15-letter words containing i, n, q, u
- narcotics squad — a department of the police which investigates crimes concerning illegal drugs
- negative equity — If someone who has borrowed money to buy a house or flat has negative equity, the amount of money they owe is greater than the present value of their home.
- non prosequitur — a judgment entered against the plaintiff in a suit when the plaintiff does not appear in court to prosecute it.
- non-acquisitive — tending or seeking to acquire and own, often greedily; eager to get wealth, possessions, etc.: our acquisitive impulses; acquisitive societies.
- non-equilibrium — a state of rest or balance due to the equal action of opposing forces.
- non-qualitative — pertaining to or concerned with quality or qualities.
- non-requirement — that which is required; a thing demanded or obligatory: One of the requirements of the job is accuracy.
- nonacquiescence — the act or condition of acquiescing or giving tacit assent; agreement or consent by silence or without objection; compliance (usually followed by to or in): acquiescence to his boss's demands.
- nonquantifiable — not capable of being quantified
- nonquantitative — that is or may be estimated by quantity.
- 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.
- oblique sailing — the navigation of a vessel on a point of the compass other than one of the cardinal points.
- oblique section — a representation of an object as it would appear if cut by a plane that is other than parallel or perpendicular to its longest axis.
- on the qui vive — on the qui vive, on the alert; watchful: Special guards were on the qui vive for trespassers.
- picturesqueness — visually charming or quaint, as if resembling or suitable for a painting: a picturesque fishing village.
- pre-acquisition — the act of acquiring or gaining possession: the acquisition of real estate.
- pre-delinquency — failure in or neglect of duty or obligation; dereliction; default: delinquency in payment of dues.
- preacquaintance — prior acquaintance with a person or with information, the state of having been preacquainted
- preequalization — preemphasis.
- prerequirements — that which is required; a thing demanded or obligatory: One of the requirements of the job is accuracy.
- probit equation — A probit equation is used to quantify the relationship between the concentration of a dangerous material and its effect on people.
- quadragenarians — Plural form of quadragenarian.
- quadripartition — A division into four parts.
- quadruplication — one of four copies or identical items, especially copies of typewritten material.
- qualifying exam — any examination that one needs to pass in order to begin or continue with a course of study
- qualitativeness — The state or quality of being qualitative.
- quality control — a system for verifying and maintaining a desired level of quality in an existing product or service by careful planning, use of proper equipment, continued inspection, and corrective action as required.
- quantifiability — (uncountable) The condition of being quantifiable.
- quantifications — Plural form of quantification.
- quantity theory — a theory stating that the general price level varies directly with the quantity of money in circulation and the velocity with which it is circulated, and inversely with the volume of production expressed by the total number of money transactions
- quantum gravity — a theory of the gravitational interaction that involves quantum mechanics to explain the force
- quarantine flag — a yellow flag, designating the letter Q in the International Code of Signals: flown by itself to signify that a ship has no disease on board and requests a pratique, or flown with another flag to signify that there is disease on board ship.
- quarter binding — a style of bookbinding in which the spine is leather and the sides are cloth or paper.
- quarter section — (in surveying and homesteading) a square tract of land, half a mile on each side, thus containing ¼ sq. mi. or 160 acres. Abbreviation: q.s.
- quarterfinalist — a participant in a quarterfinal contest.
- quasi-conscious — aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
- quasi-dependent — relying on someone or something else for aid, support, etc.
- quasi-permanent — existing perpetually; everlasting, especially without significant change.
- quasi-quotation — a metalinguistic device for referring to the form of an expression containing variables without referring to the symbols for those variables. Thus while "not p" refers to the expression consisting of the word not followed by the letter p, the quasi-quotation ⌈ not p ⌉ refers to the form of any expression consisting of the word not followed by any value of the variable p
- quasi-sovereign — a monarch; a king, queen, or other supreme ruler.
- quasi-technical — belonging or pertaining to an art, science, or the like: technical skill.
- quasi-universal — of, relating to, or characteristic of all or the whole: universal experience.
- quasicontinuous — uninterrupted in time; without cessation: continuous coughing during the concert.
- queen's english — king's English.
- queen's highway — king's highway.
- queen-sized bed — A queen-sized bed is larger than a double bed, but smaller than a king-sized bed.
- query expansion — (information science) Adding search terms to a user's search. Query expansion is the process of a search engine adding search terms to a user's weighted search. The intent is to improve precision and/or recall. The additional terms may be taken from a thesaurus. For example a search for "car" may be expanded to: car cars auto autos automobile automobiles. The additional terms may also be taken from documents that the user has specified as being relevant; this is the basis for the "more like this" feature of some search engines. The extra terms can have positive or negative weights.
- question master — quizmaster.
- question of law — a question concerning a rule or the legal effect or consequence of an event or circumstance, usually determined by a court or judge.
- question period — a period of time set aside each day for members of parliament to question government ministers