19-letter words containing e, n, c
- auriculoventricular — atrioventricular.
- ave regina coelorum — a Latin hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven.
- axiomatic semantics — (theory) A set of assertions about properties of a system and how they are effected by program execution. The axiomatic semantics of a program could include pre- and post-conditions for operations. In particular if you view the program as a state transformer (or collection of state transformers), the axiomatic semantics is a set of invariants on the state which the state transformer satisfies. E.g. for a function with the type: sort_list :: [T] -> [T] we might give the precondition that the argument of the function is a list, and a postcondition that the return value is a list that is sorted. One interesting use of axiomatic semantics is to have a language that has a finitely computable sublanguage that is used for specifying pre and post conditions, and then have the compiler prove that the program will satisfy those conditions. See also operational semantics, denotational semantics.
- bachelor of science — A Bachelor of Science is a first degree in a science subject. In British English, it can also mean a person with that degree. The abbreviation BSc or , BSc is also used.
- bacillary dysentery — shigellosis.
- balance of payments — A country's balance of payments is the difference, over a period of time, between the payments it makes to other countries for imports and the payments it receives from other countries for exports.
- balfour declaration — the statement made by Arthur Balfour in 1917 of British support for the setting up of a national home for the Jews in Palestine, provided that the rights of "existing non-Jewish communities" in Palestine could be safeguarded
- bang for one's buck — value for money
- bank reconciliation — A bank reconciliation is the process of adjusting a bank statement to show transactions that have occurred since the date of issue, or a document showing this.
- banker's acceptance — a draft or bill of exchange drawn on a bank and accepted by it
- bankruptcy petition — an official request for protection under bankruptcy laws, which initiates bankruptcy proceedings
- barometric gradient — pressure gradient
- batterie de cuisine — cooking utensils collectively; pots and pans, etc
- bbc networking club — (body) A bulletin board run by the British Broadcasting Corporation Education department from April 1994 to 30 Nov 1995.
- be burnt to a crisp — If something is burnt to a crisp, it is completely burnt.
- be up to one's neck — the part of the body of an animal or human being that connects the head and the trunk.
- behavioral genetics — an interdisciplinary field studying the effects of genetics and hereditary factors on animal and human behavior.
- behavioral medicine — an interdisciplinary field that uses the concepts and techniques of the behavioral sciences to improve physical and emotional health.
- behavioural science — the application of scientific methods to the study of the behaviour of organisms
- behind closed doors — If people have talks and discussions behind closed doors, they have them in private because they want them to be kept secret.
- belgian east africa — a former Belgian trust territory in Africa, also (1924–62) Ruanda-Urundi, now the independent countries of Rwanda and Burundi.
- bend over backwards — to make a special effort, esp in order to please
- benedict's solution — a chemical solution used to detect the presence of glucose and other reducing sugars. Medically, it is used to test the urine of diabetics
- benefit performance — a theatrical or musical performance in aid of charity
- benzylidene acetone — a colorless, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, C 10 H 10 O, having a vanillalike odor, used chiefly as a scent in the manufacture of perfume.
- bernoulli principle — (Or "air foil principle", after Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, 1700-1782) The law that pressure in a fluid decreases with the rate of flow. It has been applied to a class of hard disk drives. See Bernoulli Box.
- bernstein condition — (parallel) Processes cannot execute in parallel if one effects values used by the other. Nor can they execute in parallel if any subsequent process uses data effected by both, i.e. whose value might depend on the order of execution.
- betamethyl acrolein — crotonaldehyde.
- bicarbonate of soda — Bicarbonate of soda is a white powder which is used in baking to make cakes rise, and also as a medicine for your stomach.
- bilingual education — schooling in which those not fluent in the standard or national language are taught in their own language.
- binary large object — (database) (BLOB) A large block of data stored in a database, such as an image or sound file. A BLOB has no structure which can be interpreted by the database management system but is known only by its size and location.
- black carpenter ant — a large, black ant, Camponotus pennsylvanicus, that lives in damp wood in nature or in houses, where it can cause considerable damage by boring or tunneling.
- blot one's copybook — to spoil one's reputation by making a mistake, offending against social customs, etc
- blue screen of life — (operating system) (BSOL, by analogy with "Blue Screen of Death") The opening screen of Microsoft Windows NT. This screen shows the file system loading, and any problems such as conversions from FAT to NTFS or a scan of a hard drive. The Blue Screen of Life occurs in one way, as opposed to the Blue Screen of Death, which can occur in many different ways and times.
- blue-ringed octopus — a highly venomous octopus, Octopus maculosus, of E Australia which exhibits blue bands on its tentacles when disturbed
- board certification — the process of certifying that a physician has passed an examination and met the standards of a professional organization representing a particular medical specialty.
- bordering countries — countries that share a border with a particular country
- born out of wedlock — born when one's parents are not legally married
- bracket abstraction — (compiler) An algorithm which turns a term into a function of some variable. The result of using bracket abstraction on T with respect to variable v, written as [v]T, is a term containing no occurrences of v and denoting a function f such that f v = T. This defines the function f = (\ v . T). Using bracket abstraction and currying we can define a language without bound variables in which the only operation is monadic function application. See combinator.
- brightline spectrum — the spectrum of an incandescent substance appearing on a spectrogram as one or more bright lines against a dark background.
- brokered convention — a party convention in which many delegates are pledged to favorite sons who use their blocs of votes to bargain with leading candidates who lack a majority of delegate support.
- bug tracking system — (programming) (BTS) A system for receiving and filing bugs reported against a software project, and tracking those bugs until they are fixed. Most major software projects have their own BTS, the source code of which is often available for use by other projects. Well known BTSs include GNATS, Bugzilla, and Debbugs.
- buildings insurance — insurance which covers buildings
- business accounting — the keeping of detailed accounts relating to a business or businesses
- buster brown collar — a medium-sized, starched collar with rounded edges, lying flat on the shoulders, worn by women and girls.
- calculating machine — calculator (sense 3)
- california bluebell — either of two plants, Phacelia campanularia or P. minor, of southern California, having ovate leaves and bell-shaped blue or purple flowers.
- california job case — a job case having sufficient spaces to contain both uppercase and lowercase letters and 37 additional characters of foundry type. Compare case2 (def 8).
- california live oak — an evergreen oak, Quercus agrifolia, of the western coast of the U.S., having leathery leaves and a short, stout trunk.
- california sea lion — any of several large eared seals, as Eumetopias jubatus (Steller's sea lion) of the northern Pacific, and Zalophus californicus (California sea lion) of the Pacific coast of North America.