18-letter words containing h, a, c, i
- hypogastric artery — iliac artery (def 3).
- hyposulfurous acid — an acid, H 2 S 2 O 4 , next in a series below sulfurous acid, known only in solution or in the form of its salts.
- hysterical reasons — (Or "hysterical raisins") A variant on the stock phrase "for historical reasons", indicating specifically that something must be done in some stupid way for backward compatibility, and moreover that the feature it must be compatible with was the result of a bad design in the first place. "All IBM PC video adaptors have to support MDA text mode for hysterical reasons." Compare bug-for-bug compatible.
- ice cream headache — Also called ice-cream headache. a pain in the temples and forehead brought on by quickly consuming very cold food or drink.
- immunohistological — the microscopic study of tissues with the aid of antibodies that bind to tissue components and reveal their presence.
- immunopharmacology — the branch of pharmacology concerned with the immune system
- impedance matching — the technique of choosing or adjusting electric circuits and components so that the impedance of the load is equal to the internal impedance of the power source, thereby optimizing the power transfer from source to load.
- in accordance with — conforming to
- in black and white — without colour
- in company with sb — If you feel, believe, or know something in company with someone else, you both feel, believe, or know it.
- in comparison with — when compared to
- in compliance with — in accordance with
- in that/which case — You say in that case or in which case to indicate that what you are going to say is true if the possible situation that has just been mentioned actually exists.
- in the face of sth — If you take a particular action or attitude in the face of a problem or difficulty, you respond to that problem or difficulty in that way.
- in the first place — firstly
- incidental charges — Incidental charges are costs of items and services that are not part of the main bill.
- indecent behaviour — the offence of committing indecent acts
- industrial vehicle — a vehicle designed for use in industry
- interchangeability — (of two things) capable of being put or used in the place of each other: interchangeable symbols.
- ionization chamber — a device for detecting and measuring ionizing radiation, consisting of a tube containing a low pressure gas and two electrodes between which a high voltage is maintained. The current between the electrodes is a function of the intensity of the radiation
- irreproachableness — The quality or state of being irreproachable; integrity; innocence.
- isothermal process — a process that takes place without change in temperature.
- jack-in-the-pulpit — A North American plant, Arisaema triphyllum, of the arum family, having an upright spadix arched over by a green or striped purplish-brown spathe.
- jacksonville beach — a city in NE Florida.
- japanese artichoke — Chinese artichoke.
- king of the castle — most powerful figure
- kitchen-sink drama — a type of drama of the 1950s depicting the sordid aspects of domestic reality
- lactogenic hormone — prolactin.
- lake pontchartrain — a shallow lagoon in SE Louisiana, linked with the Gulf of Mexico by a narrow channel, the Rigolets: resort and fishing centre. Area: 1620 sq km (625 sq miles)
- launching ceremony — a ceremony that celebrates the launch of a ship for the first time into the water
- leave in the lurch — a situation at the close of various games in which the loser scores nothing or is far behind the opponent.
- legislative branch — the branch of government having the power to make laws; the legislature.
- light displacement — the weight of a ship with all its permanent equipment, excluding the weight of cargo, persons, ballast, dunnage, and fuel, but usually including the weight of permanent ballast and water used to operate steam machinery.
- lighting cameraman — the person who designs and supervises the lighting of scenes to be filmed
- lincoln's birthday — February 12, a legal holiday in some states of the U.S., in honor of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
- lipopolysaccharide — any of a class of polysaccharides to which lipids are attached.
- liqueur chocolates — chocolates containing liqueur
- lithostratigraphic — Of or pertaining to lithostratigraphy.
- logarithmic spiral — log r = aθ
- logical shift left — logical shift
- louisiana purchase — a treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
- lower palaeolithic — the earliest of the three sections of the Palaeolithic, beginning about 3 million years ago and ending about 70 000 bc with the emergence of Neanderthal man
- magic switch story — Some years ago, I was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no-one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labelled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words "magic" and "more magic". The switch was in the "more magic" position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the "more magic" position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the "more magic" position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on "more magic".
- magnetorheological — (physics) describing a substance whose rheological properties are modified by a magnetic field.
- malicious mischief — willful destruction of personal property motivated by ill will or resentment toward its owner or possessor.
- manchester terrier — one of a breed of slender terriers having a short, glossy, black-and-tan coat, raised originally in Manchester, England.
- manhattan district — (during World War II) the code name for a unit of US army engineers established in 1942 to construct secret sites for the development of the atomic bomb
- marine archaeology — the branch of archaeology that deals with the recovery of ancient objects found beneath the sea, as shipwrecks or remains from submerged islands, and with the techniques of underwater exploration, excavation, and retrieval.
- marketing research — the study of influences upon customer and consumer behaviour and the analysis of market characteristics and trends
- mathematical error — a mistake in a mathematical calculation, etc