18-letter words containing m, e, a, n
- anti-commercialism — the principles, practices, and spirit of commerce.
- anti-establishment — opposed to established authority
- anti-miscegenation — marriage or cohabitation between two people from different racial groups, especially, in the U.S., between a black person and a white person: In 1968 the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that state laws prohibiting miscegenation were unconstitutional.
- antiferromagnetism — the phenomenon exhibited by substances that resemble paramagnetic substances in the value of their relative permeability but that behave like ferromagnetic substances when their temperature is varied
- antimony pentoxide — a white or yellowish, water-insoluble powder, Sb 2 O 5 , used chiefly in the synthesis of antimonates.
- apartment building — An apartment building or apartment house is a tall building which contains different apartments on different floors.
- apparent magnitude — magnitude (sense 3)
- applied kinematics — kinematics (def 2).
- apprentice plumber — a trainee plumber
- arm's-length price — a price of a transaction agreed in accordance with market values, disregarding any connection such as common ownership of the companies involved
- armed intervention — an official response to a situation which involves the armed forces
- arrest of judgment — a stay of proceedings after a verdict, on the grounds of error or possible error
- as near as damn it — as near as possible; very near
- aseptic meningitis — a mild form of meningitis usually caused by one of several viruses, characterized by headache, fever, and neck stiffness.
- assessment process — a series of steps that constitute a method of assessing students or workers
- assignment problem — (mathematics, algorithm) (Or "linear assignment") Any problem involving minimising the sum of C(a, b) over a set P of pairs (a, b) where a is an element of some set A and b is an element of set B, and C is some function, under constraints such as "each element of A must appear exactly once in P" or similarly for B, or both. For example, the a's could be workers and the b's projects. The problem is "linear" because the "cost function" C() depends only on the particular pairing (a, b) and is independent of all other pairings.
- associated company — a company which is largely controlled by its parent company because the latter owns anything up to 50% of the shares
- assortative mating — the reproductive pairing of individuals that have more traits in common than would likely be the case if mating were random (contrasted with disassortative mating).
- astrometric binary — a binary star that can be recognized as such because of its undulating proper motion.
- at someone's elbow — very close to someone; easy to reach
- at the last minute — almost too late
- at/from a distance — If you are at a distance from something, or if you see it or remember it from a distance, you are a long way away from it in space or time.
- atmospheric engine — an early form of single-acting engine in which the power stroke is provided by atmospheric pressure acting upon a piston in an exhausted cylinder.
- atmospheric window — wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be transmitted through the earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric windows occur in the visible, infrared, and radio regions of the spectrum
- augmented interval — an interval that is a half step greater than the corresponding major or perfect interval
- autoimmune disease — a disease resulting from a disordered immune reaction in which antibodies are produced against one's own tissues, as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis.
- autonomous phoneme — a phoneme that is defined or determined by its contrast in sound with other phonemes, without reference to its role in morphology or any other level of linguistic analysis beyond the phonetic level.
- awnless bromegrass — Hungarian bromegrass.
- ayatollah khomeini — Ayatollah Ruhollah [roo-hoh-luh;; Persian roo-haw-lah] /ruˈhoʊ lə;; Persian ˌru hɔˈlɑ/ (Show IPA), 1900?–89, Islamic leader of Iran 1979–89.
- bachelor apartment — a flat consisting of one room that is used as a sitting room and bedroom, as well as a kitchenette and a bathroom
- balanced computing — (jargon) Matching computer tools to job activities so that the computer system structure parallels the organisation structure and work functions. Both personal computers and employees operate in a decentralised environment with monitoring of achievement of management objectives from centralised corporate systems.
- ballistic pendulum — a device consisting of a large mass hung from a horizontal bar by two rods, used to measure the velocity of an object, as a bullet, by retaining the object upon impact, its velocity being a function of the displacement of the mass.
- basal conglomerate — a conglomerate deposited on an erosion surface and constituting the bottom layer of a stratigraphic series.
- basement apartment — an apartment below the ground floor of a building
- battery eliminator — eliminator (def 2).
- battery-eliminator — a person or thing that eliminates.
- battle of omdurman — a battle (1898) in which the Mahdi's successor and his Ansar followers were defeated by Lord Kitchener's British forces
- be having a moment — If something or someone is having a moment, they are successful or popular at the present time.
- be in good company — If you say that someone is in good company, you mean that they should not be ashamed of a mistake or opinion, because some important or respected people have made the same mistake or have the same opinion.
- beauty competition — a competition in which the participants, usually women, are judged on their attractiveness, with a prize, and often a title, awarded to the winner
- beggar-my-neighbor — beggar-your-neighbor.
- benchmark position — a public service job used for comparison with a similar position, such as a position in commerce, for wage settlements
- bend someone's ear — to speak at length to an unwilling listener, esp to voice one's troubles
- bernard montgomery — Bernard Law, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein ("Monty") 1887–1976, British field marshal: World War II commander of British 8th Army in Africa and Europe.
- bernard of menthon — Saint(11th cent.); Fr. monk who founded hospices in the Swiss Alps: his day is May 28
- beta-naphthylamine — a white to reddish, crystalline, water-soluble, extremely toxic solid, C 10 H 9 N, used chiefly in the manufacture of azo dyes.
- between you and me — in the space separating (two points, objects, etc.): between New York and Chicago.
- bioinstrumentation — the use of instruments, as sensors, to detect and measure certain body functions, as of persons in spaceflight, and transmit the data to a point where it is evaluated
- board of examiners — a group of people who officially administer examinations
- bottom dead center — Bottom dead center is the point at which the piston of an engine is nearest to the axis of the crankshaft. On a vertical engine, this is the lowest point that the piston reaches.