22-letter words containing b, a, l, i, s
- make a beeline for sth — If you make a beeline for a place, you go to it as quickly and directly as possible.
- maxwell air force base — U.S. Air Force installation in SE central Alabama, NW of Montgomery: site of U.S. Air Force Advanced School.
- metasyntactic variable — (grammar) Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
- mozilla public license — Open source license
- non-maskable interrupt — (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
- object-oriented pascal — Object Pascal
- portable standard lisp — (language) (PSL) A dialect of Lisp from Utah University. PSL is available as a kit for 68000 and also runs on VAX. It compiles Lisp to C-code virtual machine language.
- preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
- public domain software — public domain
- pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
- read between the lines — a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil, tool, etc., on a surface: a line down the middle of the page.
- replacement cost basis — Replacement cost basis is a method of valuing insured property in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
- research establishment — an establishment or institution where research or investigation into a subject, topic, etc, can be conducted
- round-table discussion — a discussion held at a meeting of parties or people on equal terms
- saddleback caterpillar — a moth larva, Sibine stimulea, of the southeastern U.S, having a brown and green, saddlelike marking on its back and poisonous spines.
- satellite broadcasting — the transmission of television or radio programmes from an artificial satellite at a power suitable for direct reception in the home
- satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
- sb can whistle for sth — If you say that someone can whistle for a particular thing, you mean that you are not willing or able to give it to them.
- scalable sampling rate — (compression, standard, algorithm) (SSR) See, e.g., MPEG-4 AAC SSR.
- simultaneous broadcast — a programme, etc, broadcast simultaneously on radio and television
- sir william blackstone — Sir William, 1723–80, English jurist and writer on law.
- small business edition — Microsoft Office Small Business Edition
- social security number — A Social Security number is a nine digit number that is given to U.S. citizens and to people living in the U.S. You need it to get a job, collect Social Security benefits and receive some government services.
- south african republic — former name of Transvaal.
- start the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- subjective probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined by subjective criteria
- subliminal advertising — a form of advertising on film or television that employs subliminal images to influence the viewer unconsciously
- take/tickle sb's fancy — If something takes your fancy or tickles your fancy, you like it a lot when you see it or think of it.
- tear sb limb from limb — If someone threatens to tear you limb from limb, they mean that they are extremely angry with you, and may use violence against you.
- temporal lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- temporal-lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- ten-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus pungitius, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having ten spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
- the edinburgh festival — an arts festival held in Edinburgh in August
- threespine stickleback — a widely distributed stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, occurring in marine, brackish, or fresh waters throughout the northern hemisphere.
- tip the scales/balance — If something tips the scales or tips the balance, it gives someone a slight advantage.
- to fall by the wayside — If a person or plan falls by the wayside, they fail or stop before they complete what they set out to do.
- to fall to bits/pieces — To fall to pieces, or in British English to fall to bits, means the same as to fall apart.
- trans-siberian railway — a railway in S Russia, extending from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific: constructed between 1891 and 1916, making possible the settlement and industrialization of sparsely inhabited regions. Length: 9335 km (5800 miles)
- transition probability — the probability of going from a given state to the next state in a Markov process.
- unreasonable behaviour — conduct by a spouse sufficient to cause the irretrievable breakdown of a marriage
- urban district council — a council of an urban district that, in conjunction with a county council, has responsibilities for local government issues
- what sb/sth looks like — If you ask what someone or something looks like, you are asking for a description of them.
- william jennings bryan — William Jennings [jen-ingz] /ˈdʒɛn ɪŋz/ (Show IPA), 1860–1925, U.S. political leader.
- william's bon chrétien — a variety of pear that has large yellow juicy sweet fruit
- woman police constable — a policewoman of the lowest rank