16-letter words containing a, y, u, r
- madame butterfly — an opera (1904) by Giacomo Puccini.
- make the fur fly — the fine, soft, thick, hairy coat of the skin of a mammal.
- malchus-porphyry — (Malchus) a.d. c233–c304, Greek philosopher.
- managed currency — a currency whose value is established and maintained by deliberate governmental action working through national and international financial institutions, in contrast to the quasi-automatic gold standard.
- marginal utility — the extra utility or satisfaction derived by a consumer from the consumption of the last unit of a commodity.
- maximum-security — designed for or housing prisoners regarded as being very dangerous to society.
- measured daywork — a system of wage payment, usually determined by work-study techniques, whereby the wage of an employee is fixed on the understanding that a specific level of work performance will be maintained
- medium artillery — guns and howitzers of more than 105mm and less than 155mm caliber, sometimes including the 155mm howitzers. Compare heavy artillery (def 2), light artillery (def 2).
- medullary sheath — Botany. a narrow zone made up of the innermost layer of woody tissue immediately surrounding the pith in plants.
- mercury autocode — Autocode for the Ferranti Mercury machine.
- mesembryanthemum — any of various chiefly Old World plants of the genus Mesembryanthemum, having thick, fleshy leaves and often showy flowers.
- mexican fruitfly — a brightly colored fly, Anastrepha ludens, whose larvae are a serious pest chiefly of citrus fruits and mangoes in Mexico, Central America, and southern Texas.
- migratory locust — any of several locusts that migrate in great swarms, especially Locusta migratoria, of Africa and Asia.
- military honours — ceremonies performed by troops in honour of royalty, at the burial of an officer, etc
- minute secretary — the person responsible for noting the minutes of a meeting
- money laundering — Money laundering is the crime of processing stolen money through a legitimate business or sending it abroad to a foreign bank, to hide the fact that the money was illegally obtained.
- mothering sunday — Laetare Sunday.
- mount erymanthus — a mountain in SW Greece, in the NW Peloponnese. Height: 2224 m (7297 ft)
- muddy the waters — If someone or something muddies the waters, they cause a situation or issue to seem less clear and less easy to understand.
- mulberry harbour — either of two prefabricated floating harbours towed across the English Channel to the French coast for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944
- multi-way branch — switch statement
- multicellularity — The condition of being multicellular.
- natural immunity — immunity that is present without prior immunization.
- natural monopoly — the situation when, due to the economies of scale of a particular industry, the maximum efficiency of production and distribution is realized through a single supplier
- natural theology — theology based on knowledge of the natural world and on human reason, apart from revelation.
- naturalistically — imitating nature or the usual natural surroundings.
- neurasthenically — In a neurasthenic way.
- neuroarthropathy — (medicine) Any disease of a joint that is associated with a disease of the nervous system.
- neurohypophyseal — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neurohypophysial — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neuropsychiatric — Of or pertaining to neuropsychiatry; simultaneously neurological and psychiatric.
- newry and mourne — a district of SE Northern Ireland, in Co Down. Pop: 89 644 (2003 est). Area: 909 sq km (351 sq miles)
- nuclear industry — the industry involving nuclear weapons, nuclear power stations, etc
- occupation layer — (on an archaeological site) a layer of remains left by a single culture, from which the culture can be dated or identified.
- ocellated turkey — a wild turkey, Agriocharis ocellata, of Yucatán, Belize, and Guatemala, typically having green, blue, reddish-brown, and yellowish-brown plumage of a metallic luster and eyelike spots on the tail.
- ordinary jubilee — the celebration of any of certain anniversaries, as the twenty-fifth (silver jubilee) fiftieth (golden jubilee) or sixtieth or seventy-fifth (diamond jubilee)
- orthodoxy sunday — a solemn festival held on the first Sunday of Lent (Orthodoxy Sunday) commemorating the restoration of the use of icons in the church (a.d. 842) and the triumph over all heresies.
- paint-by-numbers — formulaic; showing no original thought or creativity
- papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.
- part way through — mid-way; before the end
- pay-as-you-throw — denoting a system for waste collection in which households are charged according to the amount of refuse they leave
- perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
- peter stuyvesant — Peter, 1592–1672, Dutch colonial administrator in the Americas: last governor of New Netherlands 1646–64.
- planetary nebula — an expanding shell of thin ionized gas that is ejected from and surrounds a hot, dying star of about the same mass as the sun; the gas absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the central star and reemits it as visible light by the process of fluorescence.
- prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
- primary industry — an industry, as agriculture, forestry, or fishing, that deals in obtaining natural materials.
- primary producer — any green plant or any of various microorganisms that can convert light energy or chemical energy into organic matter.