21-letter words containing i, m, a, t
- splice the main brace — to join together or unite (two ropes or parts of a rope) by the interweaving of strands.
- statistical mechanics — the science that deals with average properties of the molecules, atoms, or elementary particles in random motion in a system of many such particles and relates these properties to the thermodynamic and other macroscopic properties of the system.
- stem-and-leaf diagram — a histogram in which the data points falling within each class interval are listed in order
- stock list department — (in an American stock exchange) the department dealing with monitoring compliance with its listing requirements and rules
- strategic air command — a U.S. Air Force command charged with intercontinental air strikes, especially nuclear attacks.
- subliminal perception — perception of or reaction to a stimulus that occurs without awareness or consciousness
- summary court-martial — a court-martial composed of one commissioned officer, authorized to try minor offenses against military law.
- supplementary benefit — (formerly) an extra amount of money that is paid to someone by the government, in addition to their normal income. Replaced by income support in 1988
- swim against the tide — to resist prevailing opinion
- sympathetic vibration — a vibration induced by resonance.
- symphonie fantastique — a programmatic symphony (1830–31) in five movements by Hector Berlioz.
- systeme international — Système International d'Unités
- take someone prisoner — to capture and hold someone as a prisoner, esp as a prisoner of war
- take under advisement — to consider carefully
- take/come into effect — If a law or policy takes effect or comes into effect at a particular time, it officially begins to apply or be valid from that time. If it remains in effect, it still applies or is still valid.
- tape operating system — (operating system) (TOS) An IBM operating system for System 360, used in the early days around 1965 to support the IBM 360 model 30 et al. TOS was a predecessor to IBM's Disk Operating System. TOS died out really early as disks such as the 2311 and 2314 became common with the IBM 360 whereas thet had been a real luxury on the IBM 7090.
- teleological argument — the argument purporting to prove the existence of God from empirical facts, the premise being that the universe shows evidence of order and hence design
- temperature inversion — inversion (def 12).
- tetrabromofluorescein — eosin (def 1).
- the executive mansion — the White House
- the maastricht treaty — a treaty on European economic and monetary union agreed by government leaders of the 12 EC states at a meeting in Maastricht in December 1991
- the man in the street — If you talk about the man in the street or the man or woman in the street, you mean ordinary people in general.
- the moral high ground — If you say that someone has taken the moral high ground, you mean that they consider that their policies and actions are morally superior to the policies and actions of their rivals.
- the supreme sacrifice — the sacrifice of one's life
- therapeutic community — a group-based form of therapy for mental disorders, sometimes residential
- thermal decomposition — Thermal decomposition is the process in which a chemical species breaks down when its temperature is increased.
- thermal power station — a power station in which heat is converted into electricity
- time and motion study — the systematic investigation and analysis of the motions and the time required to perform a specific operation or task with a view to seeking more efficient methods of production as well as setting time standards.
- to give the game away — If someone or something gives the game away, they reveal a secret or reveal their feelings, and this puts them at a disadvantage.
- to kick someone's ass — To kick ass or to kick someone's ass means to show them that you are angry with them, either by telling them or by using physical force.
- to kill a mockingbird — a novel (1960) by Harper Lee.
- to lay something bare — If you lay something bare, you uncover it completely so that it can then be seen.
- to live hand to mouth — If someone lives hand to mouth or lives from hand to mouth, they have hardly enough food or money to live on.
- to mix your metaphors — If you mix your metaphors, you use two conflicting metaphors. People do this accidentally, or sometimes deliberately as a joke.
- to my way of thinking — You add to my way of thinking to a statement in order to indicate that you are giving your opinion.
- to risk life and limb — If someone risks life and limb, they do something very dangerous that may cause them to die or be seriously injured.
- to take your mind off — If something takes your mind off a problem or unpleasant situation, it helps you to forget about it for a while.
- transactinide element — any element having an atomic number higher than 103, the last of the actinide series. These superheavy, radioactive elements are extremely short-lived, and can only be created in the laboratory.
- transformational rule — Linguistics. a rule of transformational grammar that relates two phrase markers in the course of a derivation from the deep to the surface syntactic representation of a sentence, as by reordering, inserting, or deleting elements; a rule that converts deep structures into surface structures.
- trichloronitromethane — chloropicrin.
- triethyl orthoformate — a colorless liquid, C 7 H 16 O 3 , used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- tsutsugamushi disease — scrub typhus.
- tubercular meningitis — an infection of the membranes of the central nervous system caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis; features can include fever, headache, and coma
- tumor necrosis factor — a protein, produced in humans and other animals, that is destructive to cells showing abnormally rapid growth: identical with cachectin. Abbreviation: TNF.
- ultraviolet astronomy — the branch of astronomy that deals with celestial objects emitting electromagnetic radiation in the ultraviolet range.
- uniform business rate — a local tax in the UK paid by businesses, based on a local valuation of their premises and a rate fixed by central government that applies throughout the country
- universal affirmative — a proposition of the form “All S is P.” Symbol: A, a.
- universal disk format — (storage, standard) (UDF) A CD-ROM file system standard that is required for DVD ROMs. UDF is the OSTA's replacement for the ISO 9660 file system used on CD-ROMs, but will be mostly used on DVD. DVD multimedia disks use UDF to contain MPEG audio and video streams. To read DVDs you need a DVD drive, the kernel driver for the drive, MPEG video support, and a UDF driver. DVDs containing both UDF filesystems and ISO 9660 filesystems can be read without UDF support. UDF can also be used by CD-R and CD-RW recorders in packet writing mode.
- verbatim et literatim — word for word and letter for letter; in exactly the same words.
- virtual memory system — (operating system) (VMS) DEC's proprietary operating system originally produced for its VAX minicomputer. VMS V1 was released in August 1978. VMS was renamed "OpenVMS" around version 5.5. The first version of VMS on DEC Alpha was known as OpenVMS for AXP V1.0, and the correct way to refer to the operating system now is OpenVMS for VAX or OpenVMS for Alpha. The renaming also signified the fact that the X/Open consortium had certified OpenVMS as having a high support for POSIX standards. VMS is one of the most secure operating systems on the market (making it popular in financial institutions). It currently (October 1997) has the best clustering capability (both number and distance) and is very scalable with binaries portable from small desktop workstations up to huge mainframes. Many Unix fans generously concede that VMS would probably be the hacker's favourite commercial OS if Unix didn't exist; though true, this makes VMS fans furious.