16-letter words containing h, a, l, e, r
- hawksbill turtle — a sea turtle, Eretmochelys imbricata, the shell of which is the source of tortoise shell: an endangered species.
- head normal form — (theory, reduction) (HNF) A term describing a lambda expression whose top level is either a variable, a data value, a built-in function applied to too few arguments, or a lambda abstraction whose body is not reducible. I.e. the top level is neither a redex nor a lambda abstraction with a reducible body. An expression in HNF may contain redexes in argument postions whereas a normal form may not. Compare Weak Head Normal Form.
- health authority — a government agency that is responsible for NHS care in a particular area
- health inspector — a public employee who inspects places such as restaurants, shops, factories etc to make sure they are hygienic and do not pose any dangers to health
- health insurance — insurance that compensates the insured for expenses or loss incurred for medical reasons, as through illness or hospitalization.
- healthcare proxy — a legal document in which a person can appoint someone to make decisions about medical treatment in the event that he or she is no longer mentally competent or able to communicate.
- heart transplant — surgery to replace a patient's heart
- hebbian learning — (artificial intelligence) The most common way to train a neural network; a kind of unsupervised learning; named after canadian neuropsychologist, Donald O. Hebb. The algorithm is based on Hebb's Postulate, which states that where one cell's firing repeatedly contributes to the firing of another cell, the magnitude of this contribution will tend to increase gradually with time. This means that what may start as little more than a coincidental relationship between the firing of two nearby neurons becomes strongly causal. Despite limitations with Hebbian learning, e.g., the inability to learn certain patterns, variations such as Signal Hebbian Learning and Differential Hebbian Learning are still used.
- heliotherapeutic — Pertaining to heliotherapy.
- hell for leather — If you say that someone is going hell for leather, you are emphasizing that they are doing something or are moving very quickly and perhaps carelessly.
- hell-for-leather — characterized by reckless determination or breakneck speed: The sheriff led the posse in a hell-for-leather chase.
- hematocrit-value — a centrifuge for separating the cells of the blood from the plasma.
- hematocrystallin — (biology, archaic) hemoglobin.
- heralds' college — a royal corporation in England, instituted in 1483, concerned chiefly with armorial bearings, genealogies, honors, and precedence.
- herman hollerith — (person) The promulgator of the punched card. Hollerith was born on 1860-02-29 and died on 1929-11-17. He graduated from Columbia University, NewYork, NY, USA. He joined the US Census Bureau as a statistician where he used a punched card device to help analyse the 1880 US census data. This punched card system stored data in 80 columns. This "80-column" concept has carried forward in various forms into modern applications. In 1896, Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company to exploit his invention and in 1924 his firm became part of IBM. The Hollerith system was used for the 1911 UK census. A correspondant writes: Wasn't Hollerith's original machine first used for the 1990 US census? And I think I am right in saying that the physical layout was a 20x12 grid of round holes. The one I have seen (picture only, unfortunately, not the real thing) did not use 'columns' as such but holes were grouped into irregularly-shaped fields, such that each hole had a more-or-less independent function.
- hermaphroditical — Alternative form of hermaphroditic.
- herpes genitalis — genital herpes.
- heterometabolism — insect development in which the young hatch in a form very similar to the adult and then mature without a pupal stage
- heterometabolous — undergoing development in which the young are born adultlike in form, often maturing without a pupal stage.
- heteropalindrome — Something that spells something else when reversed, a semordnilap.
- hexachloroethane — a colorless crystalline compound, C 2 Cl 6 , with a camphorlike odor, soluble in alcohol and ether, insoluble in water: used in organic synthesis and pyrotechnics, as a retarding agent in fermentation, and as a solvent.
- hexahydroaniline — cyclohexylamine.
- hieroglyphically — In hieroglyphics.
- hierophantically — In a hierophantic manner; in the manner of a hierophant.
- high-pass filter — a filter that allows high-frequency electromagnetic signals to pass while rejecting or attenuating others below a specific value.
- himachal pradesh — a state in N India. 21,495 sq. mi. (55,673 sq. km). Capital: Shimla.
- historical novel — a novel within the genre of historical fiction.
- hodmezovasarhely — a city in SE Hungary.
- hold a brief for — to argue for; champion
- holier-than-thou — obnoxiously pious; sanctimonious; self-righteous.
- homeric laughter — loud, hearty laughter, as of the gods.
- horizontal plane — flat surface parallel to the horizon
- horsehead nebula — a dark nebula in the constellation Orion, composed of opaque cosmic dust and resembling the head of a horse.
- horsetail agaric — the shaggy-mane.
- hospital corners — a fold on a bed sheet or blanket made by tucking the foot or head of the sheet straight under the mattress with the ends protruding and then making a diagonal fold at the side corner of the sheet and tucking this under to produce a triangular corner.
- hospital service — the whole organization of government funded hospitals, their staff, and the services they provide
- hostile takeover — a takeover that is not approved by the management of the corporation being acquired or that is accomplished through the secret purchase of stock.
- hot-water bottle — a bag, usually of rubber, for holding hot water to apply warmth to some part of the body, as the feet.
- hourglass figure — the shape of a woman who is well-proportioned and has a small waist
- hundred-year-old — of one hundred years of age
- hyaloid membrane — the delicate, pellucid, and nearly structureless membrane enclosing the vitreous humor of the eye.
- hybrid perpetual — a type of cultivated rose bred from varieties having vigorous growth and more or less recurrent bloom.
- hydrated alumina — a crystalline, water-insoluble powder, Al(OH) 3 or Al 2 O 3 ⋅3H 2 O, obtained chiefly from bauxite: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, and printing inks, in dyeing, and in medicine as an antacid and in the treatment of ulcers.
- hydraulic cement — cement that can solidify under water.
- hydrophyllaceous — belonging to the Hydrophyllaceae, the waterleaf family of plants.
- hyperaccumulator — a plant that absorbs toxins, such as heavy metals, to a greater concentration than that in the soil in which it is growing
- hyperchlorhydria — excessive secretion of hydrochloric acid in the stomach.
- hyperinsulinemia — (medicine) The condition of having an excessively high level of insulin in the blood, usually due to excess production.
- hyperlipoidaemia — Alt form hyperlipoidemia.
- hypermasculinity — pertaining to or characteristic of a man or men: masculine attire.