21-letter words containing e, d, i, n
- indigenous australian — another name for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- indo-australian plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising India and the Australian continent and adjacent suboceanic basins (the Tasman, South Australian, Mid-Indian, Cocos, and Australian basins); separated from the Eurasian Plate by the Java Trench, from the Pacific Plate by the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, and from the African Plate by a series of mid-ocean ridges (the Carlsberg, Mid-Indian, and Southeast Indian ridges).
- induced radioactivity — artificial radioactivity.
- induction loop system — a system enabling partially deaf people to hear dialogue and sound in theatres, cinemas, etc, consisting of a loop of wire placed round the perimeter of a designated area. This emits an electromagnetic signal which is picked up by a hearing aid
- industrial revolution — (sometimes initial capital letters) the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
- insurance underwriter — sb who assesses eligibility for insurance policies
- international brigade — a military force that fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, consisting of volunteers (predominantly socialists and communists) from many countries
- intravenous drug user — a drug addict who injects drugs (esp heroin) intravenously
- isopropylideneacetone — mesityl oxide.
- jewish defense league — an organization of militant Jewish activists, founded in 1968 in the U.S. to combat anti-Semitism and defend Jewish interests worldwide. Abbr.: JDL.
- keep one's voice down — If someone tells you to keep your voice down, they are asking you to speak more quietly.
- kekule von stradonitz — Friedrich August [free-drikh ou-goo st] /ˈfri drɪx ˈaʊ gʊst/ (Show IPA), 1829–96, German chemist.
- keyboard send receive — (hardware) (KSR) Part of a designation for a hard-copy terminal, manufactured by Teletype Corporation. The KSR range were lower cost versions of the ASR models.
- kicking and screaming — If you say that someone is dragged kicking and screaming into a particular course of action, you are emphasizing that they are very unwilling to do what they are being made to do.
- kleine-levin syndrome — prolonged episodes of excessive sleepiness often accompanied by overeating, hallucinations, and electroencephalogram changes, usually beginning in adolescence.
- knowledge engineering — the practical application of developments in the field of computer science concerned with artificial intelligence.
- lady windermere's fan — a comedy (1892) by Oscar Wilde.
- lafcadio's adventures — French Les Caves du Vatican. a novel (1914) by André Gide.
- language-based editor — language-sensitive editor
- lap and diagonal belt — A lap and diagonal belt is a strap attached to a seat in a vehicle that extends horizontally in front of the hips and diagonally from the outer shoulder across the chest. You fasten it across your body in order to prevent yourself being thrown out of the seat if there is a sudden movement or stop.
- large hadron collider — a particle accelerator at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics near Geneva, containing a circular underground tunnel 27km (16.8 miles) in circumference, around which two streams of hadrons are sent in opposite directions before being brought together in a high-energy collision
- law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
- learning difficulties — difficulty experienced in reaching the average standard of people of the same age group as regards intellectual and cognitive skills and performance
- leave holding the bag — a container or receptacle of leather, plastic, cloth, paper, etc., capable of being closed at the mouth; pouch.
- legionnaire's disease — a serious, sometimes fatal, infection, caused by the bacterium Legionella pneumophila, which has symptoms similar to those of pneumonia: believed to be spread by inhalation of contaminated water vapour from showers and air-conditioning plants
- legionnaires' disease — a type of acute pneumonia caused by Legionella pneumophila bacterium and characterized by fever, chest pain, cough, and muscle aches.
- let sleeping dogs lie — a domesticated canid, Canis familiaris, bred in many varieties.
- lexical decision task — an experimental task in which subjects have to decide as fast as possible whether a given letter string is a word
- lie at someone's door — a movable, usually solid, barrier for opening and closing an entranceway, cupboard, cabinet, or the like, commonly turning on hinges or sliding in grooves.
- liquefied natural gas — a mixture of various gases, esp methane, liquefied under pressure for transportation and used as an engine fuel
- logic design language — (language) A language for computer design.
- lost in the underflow — (jargon) Too small to be worth considering; more specifically, small beyond the limits of accuracy or measurement. This is a reference to "floating point underflow". The Hacker's Jargon File claimed that it is also a pun on "undertow" (a kind of fast, cold current that sometimes runs just offshore and can be dangerous to swimmers). "Well, sure, photon pressure from the stadium lights alters the path of a thrown baseball, but that effect gets lost in the underflow". Compare epsilon, epsilon squared; see also overflow bit.
- luck was on sb's side — If you say that luck was on someone's side, you mean that they succeeded in something by chance as well as by their own efforts or ability.
- luminous flux density — luminous flux per unit of cross-sectional area.
- madagascar aquamarine — a form of blue beryl from Madagascar, used as a gemstone
- madagascar periwinkle — a plant, Catharanthus roseus (or Vinca rosea), cultivated for its glossy foliage and pink or white flowers.
- magnetic flux density — Also called magnetic flux density. a vector quantity used as a measure of a magnetic field. Symbol: B.
- magneto-optical drive — magneto-optical disk
- magnetofluid dynamics — magnetohydrodynamics.
- magnetoplasmadynamics — magnetohydrodynamics.
- magnificent riflebird — a bird of paradise, Craspedophora magnifica
- maidenhair spleenwort — an evergreen fern, Asplenium trichomanes, abundant in woody areas of the North Temperate Zone, having thickly clustered fronds.
- majority shareholding — a holding of more than half a company's shares
- make one's blood boil — the fluid that circulates in the principal vascular system of human beings and other vertebrates, in humans consisting of plasma in which the red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets are suspended.
- maple-leaved viburnum — dockmackie.
- mariage de convenance — 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.
- marine superintendent — a person who is responsible for the maintenance of the vessels of a shipping line, for their docking and the handling of cargo, and for the hiring of personnel for deck departments.
- mean square deviation — variance (def 3).
- mechanical solidarity — social cohesiveness that is based on shared activities, beliefs, and experiences and is characteristic of simple traditional societies.
- medical jurisprudence — forensic medicine.