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20-letter words containing m, e, n, s, u

  • prince william sound — a sound in the Gulf of Alaska, on the S coast of Alaska: S end of Trans-Alaska oil pipeline at port of Valdez.
  • pseudoparenchymatous — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
  • quaker meeting house — a place where Quakers gather for worship
  • queen's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
  • raynaud's phenomenon — a secondary circulatory disorder, often associated with a primary vascular disease, characterized by changes of blood flow resulting in white, bluish, or red hands and feet
  • repurchase agreement — a contract between a dealer, as a bank, and an investor, whereby the investor purchases securities with the promise that they will be bought back by the dealer on a designated date, for which the investor receives a fixed return.
  • request for comments — (standard)   (RFC) One of a series, begun in 1969, of numbered Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. Few RFCs are standards but all Internet standards are recorded in RFCs. Perhaps the single most influential RFC has been RFC 822, the Internet electronic mail format standard. The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an institution such as ANSI. For this reason, they remain known as RFCs even once adopted as standards. The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standard writing done by individuals or small working groups has important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ANSI or ISO. Emblematic of some of these advantages is the existence of a flourishing tradition of "joke" RFCs; usually at least one a year is published, usually on April 1st. Well-known joke RFCs have included 527 ("ARPAWOCKY", R. Merryman, UCSD; 22 June 1973), 748 ("Telnet Randomly-Lose Option", Mark R. Crispin; 1 April 1978), and 1149 ("A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers", D. Waitzman, BBN STC; 1 April 1990). The first was a Lewis Carroll pastiche; the second a parody of the TCP/IP documentation style, and the third a deadpan skewering of standards-document legalese, describing protocols for transmitting Internet data packets by carrier pigeon. The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work - they manage to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife in informal specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated misfeatures that often haunt formal standards, and they define a network that has grown to truly worldwide proportions. See also For Your Information, STD.
  • return on investment — the amount of profit, before tax and after depreciation, from an investment made, usually expressed as a percentage of the original total cost invested. Abbreviation: ROI.
  • rocky mountain sheep — bighorn.
  • rotations per minute — revolutions per minute
  • saint john ambulance — an organization that provides first aid and first-aid training
  • second-degree murder — Law. the killing of another human being under conditions specifically covered in law. In the U.S., special statutory definitions include murder committed with malice aforethought, characterized by deliberation or premeditation or occurring during the commission of another serious crime, as robbery or arson (first-degree murder) and murder by intent but without deliberation or premeditation (second-degree murder)
  • secure accommodation — an institution where young offenders are kept in custody
  • serra da mantiqueira — a mountain range in SE Brazil, running parallel to the coast. Highest point, 9140 feet (2785 meters).
  • snow-on-the-mountain — a North American euphorbiaceous plant, Euphorbia marginata, having white-edged leaves and showy white bracts surrounding small flowers
  • sodium meta-arsenite — sodium arsenite.
  • sound motion picture — a motion picture with a soundtrack.
  • south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
  • south temperate zone — the part of the earth's surface between the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle.
  • space-time continuum — Also called space-time continuum. the four-dimensional continuum, having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical quantities may be located.
  • spike someone's guns — a weapon consisting of a metal tube, with mechanical attachments, from which projectiles are shot by the force of an explosive; a piece of ordnance.
  • standard book number — International Standard Book Number. Abbreviation: SBN.
  • subpoena duces tecum — a writ directing a person to appear in court and to bring some document described in the writ.
  • summative assessment — general assessment of a pupil's achievements over a range of subjects by means of a combined appraisal of formative assessments
  • sunday-go-to-meeting — most presentable; best: Sunday-go-to-meeting clothes.
  • supplemental plumage — the third plumage assumed by certain birds having three different plumages in their annual cycle of molts.
  • supplementary angles — either of two angles that added together produce an angle of 180°.
  • systemic circulation — the circulatory system in general.
  • systemic linguistics — a school of linguistics of British origin that emphasizes the social functions of language and describes grammar in terms of hierarchically organized structures and of systems of mutually exclusive choices available to the speaker under specified conditions.
  • the garment industry — the manufacturing of items of clothing
  • the gnomes of zurich — Swiss bankers and financiers
  • thomas of erceldoune — Thomas of, Thomas of Erceldoune.
  • to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
  • to do your damnedest — If you say that you will do your damnedest to achieve something, you mean that you will try as hard as you can to do it, even though you think that it will take a lot of effort.
  • tomb of the unknowns — See under Unknown Soldier.
  • twiddle one's thumbs — to turn about or play with lightly or idly, especially with the fingers; twirl.
  • ultimate constituent — an element of a construction that cannot be further divided into grammatical constituents: the morphemes of an utterance are usually considered to be its ultimate constituents.
  • under the impression — If you are under the impression that something is the case, you believe that it is the case, usually when it is not actually the case.
  • under the microscope — If you say that something is under the microscope, you mean that it is being studied very closely, usually because it is believed that something is wrong with it.
  • 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 figures — statistics relating to the number of people who are out of work
  • united arab emirates — group of Arabian states
  • university of durham — (body, education)   A busy research and teaching community in the historic cathedral city of Durham, UK (population 61000). Its work covers key branches of science and technology and traditional areas of scholarship. Durham graduates are in great demand among employers and the University helps to attract investment into the region. It provides training, short courses, and expertise for industry. Through its cultural events, conferences, tourist business and as a major employer, the University contributes in a wide social and economic sense to the community. Founded in 1832, the University developed in Durham and Newcastle until 1963 when the independent University of Newcastle upon Tyne came into being. Durham is a collegiate body, with 14 Colleges or Societies which are a social and domestic focus for students. In 1992, the Universities of Durham and Teesside launched University College, Stockton-on-Tees, which has 190 students in the first year.
  • visual merchandising — Visual merchandising is the use of attractive displays and floor plans to increase customer numbers and sales volumes.
  • weights and measures — units or standards of measurement
  • western mountain ash — a mountain ash, Sorbus sitchensis, of western North America.
  • wilson cloud chamber — cloud chamber.
  • woman of easy virtue — a sexually available woman, esp a prostitute
  • your marching orders — If you give someone their marching orders, you tell them that you no longer want or need them, for example as your employee or as your lover.
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