21-letter words containing a, v, o, t
- dissociative disorder — a mental disorder, as multiple personality, characterized by sudden temporary alteration in consciousness, identity, or motor behavior.
- distinctiveness ratio — the ratio of the relative frequency of some event in a given sample to that in the general population or another relevant sample
- downhole safety valve — A downhole safety valve is a piece of safety equipment used inside a well, which isolates wellbore pressure and fluid if something bad happens.
- earthmoving equipment — machines, such as bulldozers, that are used for excavating and moving large quantities of earth
- environmental studies — a university course studying the environment and related issues
- extensible vax editor — (text, tool) (EVE) A DEC product implemented using DEC's Text Processing Utility (TPU).
- first-dollar coverage — insurance that provides payment for the full loss up to the insured amount with no deductibles.
- flat-coated retriever — one of an English breed of large sporting dogs having a flat, dense, shiny black or liver-colored coat, small ears, and long jaws, used for retrieving game from both water and land.
- food conversion ratio — a ratio expressing the weight of food required to produce a unit gain in the live weight of an animal
- fraudulent conversion — conversion committed with the intent to defraud
- functional imperative — a requirement for the survival of any social system, as communication, control of conflict, or socialization.
- get/have the goods on — If you get the goods or have the goods on someone, you have evidence that they have done something wrong or criminal.
- get/have the hots for — If you say that one person has the hots for another, you mean that they feel a strong sexual attraction to that person.
- give a horse its head — to allow a horse to gallop by lengthening the reins
- give place to someone — to make room for or be superseded by someone
- give sb the runaround — If someone gives you the runaround, they deliberately do not give you all the information or help that you want, and send you to another person or place to get it.
- give someone a tinkle — to call someone on the telephone
- give someone the gate — a movable barrier, usually on hinges, closing an opening in a fence, wall, or other enclosure.
- got what one deserved — If you say that someone got what they deserved, you mean that they deserved the bad thing that happened to them, and you have no sympathy for them.
- government department — a sector of a national or state government that deals with a particular area of interest
- government in waiting — a political group which is hoping to be elected to govern in the near future
- great victoria desert — a desert in SW central Australia. 125,000 sq. mi. (324,000 sq. km).
- greenwich observatory — the national astronomical observatory of Great Britain, housed in a castle in E Sussex; formerly located at Greenwich.
- have a strong stomach — not to be prone to nausea
- have heard sth before — If you say that you have heard something before, you mean that you are not interested in it, or do not believe it, or are not surprised about it, because you already know about it or have experienced it.
- have it coming to one — to deserve what one is about to suffer
- have one's hands tied — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- have the advantage of — benefit from: sth extra
- home improvement loan — a government loan for house improvements such as insulation, adding a bathroom, or urgent repairs
- in favor/out of favor — If someone or something is in favor, people like or support them. If they are out of favor, people no longer like or support them.
- induced radioactivity — artificial radioactivity.
- industrial revolution — (sometimes initial capital letters) the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
- inflationary universe — a version of the big bang theory in which the universe underwent very rapid growth during the first fraction of a second before it settled down to its current rate of expansion.
- information retrieval — the systematic storage and recovery of data, as from a file, card catalog, or the memory bank of a computer. Abbreviation: IR.
- intravenous drug user — a drug addict who injects drugs (esp heroin) intravenously
- jacques yves cousteau — Jacques Yves [zhahk eev] /ʒɑk iv/ (Show IPA), 1910–97, French naval officer, author, and underseas explorer: developed the Aqua-Lung.
- junior varsity sports — sports played at the second highest rank for university sports, ranking first after varsity
- just leave well alone — to refrain from interfering with something that is satisfactory
- kekule von stradonitz — Friedrich August [free-drikh ou-goo st] /ˈfri drɪx ˈaʊ gʊst/ (Show IPA), 1829–96, German chemist.
- lafcadio's adventures — French Les Caves du Vatican. a novel (1914) by André Gide.
- leave holding the bag — a container or receptacle of leather, plastic, cloth, paper, etc., capable of being closed at the mouth; pouch.
- light armored vehicle — an eight-wheeled armored reconnaissance car with a 25mm cannon, in service with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps in the 1980s.
- live to tell the tale — If you survive a dangerous or frightening experience and so are able to tell people about it afterwards, you can say that you lived to tell the tale.
- magneto-optical drive — magneto-optical disk
- make heavy weather of — to create needless difficulties in dealing with
- mauna kea observatory — an astronomical observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, situated at an altitude of 13,600 feet (4145 meters).
- maximum value theorem — the theorem that for a real-valued function f whose domain is a compact set, there is at least one element x in the domain of f for which f (x) achieves its largest value.
- mean square deviation — variance (def 3).
- mean time to recovery — (specification) (MTTR) The average time that a device will take to recover from a non-terminal failure. Examples of such devices range from self-resetting fuses (where the MTTR would be very short, probably seconds), up to whole systems which have to be replaced. The MTTR would usually be part of a maintenance contract, where the user would pay more for a system whose MTTR was 24 hours, than for one of, say, 7 days. This means the supplier is guaranteeing to have the system up and running again within 24 hours (or 7 days) of being notified of the failure. Some devices have a MTTR of zero, which means that they have redundant components which can take over the instant the primary one fails, see RAID for example. See also Mean Time Between Failures.
- motivational research — the application of the knowledge and techniques of the social sciences, especially psychology and sociology, to understanding consumer attitudes and behavior: used as a guide in advertising and marketing.