23-letter words containing a, v, o, t, r, e
- national health service — In Britain, the National Health Service is the state system for providing medical care. It is paid for by taxes.
- nonverbal communication — gesture and facial expression
- on one's best behaviour — behaving with careful good manners
- 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
- over-the-counter market — a security market that deals in securities that are not listed or quoted on a stock exchange
- overnight accommodation — accommodation provided by an establishment (such as a hotel) where guests can sleep or spend the night
- own occupation coverage — Own occupation coverage is insurance that covers a person if they cannot work in their own occupation, following an accident, injury, or disability.
- 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.
- private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- secondary seventh chord — a chord formed by superposition of three thirds upon any degree of the scale except the dominant.
- 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.
- 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
- survival of the fittest — (not in technical use) natural selection.
- 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
- veterans administration — the federal agency charged with administering benefits provided by law for veterans of the armed forces. Abbreviation: VA, V.A.
- video cassette recorder — See VCR.
- virtual device location — (Or "Virtual Address") The address of a device (e.g. disk, printer, terminal) belonging to a "guest" operating system. Such an address is mapped to a physical device. VM may remap several virtual disks to different parts of a single physical disk.
- virtual loadable module — (networking) (VLM) Novell's term for software modules that can be dynamically loaded to extend the functionality of the "VLM" NetWare Requester for MS-DOS that became standard beginning with Novell NetWare 4.
- virtual private network — (networking, security) (VPN) The use of encryption in the lower protocol layers to provide a secure connection through an otherwise insecure network, typically the Internet. VPNs are generally cheaper than real private networks using private lines but rely on having the same encryption system at both ends. The encryption may be performed by firewall software or possibly by routers. Link-level (layer 2 and 3) encryption provides extra protection by encrypting all of each datagram except the link-level information. This prevents a listener from obtaining information about network structure. While link-level encryption prevents traffic analysis (a form of attack), it must encrypt/decrypt on every hop and every path. Protocol-level encryption (layer 3 and 4) encryption encrypts protocol data but leaves protocol and link headers clear. While protocol-level encryption requires you to encrypt/decrypt data only once, and it encrypts/decrypts only those sessions that need it, headers are sent as clear text, allowing traffic analysis. Application (layer 5 up) encryption is based on a particular application and requires that the application be modified to incorporate encryption.