18-letter words containing l, a, t, r
- ragtag and bobtail — the riffraff; rabble: The ragtag and bobtail of every nation poured into the frontier in search of gold.
- rail rapid transit — a system of rail transit within an urban area that has exclusive right of way either below, above, or on the ground and so is capable of relatively high operating speed. Abbreviation: RRT.
- random walk theory — the theory that the future movement of share prices does not reflect past movements and therefore will not follow a discernible pattern
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- rare-earth element — any of a group of closely related metallic elements, comprising the lanthanides, scandium, and yttrium, that are chemically similar by virtue of having the same number of valence electrons.
- rational operation — any of the mathematical operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
- rattlesnake master — any of various plants of the genus Eryngium, especially E. yuccifolium, having spiny leaves and dense, rounded flower heads.
- real-estate office — the place where a real-estate agent works
- real-time computer — a computer that can process data or information almost immediately
- rear its ugly head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- redevelopment area — an urban area in which all or most of the buildings are demolished and rebuilt
- refrigerated lorry — a lorry which is chilled in the back as for storing food
- regional enteritis — Crohn's disease.
- registration plate — a plate mounted on the front and back of a motor vehicle bearing the registration number
- regular tertiaries — of the third order, rank, stage, formation, etc.; third.
- reinforced plastic — plastic with fibrous matter, such as carbon fibre, embedded in it to confer additional strength
- relational algebra — (database, theory) A family of algebra with a well-founded semantics used for modelling the data stored in relational databases, and defining queries on it. The main operations of the relational algebra are the set operations (such as union, intersection, and cartesian product), selection (keeping only some lines of a table) and the projection (keeping only some columns). The relational data model describes how the data is structured.
- relative frequency — the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the number of occasions on which it might occur in the same period.
- relative major key — a major key that has the same key signature as a minor key, but a different tonic
- relative minor key — a minor key that has the same key signature as a major key, but a different tonic
- repayment schedule — a document detailing the specific terms of a borrower's loan, such as monthly payment, interest rate, due dates etc
- replacement engine — an engine used to replace or substitute an older or broken engine (in a vehicle, etc)
- reporters' gallery — an area in parliament reserved for journalists and reporters
- reprocessing plant — a plant where materials are treated in order to make them reusable
- residential school — (in Canada) a boarding school maintained by the Canadian government for Indian and Inuit children from sparsely populated settlements
- residual magnetism — remanence.
- resistance plasmid — any of a group of bacterial plasmids carrying genetic information that provide resistance to antibiotic drugs: some resistance plasmids are able to transfer themselves, and hence resistance, during conjugation
- resistance welding — welding utilizing pressure and heat that is generated in the pieces to be welded by resistance to an electric current.
- restraining circle — any of three circles on the floor of a basketball court used for jump balls: other players must remain outside the circle during a jump ball
- restrictive clause — a relative clause that identifies the antecedent and that is usually not set off by commas in English. In The year that just ended was bad for crops, the clause that just ended is a restrictive clause.
- resurrection plant — a desert plant, Selaginella lepidophylla, occurring from Texas to South America, having stems that curl inward when dry.
- retail price index — The retail price index is a list of the prices of typical goods which shows how much the cost of living changes from one month to the next.
- reverse angle shot — Movies. reverse shot.
- revolutionary wars — American Revolution.
- rhode island white — one of a dual-purpose American breed of chickens having white feathers and a rose comb.
- right-to-work laws — a state law making it illegal to refuse employment to a person for the sole reason that he or she is not a union member.
- rolling resistance — The rolling resistance of a wheel or ball is its resistance to movement caused by friction between it and the surface it is rolling on.
- root canal therapy — endodontics.
- rotary clothesline — an apparatus of radiating spokes that support lines on which clothes are hung to dry
- rotational latency — (storage, hardware) The time for the start of the required sector on a disk to appear underneath the read/write head. The worst case is where it has just passed the head when the request is received. For a disk drive with N heads per surface, rotating at R revolutions per minute, the average rotational latency will be L = 30/NR seconds. Rotational latency is one component of access time.
- rotational molding — a method for molding hollow plastic objects by placing finely divided particles in a hollow mold that is rotated about two axes, exposing it to heat and then to cold.
- rule of engagement — a directive issued by a military authority controlling the use and degree of force, especially specifying circumstances and limitations for engaging in combat.
- running martingale — martingale (def 2).
- rural municipality — any lightly settled area in Canada lacking a local elected government and administered directly by a provincial government.
- russian revolution — Also called February Revolution. the uprising in Russia in March, 1917 (February Old Style), in which the Czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established.
- sacrificial victim — a person who is ritually killed with the intention of propitiating or pleasing a deity
- safety regulations — regulations or rules that are put in place to ensure a product, event, etc, is safe and not dangerous
- saint clare assisi — 1194–1253, Italian nun: founder of the Franciscan order of nuns.
- salem witch trials — 17th-century witchcraft case
- salt of phosphorus — a colorless, odorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaNH 4 HPO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, originally obtained from human urine: used as a blowpipe flux in testing metallic oxides.