23-letter words containing b, a, t, e, n, r
- initial public offering — An initial public offering is the first offering of stock when a company goes public.
- interfascicular cambium — cambium that develops between the vascular bundles.
- internet public library — (IPL) A project at the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies to provide an on-line, 24 hour public library, chaired by an assemblage of librarians and information industry professionals. The library aims to provide library services to a target audience estimated to number 1/4 of the entire American population by the end of the century. The Internet Public Library is scheduled to go on-line in March 1995. Among the first services will be on-line reference; youth services; user education; and professional services for librarians. Mailing list: [email protected]
- irish christian brother — Brother of the Christian Schools (def 2).
- keep sb at arm's length — If you keep someone at arm's length, you avoid becoming too friendly or involved with them.
- lock, stock, and barrel — a device for securing a door, gate, lid, drawer, or the like in position when closed, consisting of a bolt or system of bolts propelled and withdrawn by a mechanism operated by a key, dial, etc.
- magnetic quantum number — the quantum number that designates the component of the orbital angular momentum in a fixed direction and that can assume all integral values between and including the orbital quantum number and the negative of the orbital quantum number.
- main distribution frame — (networking) (MDF) The network closet containing the main hub.
- martha washington table — a sewing table of the 18th century having an oval top that can be lifted and a central compartment of drawers with semicircular bins at each end.
- maturity-onset diabetes — diabetes (def 4).
- mexican free-tailed bat — any of several small, insect-eating bats of the genus Tadarida, of Mexico and the southwestern U.S., inhabiting limestone caves: residual DDT has reduced most populations.
- nonverbal communication — gesture and facial expression
- north ossetian republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the N slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains. Capital: Vladikavkaz. Pop: 709 900 (2002). Area: about 8000 sq km (3088 sq miles)
- not dry behind the ears — free from moisture or excess moisture; not moist; not wet: a dry towel; dry air.
- nuclear test ban treaty — an agreement signed by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. in 1963, committing nations to halt atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons: by the end of 1963, 96 additional nations had signed the treaty.
- nuclear test-ban treaty — an agreement signed by Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S. in 1963, committing nations to halt atmospheric tests of nuclear weapons: by the end of 1963, 96 additional nations had signed the treaty.
- object management group — (body) (OMG) A consortium aimed at setting standards in object-oriented programming. In 1989, this consortium, which included IBM Corporation, Apple Computer Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc., mobilised to create a cross-compatible distributed object standard. The goal was a common binary object with methods and data that work using all types of development environments on all types of platforms. Using a committee of organisations, OMG set out to create the first Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) standard which appeared in 1991. As of February 1998, the latest standard is CORBA 2.2.
- object relations theory — a form of psychoanalytic theory postulating that people relate to others in order to develop themselves
- object-oriented fortran — (language) (OOF) An object-oriented extension of Fortran, in which data items can be grouped into objects, which can be instantiated and executed in parallel. It was available for Sun, Iris, iPSC, and nCUBE, but is no longer supported. E-mail: Donna Reese <[email protected]>.
- on one's best behaviour — behaving with careful good manners
- 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.
- pentachloronitrobenzene — a crystalline compound, C 6 Cl 5 NO 2 , used as an herbicide and insecticide. Abbreviation: PCNB.
- percentage distribution — a frequency distribution is which individual frequencies are shown as a percentage of the total frequencies
- play by electronic mail — (games) A kind of game where the players use electronic mail to communicate. This may be done via a human moderator or an automatic mailing list exploder on some central machine or it may be fully distributed with each player just addressing his mail to all other players. This is a natural extension of "play by mail" games conducted via snail mail.
- polybrominated biphenyl — PBB.
- portable tool interface — (programming, standard) (PTI) A standard such as PCTE, allowing interworking between different software tools via defined interfaces to the user and to the repository or object management system.
- private branch exchange — (communications) (PBX) A telephone exchange local to a particular organisation who use, rather than provide, telephone services. The earliest PBXs were manual (Private Manual Branch EXchange, PMBX) but are now more likely to be automatic (Private Automatic Branch eXchange).
- random number generator — a piece of computer software used to create a sequence of random numbers
- rate-of-climb indicator — a flight instrument that indicates the rate of climb or descent of an aircraft.
- 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.
- residual debt insurance — Residual debt insurance is a type of risk insurance that banks often require when granting a loan, which is used to guarantee that the loan is repaid in the event of death or disability.
- retrolental fibroplasia — an unusual eye disease occurring in premature infants, usually from being given high concentrations of oxygen, which causes abnormal formation of fibrous tissue behind the lens and often results in blindness.
- rocky mountain beeplant — a rank-smelling plant, Cleome serrulata, of the caper family, native to the western U.S., having showy, dense clusters of pink or white flowers, frequented by bees.
- rolling-element bearing — a roller bearing or ball bearing.
- rub sb up the wrong way — If you rub someone up the wrong way in British English, or rub someone the wrong way in American English, you offend or annoy them without intending to.
- sb doesn't miss a trick — If you say that someone does not miss a trick, you mean that they always know what is happening and take advantage of every situation.
- 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.
- short-billed marsh wren — sedge wren.
- silicone breast implant — silicone filled bags that are implanted into a woman in order to increase the size of her breasts
- slip between the cracks — to break without complete separation of parts; become fissured: The plate cracked when I dropped it, but it was still usable.
- split-fingered fastball — a pitch, similar to the forkball but thrown with the same arm speed as a fastball, that drops suddenly as it nears the batter.
- strategic business unit — an autonomous division or section with its own mission within a larger organization
- sub specie aeternitatis — from the standpoint of eternity; from a universal perspective
- sustainable agriculture — any of a number of environmentally friendly farming methods that preserve an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.
- symbolic interactionism — a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings.
- tangible user interface — (interface) An attempt to give physical form to digital information, making bits directly manipulable and perceptible by people. Tangible Interfaces will make bits accessible through augmented physical surfaces (e.g. walls, desktops, ceilings, windows), graspable objects (e.g. building blocks, models, instruments) and ambient media (e.g. light, sound, airflow, water-flow, kinetic sculpture) within physical environments.
- the library of congress — the official library of the United States in Washington, DC. It houses extensive collections in all subject areas and formats, important historical documents, and is also a depository for copyrighted materials.
- the numbers game/racket — If you refer to the numbers game, the numbers racket, or the numbers, you are referring to an illegal lottery or illegal betting.
- to be at your wit's end — If you say that you are at your wits' end, you are emphasizing that you are so worried and exhausted by problems or difficulties that you do not know what to do next.
- 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.