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20-letter words containing i, c, n, g

  • psychometric testing — the use of psychometric tests, often as a selection method
  • public lending right — (in Britain) an act of Parliament that directs compensation to an author for the library loan of his or her book.
  • pyroligneous alcohol — methyl alcohol.
  • quantum bogodynamics — /kwon'tm boh"goh-di:-nam"iks/ A theory that characterises the universe in terms of bogon sources (such as politicians, used-car salesmen, TV evangelists, and suits in general), bogon sinks (such as taxpayers and computers), and bogosity potential fields. Bogon absorption causes human beings to behave mindlessly and machines to fail (and may also cause both to emit secondary bogons); however, the precise mechanics of bogon-computron interaction are not yet understood. Quantum bogodynamics is most often invoked to explain the sharp increase in hardware and software failures in the presence of suits; the latter emit bogons, which the former absorb.
  • quarantine anchorage — an anchorage for ships awaiting a pratique.
  • quick on the trigger — quick to fire a gun
  • rankine-cycle engine — a type of steam engine involving a continuous cycle of vaporization of liquid and condensation back to liquid in a sealed system: developed experimentally for use in automobiles to reduce polluting emissions, utilize cheaper fuels, etc.
  • real-time processing — data-processing by a computer which receives constantly changing data, such as information relating to air-traffic control, travel booking systems, etc, and processes it sufficiently rapidly to be able to control the source of the data
  • reciprocating engine — an engine in which one or more pistons move backwards and forwards inside a cylinder or cylinders
  • red-winged blackbird — a North American blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus, the male of which is black with scarlet patches, usually bordered with buff or yellow, on the bend of the wing.
  • reflecting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.
  • refracting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.
  • regenerative cooling — Physics. a method of cooling a gas, utilizing the rapid expansion of a compressed portion of the gas, before it becomes liquid, to cool the remainder.
  • regenerative furnace — a furnace in which the incoming air is heated by regenerators.
  • restriction fragment — a length of DNA cut from the strand by a restriction enzyme.
  • revolving presidency — a form of presidency in which the president and vice-president, or countries or bodies acting as such, switch roles after a set period and then back again and so on
  • ring-necked parakeet — a small brightly coloured long-tailed tropical parrot, Psittacula krameri, often kept as a pet
  • ring-necked pheasant — a gallinaceous Asian bird, Phasianus colchicus, having a white band around its neck, introduced into Great Britain, North America, and the Hawaiian Islands.
  • rotary-wing aircraft — an aircraft, esp a helicopter, that is lifted or propelled by rotating airfoils
  • ruby-crowned kinglet — an olive-gray, American kinglet, Regulus calendula, the male of which has an erectile, ruby crest.
  • saint george's cross — the Greek cross as used in the flag of Great Britain.
  • sarcastic fringehead — any fish of the genus Neoclinus, characterized by a row of fleshy processes on the head, as N. blanchardi (sarcastic fringehead) of California coastal waters.
  • scatter site housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
  • schrodinger equation — the wave equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also called Schrödinger wave equation. Compare wave equation (def 2).
  • send someone packing — to dismiss or get rid of (someone) peremptorily
  • sergeant first class — a noncommissioned officer ranking next above a staff sergeant and below a first or master sergeant.
  • setting-up exercises — gymnastic exercises for better posture, suppleness, etc
  • sex change operation — a surgical operation designed to change a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex
  • shifting cultivation — a land-use system, esp in tropical Africa, in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes, when it is abandoned until this is restored naturally
  • skating championship — a competition for ice-skating
  • soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
  • spatial technologies — (company)   Distributors of the ACIS solid modelling engine.
  • string correspondent — stringer (def 6).
  • surface-active agent — any substance that when dissolved in water or an aqueous solution reduces its surface tension or the interfacial tension between it and another liquid.
  • synchronized skating — the art or sport of teams of up to twenty skaters holding onto each other and moving in patterns in time to music
  • synoptic meteorology — a branch of meteorology analyzing data collected simultaneously over a wide region, for the purpose of weather forecasting.
  • systemic linguistics — a school of linguistics of British origin that emphasizes the social functions of language and describes grammar in terms of hierarchically organized structures and of systems of mutually exclusive choices available to the speaker under specified conditions.
  • terrestrial guidance — a method of missile or rocket guidance in which the flight path is controlled by reference to the strength and direction of the earth's gravitational or magnetic field
  • the gnomes of zurich — Swiss bankers and financiers
  • the high renaissance — the period from about the 1490s to the 1520s in painting, sculpture, and architecture in Europe, esp in Italy, when the Renaissance ideals were considered to have been attained through the mastery of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael
  • the thinking process — thought; the activity of thinking
  • to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
  • toxemia of pregnancy — an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, edema, and the presence of protein in the urine.
  • track-laying vehicle — A track-laying vehicle is a vehicle whose wheels run inside a continuous chain or track.
  • transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
  • trigonometric series — an infinite series involving sines and cosines of increasing integral multiples of a variable.
  • triple witching hour — the last hour of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the four Fridays each year when stock options, stock index futures, and options on such futures simultaneously expire: regarded as a time of extreme volatility in trading.
  • unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
  • vertical integration — the joining together of all companies or firms involved in manufacturing a product into one company or firm
  • visual merchandising — Visual merchandising is the use of attractive displays and floor plans to increase customer numbers and sales volumes.
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