20-letter words containing l, r, a
- animal liberationist — a person who campaigns for animal rights, often by using direct action
- anomalous dispersion — a sudden change in the refractive index of a material for wavelengths in the vicinity of absorption bands in the spectrum of the material.
- anthemius of tralles — c474–c534, Greek mathematician and architect, active in Lydia.
- anti-corn law league — an organization founded in 1839 by Richard Cobden and John Bright to oppose the Corn Laws, which were repealed in 1846
- anti-supernaturalism — supernatural character or agency.
- anticrepuscular arch — antitwilight arch.
- antigestational drug — a drug that averts a pregnancy by preventing the fertilized egg from becoming implanted in the uterine wall.
- antimony oxychloride — a white, water-insoluble powder, SbOCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of antimony salts.
- antimony trifluoride — a white to grayish-white, crystalline, hygroscopic, water-soluble, poisonous solid, SbF 3 , used chiefly in dyeing textiles.
- antony and cleopatra — a tragedy (1606–07?) by Shakespeare.
- apollonius of rhodes — 3rd century bc, Greek epic poet and head of the Library of Alexandria. His principal work is the four-volume Argonautica
- appalachian dulcimer — dulcimer (def 2).
- apparent candlepower — a measure of the luminous intensity of an extended source of light in terms of the candlepower of a point source of light that has an equivalent luminous intensity when placed at the same distance as the extended source.
- apple computer, inc. — (company) Manufacturers of the Macintosh range of personal computers as well as the earlier Apple I, Apple II and Lisa. Founded on 1 April 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apples were among the first microcomputers. They originally used the 6502 processor and are still being made (August 1994), now using the 65816. The Apple II line, which includes the Apple I, is the longest existing line of microcomputers. Steve Jobs left Apple (involuntarily) and started NeXT and later returned when Apple bought NeXT in late 1997(?). Quarterly sales $2150M, profits $138M (Aug 1994). http://apple.com/.
- application software — software designed for a specific need or purpose
- applications program — a program that is written and designed for specific needs or purposes
- aquila degli abruzzi — a city in central Italy, capital of Abruzzi region. Pop: 68 503 (2001)
- arbitration tribunal — a tribunal set up to settle a dispute by arbitration
- arches national park — a national park in E Utah: natural arch formations. 114 sq. mi. (295 sq. km).
- archiepiscopal cross — patriarchal cross.
- architectural bronze — a brass alloy of about 57 percent copper, 41 percent zinc, and 2 percent lead.
- arrested development — physical development that is not complete
- articulatory feature — a property of a speech sound based on its voicing or on its place or manner of articulation in the vocal tract, as voiceless, bilabial, or stop used in describing the sound (p).
- artificial harmonics — harmonics of a note produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching a stopped sounded string.
- artificial pacemaker — an electronic device for use in certain cases of heart disease to assume the functions of the natural cardiac pacemaker
- artificial satellite — a man-made device orbiting around the earth, moon, or another planet transmitting to earth scientific information or used for communication
- artificial selection — a process in the breeding of animals and in the cultivation of plants by which the breeder chooses to perpetuate only those forms having certain desirable inheritable characteristics.
- asexual reproduction — reproduction, as budding, fission, or spore formation, not involving the union of gametes.
- astatic galvanometer — a galvanometer that is unaffected by the earth's magnetic field and is used for measuring small currents.
- asymmetrical warfare — warfare between a powerful military force and a weak guerilla force
- at the eleventh hour — at the last moment; just before it is too late
- attic salt (or wit) — graceful, piercing wit
- augur ill (or well) — to be a bad (or good) omen
- australian rye grass — a European grass, Lolium multiflorum, naturalized in North America, having flowering spikes and used as a winter turf.
- automobile insurance — Automobile insurance is insurance coverage for cars.
- auxiliary power unit — an additional engine fitted to an aircraft to operate when the main engines are not in use
- baccalaureate sermon — a farewell sermon addressed to a graduating class in some U.S. colleges and schools.
- backwards compatible — backward compatibility
- bacteriochlorophylls — Plural form of bacteriochlorophyll.
- baggage reclaim area — the place in an airport to which passengers go to recover their baggage after a flight
- balanced three-phase — A balanced three-phase voltage or current is one in which the size of each phase is the same, and the phase angles of the three phases differ from each other by 120 degrees.
- balled-and-burlapped — of or relating to a tree, shrub, or other plant prepared for transplanting by allowing the roots to remain covered by a ball of soil around which canvas or burlap is tied.
- ballet-wrap cardigan — a cardigan with wrapover fronts which are fastened with wraparound ties
- ballistic trajectory — the path of an unpowered object, as a missile, moving only under the influence of gravity and possibly atmospheric friction and with its surface providing no significant lift to alter the course of flight.
- barrack-room ballads — a volume of poems (1892) by Rudyard Kipling, including Gunga Din, Danny Deever, and Mandalay.
- barred spiral galaxy — a spiral galaxy whose center has the form of an extended bar.
- basal cell carcinoma — a common and usually curable skin cancer that arises from epithelial cells and rarely metastasizes: often associated with overexposure to sunlight.
- basal metabolic rate — the rate at which heat is produced by the body at rest, 12 to 14 hours after eating, measured in kilocalories per square metre of body surface per hour
- basic encoding rules — (protocol, standard) (BER) ASN.1 encoding rules for producing self-identifying and self-delimiting transfer syntax for data structures described in ASN.1 notations. BER is an self-identifying and self-delimiting encoding scheme, which means that each data value can be identified, extracted and decoded individually. Huw Rogers once described BER as "a triumph of bloated theory over clean implementation". He also criticises it as designed around bitstreams with arbitrary boundaries between data which can only be determined at a high level. Documents: ITU-T X.690, ISO 8825-1. See also CER, DER, PER.
- basic lead carbonate — ceruse.