15-letter words containing h, u
- nuke the fridge — (of a film, etc.) to lose credibility following a particularly ill-judged scene or plot development
- null hypothesis — (in the statistical testing of a hypothesis) the hypothesis to be tested.
- number cruncher — a person or thing that performs a great many numerical calculations, as a financial analyst, statistician, computer, or computer program.
- number-cruncher — a person or thing that performs a great many numerical calculations, as a financial analyst, statistician, computer, or computer program.
- nutcracker chin — a strong-looking chin
- nyquist theorem — (communications) A theorem stating that when an analogue waveform is digitised, only the frequencies in the waveform below half the sampling frequency will be recorded. In order to reconstruct (interpolate) a signal from a sequence of samples, sufficient samples must be recorded to capture the peaks and troughs of the original waveform. If a waveform is sampled at less than twice its frequency the reconstructed waveform will effectively contribute only noise. This phenomenon is called "aliasing" (the high frequencies are "under an alias"). This is why the best digital audio is sampled at 44,000 Hz - twice the average upper limit of human hearing. The Nyquist Theorem is not specific to digitised signals (represented by discrete amplitude levels) but applies to any sampled signal (represented by discrete time values), not just sound.
- occulting light — a beacon having a light covered briefly at regular intervals.
- ocean greyhound — a fast ship, esp a liner
- odontorhynchous — (of birds) having toothlike ridges inside the beak
- off one's chump — insane; crazy
- okhotsk current — a cold ocean current flowing SW from the Bering Sea, E of the Kurile Islands, along the E coast of Japan where it meets the Japan Current.
- omnium gatherum — a miscellaneous collection.
- omnium-gatherum — a miscellaneous collection.
- on o's haunches — If you get down on your haunches, you lower yourself towards the ground so that your legs are bent under you and you are balancing on your feet.
- on one's honour — on the pledge of one's word or good name
- on the qui vive — on the qui vive, on the alert; watchful: Special guards were on the qui vive for trespassers.
- one's last hour — the time of one's death
- one-two (punch) — a sequence of two quick punches, esp. a jab with the left hand followed at once by a hard blow with the right
- open your mouth — If you say that someone does not open their mouth, you are emphasizing that they never say anything at all.
- openmouthedness — the state or condition of being filled with amazement and wonder
- opisthognathous — having receding jaws.
- orekhovo-zuyevo — a city in the W Russian Federation in Europe, E of Moscow.
- ornithorhynchus — the platypus.
- ortho-toluidine — Chemistry. a light-yellow, very slightly water-soluble liquid, C 7 H 9 N, the ortho isomer of toluidine: used in the manufacture of dyes, saccharin, and other organic compounds, and in textile printing processes.
- orthodox church — the Christian church comprising the local and national Eastern churches that are in communion with the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople; Byzantine Church.
- out in the cold — having a relatively low temperature; having little or no warmth: cold water; a cold day.
- out in the open — knowledge: public
- out of sight of — not in sight
- out of the blue — the pure color of a clear sky; the primary color between green and violet in the visible spectrum, an effect of light with a wavelength between 450 and 500 nm.
- out of the loop — a portion of a cord, ribbon, etc., folded or doubled upon itself so as to leave an opening between the parts.
- out of the wood — clear of or safe from dangers or doubts
- out of thin air — suddenly and unexpectedly
- outdoorsmanship — a person devoted to outdoor sports and recreational activities, as hiking, hunting, fishing, or camping.
- outreach worker — a person who does work designed to help and encourage disadvantaged members of the community
- outside the box — a container, case, or receptacle, usually rectangular, of wood, metal, cardboard, etc., and often with a lid or removable cover.
- over-enthusiasm — absorbing or controlling possession of the mind by any interest or pursuit; lively interest: He shows marked enthusiasm for his studies.
- overthrust belt — an elongate area in which thick rock layers have been pushed over one another by compressional forces within the earth's crust.
- oxyphenbutazone — an anti-inflammatory treatment for arthritis or bursitis
- oyster mushroom — oyster cap.
- parachute brake — a parachute opened horizontally from the tail of an airplane upon landing, used as an aid in braking. Also called parabrake. Compare drogue parachute (def 2).
- patchwork quilt — cover sewn from patches of cloth
- pattypan squash — a flat, whitish variety of squash, Cucurbita pepo melopepo, having a scalloped edge.
- pedagoguishness — the quality of being pedagoguish
- penshurst place — a 14th-century mansion near Tunbridge Wells in Kent: birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney; gardens laid out from 1560
- peroxysulphuric — as in peroxysulphuric acid
- perpetual check — a continuing series of checks resulting in a drawn game because they cannot be halted or evaded without resulting in checkmate or a serious disadvantage.
- petroleum ether — a volatile mixture of the higher alkane hydrocarbons, obtained as a fraction of petroleum and used as a solvent
- phantom circuit — a circuit derived from two suitably arranged pairs of wires, each pair being a circuit (side circuit) and also acting as one half of an additional derived circuit, the entire system providing the capabilities of three circuits while requiring wires for only two.
- pheasant coucal — a brown and black, red-eyed Australian bird, Centropus phasianinus, with a pheasantlike tail.
- phenylene group — any of three bivalent, isomeric groups having the formula –C 6 H 4 –, derived from benzene by the removal of two hydrogen atoms.