22-letter words containing m, e, s, b, r
- metasyntactic variable — (grammar) Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
- mind your own business — an occupation, profession, or trade: His business is poultry farming.
- mind-your-own-business — baby's-tears.
- missing persons bureau — the part of the Police Force dealing with tracing missing people
- mutton dressed as lamb — If you describe a woman as mutton dressed as lamb, you are criticizing her for trying to look younger than she really is, in a way that you consider unattractive.
- non-maskable interrupt — (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
- not be sb's department — If you say that a task or area of knowledge is not your department, you mean that you are not responsible for it or do not know much about it.
- preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
- public domain software — public domain
- pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
- pyridostigmine bromide — a cholinesterase inhibitor, C 9 H 1 3 BrN 2 O 2 , used in its bromide form in the treatment of myasthenia gravis.
- red-breasted merganser — a widely distributed merganser, Mergus serrator of America and Europe: family Anatidae
- remote database access — (database, standard) (RDBA) A standard permitting the exchange of information between different DBMS systems.
- replacement cost basis — Replacement cost basis is a method of valuing insured property in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
- research establishment — an establishment or institution where research or investigation into a subject, topic, etc, can be conducted
- satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
- scalable sampling rate — (compression, standard, algorithm) (SSR) See, e.g., MPEG-4 AAC SSR.
- sick building syndrome — an illness caused by exposure to pollutants or germs inside an airtight building.
- simultaneous broadcast — a programme, etc, broadcast simultaneously on radio and television
- sir william blackstone — Sir William, 1723–80, English jurist and writer on law.
- social security number — A Social Security number is a nine digit number that is given to U.S. citizens and to people living in the U.S. You need it to get a job, collect Social Security benefits and receive some government services.
- someone's number is up — someone's time to die or suffer punishment has arrived
- subliminal advertising — a form of advertising on film or television that employs subliminal images to influence the viewer unconsciously
- substantive agreements — collective agreements that regulate jobs, pay, and conditions
- tear sb limb from limb — If someone threatens to tear you limb from limb, they mean that they are extremely angry with you, and may use violence against you.
- temporal lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- temporal-lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- the brothers karamazov — a novel (1880) by Dostoevsky.
- the muslim brotherhood — a transnational Islamic religious and political organization dedicated to the establishment of a nation based on Islamic principles, founded in Egypt in 1928
- to twiddle your thumbs — If you say that someone is twiddling their thumbs, you mean that they do not have anything to do and are waiting for something to happen.
- underground combustion — Underground combustion is the process of heating oil to allow it to flow more easily and make it easier to recover.
- volume of distribution — A volume of distribution is the hypothetical volume of body fluid that would be required to dissolve the amount of drug needed to achieve the same concentration in the blood.
- william jennings bryan — William Jennings [jen-ingz] /ˈdʒɛn ɪŋz/ (Show IPA), 1860–1925, U.S. political leader.
- william's bon chrétien — a variety of pear that has large yellow juicy sweet fruit
- wolfram von eschenbach — c1170–c1220, German poet.