscal year or each review period rather than dealing only with proposed changes from a previous budget. Abbreviation: ZBB.
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