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19-letter words containing b, c, i, n

  • emotional blackmail — a way of persuading someone to do something they do not want to do by making them feel guilty about it
  • enabling technology — technology that enables the user to perform a task or to improve his or her overall performance: e.g. the internet
  • exhibitionistically — In an exhibitionistic manner.
  • extendible compiler — (language)   (ETC) A Fortran-like compiler that can be extended with macros.
  • financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
  • foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
  • functional database — (database, language)   A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
  • gigabits per second — (unit)   (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
  • giraldus cambrensis — literary name of Gerald de Barri. ?1146–?1223, Welsh chronicler and churchman, noted for his accounts of his travels in Ireland and Wales
  • hang in the balance — to fasten or attach (a thing) so that it is supported only from above or at a point near its own top; suspend.
  • have a bone to pick — to have grounds for a quarrel
  • heptachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) Either of twenty-four isomers of the polychlorinated biphenyl containing seven chlorine atoms.
  • high-bush cranberry — cranberry bush
  • honorable discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has fulfilled obligations efficiently, honorably, and faithfully.
  • hydrostatic balance — a balance for finding the weight of an object submerged in water in order to determine the upthrust on it and thus determine its relative density
  • hydroxybenzoic acid — Hydroxybenzoic acid is the active ingredient in a number of drugs, for example, aspirin. Hydroxybenzoic acid is also used as a preservative.
  • hydroxydaunorubicin — Doxorubicin.
  • hyperbolic cosecant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of hyperbolic sine
  • hyperbolic function — a function of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances from a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes, as hyperbolic sine or hyperbolic cosine: often expressed as combinations of exponential functions.
  • immersion objective — a microscope objective of high resolving power in which the space between the front lens and the cover glass is filled with an oil whose index of refraction is close to that of the objective and the cover glass.
  • in the catbird seat — If you say that someone is in the catbird seat, you think that their situation is very good.
  • incommensurableness — (rare) Incommensurability.
  • incomplete abortion — a miscarriage in which some fetal or placental tissue remains in the uterus.
  • incomprehensibility — impossible to understand or comprehend; unintelligible.
  • incontrovertibility — The state or characteristic of being incontrovertible, of not being debatable; incontestability.
  • interchangeableness — Quality of being interchangeable.
  • internal-combustion — of or relating to an internal-combustion engine.
  • intervertebral disc — any of the cartilaginous discs between individual vertebrae, acting as shock absorbers
  • japanese black pine — a pine, Pinus thunbergiana, of Japan, grown as a seaside ornamental in the U.S.
  • jewel in sb's crown — If you refer to an achievement or thing as the jewel in someone's crown, you mean that it is considered to be their greatest achievement or the thing they can be most proud of.
  • job creation scheme — a governmental scheme to increase the number of jobs in an area, organization, etc
  • john c breckinridge — John Cabell, 1821–75, vice president of the U.S. 1857–61: Confederate general in the American Civil War.
  • kellogg-briand pact — a treaty renouncing war as an instrument of national policy and urging peaceful means for the settlement of international disputes, originally signed in 1928 by 15 nations, later joined by 49 others.
  • kilobits per second — (unit)   (kbps, kb/s) A unit of data rate where 1 kb/s = 1000 bits per second. This contrasts with units of storage where 1 Kb = 1024 bits (note upper case K).
  • king's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
  • knickerbocker glory — a rich confection consisting of layers of ice cream, jelly, cream, and fruit served in a tall glass
  • knights of columbus — an international fraternal and benevolent organization of Roman Catholic men, founded in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1882.
  • liability insurance — insurance covering the insured against losses arising from injury or damage to another person or property.
  • library of congress — one of the major library collections in the world, located in Washington, D.C., and functioning in some ways as the national library of the U.S. although not officially designated as such: established by Congress in 1800 for service to its members, but now also serving government agencies, other libraries, and the public.
  • logical unit number — (storage)   (LUN) A 3-bit identifier used on a SCSI bus to distinguish between up to eight devices (logical units) with the same SCSI ID.
  • magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
  • malleable cast iron — white cast iron that has been malleablized.
  • megabits per second — (unit)   (Mbps, Mb/s) Millions of bits per second. A unit of data rate. 1 Mb/s = 1,000,000 bits per second (not 1,048,576). E.g. Ethernet can carry 10 Mbps.
  • membership function — fuzzy subset
  • mexican bean beetle — a ladybird beetle, Epilachna varivestis, introduced into the U.S. from Mexico, that feeds on the foliage of the bean plant.
  • minimum iron fabric — cloth used to make clothes that require little ironing
  • monoclonal antibody — antibody produced by a laboratory-grown cell clone, either of a hybridoma or a virus-transformed lymphocyte, that is more abundant and uniform than natural antibody and is able to bind specifically to a single site on almost any chosen antigen or reveal previously unknown antigen sites: used as an analytic tool in scientific research and medical diagnosis and potentially important in the treatment of certain diseases. Abbreviation: MAb.
  • mordvinian republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Saransk. Pop: 888 700 (2002). Area: 26 200 sq km (10 110 sq miles)
  • mud object oriented — (games)   (MOO) One of the many MUD spin-offs (e.g. MUSH, MUSE, and MUX) created to diversify the realm of interactive text-based gaming. A MOO is similar to a MUSH in that the users themselves can create objects, rooms, and code to add to the environment. The most frequently used server software for running a MOO is LambdaMOO but alternatives include WinMOO and MacGoesMOO.
  • municipal bond fund — a mutual fund that invests in municipal bonds.
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