20-letter words containing c, u, b, e
- public record office — an institution in which official records are stored and kept available for inspection by the public
- pure lambda-calculus — Lambda-calculus with no constants, only functions expressed as lambda abstractions.
- quasi-stellar object — quasar. Abbreviation: QSO.
- queen's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
- receivables turnover — A receivables turnover is a measure of cash flow that is calculated by dividing net credit sales by average accounts receivable.
- recursive subroutine — a subroutine that can call itself as part of its execution
- red badge of courage — a novel (1895) by Stephen Crane.
- reductio ad absurdum — a reduction to an absurdity; the refutation of a proposition by demonstrating the inevitably absurd conclusion to which it would logically lead.
- republic of maldives — a republic occupying an archipelago of 1087 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka: came under British protection in 1887; became independent in 1965 and a republic in 1968; member of the Commonwealth (1982–2016). The economy and infrastructure were severely damaged in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. Official language: Divehi. Official religion: (Sunni) Muslim. Currency: rufiyaa. Capital: Malé. Pop: 393 988 (2013 est). Area: 298 sq km (115 sq miles)
- ruby-crowned kinglet — an olive-gray, American kinglet, Regulus calendula, the male of which has an erectile, ruby crest.
- saint john ambulance — an organization that provides first aid and first-aid training
- scream bloody murder — Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder) and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder)
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- skull and crossbones — a representation of a front view of a human skull above two crossed bones, originally used on pirates' flags and now used as a warning sign, as in designating substances as poisons.
- subjective idea-list — a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas.
- subjective intension — the associations that an expression has for an individual; the intension he believes it to have
- subpoena duces tecum — a writ directing a person to appear in court and to bring some document described in the writ.
- subscription edition — an edition of one or more volumes for which a number of prospective purchasers place orders, usually in advance of publication.
- tchebycheff equation — a differential equation of the form (1 − x 2) d 2 y/dx 2 − x dy/dx + n 2 y = 0, where n is any nonnegative integer.
- telephone subscriber — a person who subscribes to a telephone service
- the butterfat cheque — the total annual cash return for operations on a dairy farm
- the canterbury tales — an uncompleted sequence of tales by Chaucer, written for the most part after 1387.
- therapeutic abortion — abortion performed when a woman's pregnancy endangers her health.
- to catch your breath — If something makes you catch your breath, it makes you take a short breath of air, usually because it shocks you.
- to cross the rubicon — If you say that someone has crossed the Rubicon, you mean that they have reached a point where they cannot change a decision or course of action.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
- to keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example, when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- toothbrush moustache — a short narrow moustache, resembling the filaments of a toothbrush
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- upper income bracket — a grouping of the highest earning tax payers
- wardrobe malfunction — an embarrassing situation caused by the clothes a person is wearing
- white bush (scallop) — a variety of summer squash having a saucer-shaped white fruit, scalloped around the edges
- wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
- yellow-billed cuckoo — a North American cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus, that has a yellow bill and, unlike many cuckoos, constructs its own nest and rears its own young.