23-letter words containing c, o, e, v, a
- marriage of convenience — marriage entered into for a personal or family advantage, as for social, political, or economic reasons, usually without love and sometimes without the expectation of sexual relations.
- moving target indicator — a Doppler-radar presentation that indicates moving targets only, stationary objects reflecting signals that the system rejects. Abbreviation: MTI.
- national health service — In Britain, the National Health Service is the state system for providing medical care. It is paid for by taxes.
- nonverbal communication — gesture and facial expression
- over-the-counter market — a security market that deals in securities that are not listed or quoted on a stock exchange
- overnight accommodation — accommodation provided by an establishment (such as a hotel) where guests can sleep or spend the night
- own occupation coverage — Own occupation coverage is insurance that covers a person if they cannot work in their own occupation, following an accident, injury, or disability.
- 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.
- positive discrimination — special opportunities
- private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
- progressive cavity pump — A progressive cavity pump is a pump with an electric motor that rotates rods to make fluid in cavities move upward.
- provocative maintenance — [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
- quote chapter and verse — [by analogy with the mainstream phrase] To cite a relevant excerpt from an appropriate bible. "I don't care if "rn" gets it wrong; "Followup-To: poster" is explicitly permitted by RFC 1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if you don't believe me." See also legalese, language lawyer, RTFS (sense 2).
- refuse disposal service — a place or facility where rubbish and waste can be disposed
- relative molecular mass — the sum of all the relative atomic masses of the atoms in a molecule; the ratio of the average mass per molecule of a specified isotopic composition of a substance to one-twelfth the mass of an atom of carbon-12
- saint christopher-nevis — St. Kitts-Nevis.
- secondary seventh chord — a chord formed by superposition of three thirds upon any degree of the scale except the dominant.
- seneca falls convention — a women's rights convention held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott.
- sovereignty association — (in Canada) a proposed arrangement by which Quebec would become independent but would maintain a formal association with Canada
- to have a police record — If you say that somebody has a police record, you mean that they have committed a crime or crimes and the police have a record of this.
- to save someone's bacon — If someone or something saves your bacon, they get you out of a dangerous or difficult situation.
- topological equivalence — the property of two topological spaces such that there is a homeomorphism from one to the other.
- urban conservation area — an urban area that is protected, preserved and carefully managed
- valera y alcala galiano — Juan [hwahn] /ʰwɑn/ (Show IPA), 1824–1905, Spanish novelist, critic, diplomat, and statesman.
- variable contrast paper — printing paper in which the contrast of the image is controlled by the color of the printing light.
- velocity of circulation — the frequency with which a single unit of currency or the total money supply turns over within the economy in a given year.
- vestibulocochlear nerve — either one of the eight pairs of cranial nerves that supply the cochlea and semicircular canals of the internal ear and contribute to the sense of hearing
- video cassette recorder — See VCR.
- virtual device location — (Or "Virtual Address") The address of a device (e.g. disk, printer, terminal) belonging to a "guest" operating system. Such an address is mapped to a physical device. VM may remap several virtual disks to different parts of a single physical disk.
- viscount horatio nelson — Viscount Horatio, 1758–1805, British admiral.
- volumetric displacement — the volume of air per revolution that passes through a mechanical pump when the pressure at the intake and the exhaust is the same as that of the atmosphere
- voter registration card — a card that enables a person to register in order to vote
- wind cave national park — a national park in SW South Dakota. 41½ sq. mi. (107 sq. km).