20-letter words containing l, i, b, e
- sodium metabisulfite — Sodium metabisulfite is a crystalline compound used as an antioxidant.
- solid rocket booster — a solid-propellant strap-on rocket used to accelerate a missile or launch vehicle during liftoff. Abbreviation: SRB.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- subjective idea-list — a doctrine that the world has no existence independent of sensations or ideas.
- telephone subscriber — a person who subscribes to a telephone service
- television broadcast — sth shown on tv
- tetrahydrocannabinol — a compound, C 21 H 30 O 2 , that is the physiologically active component in cannabis preparations (marijuana, hashish, etc.) derived from the Indian hemp plant or produced synthetically. Abbreviation: THC.
- that will be the day — I look forward to that
- the beautiful people — rich, fashionable people in international high society
- the toronto blessing — a variety of emotional reactions such as laughing, weeping, and fainting, experienced by participants in a form of charismatic Christian worship
- to be walking on air — If you say that you are walking on air or floating on air, you mean that you feel extremely happy about something.
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to tighten your belt — If you have to tighten your belt, you have to spend less money and manage without things because you have less money than you used to have.
- travelling-wave tube — an electronic tube in which an electron beam interacts with a distributed high-frequency magnetic field so that energy is transferred from the beam to the field
- tribromoacetaldehyde — bromal.
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- twiddle one's thumbs — to turn about or play with lightly or idly, especially with the fingers; twirl.
- undistributed middle — Logic. a middle term of a syllogism that does not refer to its entire class in the major premise or minor premise, with the result that the syllogism is not valid.
- unemployment benefit — an allowance of money paid, usually weekly, to an unemployed worker by a state or federal agency or by the worker's labor union or former employer during all or part of the period of unemployment.
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- universal serial bus — (hardware, standard) (USB) An external peripheral interface standard for communication between a computer and external peripherals over an inexpensive cable using biserial transmission. USB is intended to replace existing serial ports, parallel ports, keyboard, and monitor connectors and be used with keyboards, mice, monitors, printers, and possibly some low-speed scanners and removable hard drives. For faster devices existing IDE, SCSI, or emerging FC-AL or FireWire interfaces can be used. USB works at 12 Mbps with specific consideration for low cost peripherals. It supports up to 127 devices and both isochronous and asynchronous data transfers. Cables can be up to five metres long and it includes built-in power distribution for low power devices. It supports daisy chaining through a tiered star multidrop topology. A USB cable has a rectangular "Type A" plug at the computer end and a square "Type B" plug at the peripheral end. Before March 1996 Intel started to integrate the necessary logic into PC chip sets and encourage other manufacturers to do likewise. It was widely available by 1997. Later versions of Windows 95 included support for it. It was standard on Macintosh computers in 1999. The USB 2.0 specification was released in 2000 to allow USB to compete with Firewire etc. USB 2.0 is backward compatible with USB 1.1 but works at 480 Mbps.
- vertical combination — the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.
- vertical lift bridge — lift bridge.
- walton and weybridge — a city in Surrey, SE England: a London suburb.
- war of the rebellion — American Civil War.
- wardrobe malfunction — an embarrassing situation caused by the clothes a person is wearing
- watch sb like a hawk — If you watch someone like a hawk, you observe them very carefully, usually to make sure that they do not make a mistake or do something you do not want them to do.
- webbing clothes moth — a small brown moth, Tineola biselliella, the larva of which feeds on woolens and spins a web when feeding.
- westminster assembly — a convocation that met at Westminster, London, 1643–49, and formulated the articles of faith (Westminster Confession of Faith) that are accepted as authoritative by most Presbyterian churches.
- white bush (scallop) — a variety of summer squash having a saucer-shaped white fruit, scalloped around the edges
- white people problem — a fairly minor problem, complaint, etc., associated with a relatively high standard of living; a first world problem.
- white-fringed beetle — any of several weevils of the genus Graphognathus, native to South America and now of southeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S., whose larvae feed on roots and cause serious damage to a wide variety of plants.
- wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
- would you believe it — If you say would you believe it, you are emphasizing your surprise about something.
- yellow-billed cuckoo — a North American cuckoo, Coccyzus americanus, that has a yellow bill and, unlike many cuckoos, constructs its own nest and rears its own young.
- yellow-billed magpie — either of two corvine birds, Pica pica (black-billed magpie) of Eurasia and North America, or P. nuttalli (yellow-billed magpie) of California, having long, graduated tails, black-and-white plumage, and noisy, mischievous habits.