19-letter words containing n, a, m, b
- environmental lobby — a group of people who promote environmental issues to government, the public, and business
- essence of bergamot — a fragrant essential oil from the fruit rind of this plant, used in perfumery and some teas (including Earl Grey)
- financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
- freeze-frame button — a control button on a remote control device, used to stop a moving image to view it as a still
- giraldus cambrensis — literary name of Gerald de Barri. ?1146–?1223, Welsh chronicler and churchman, noted for his accounts of his travels in Ireland and Wales
- green mountain boys — the members of the armed bands of Vermont organized in 1770 to oppose New York's territorial claims. Under Ethan Allen they won fame in the War of American Independence
- hamiltonian problem — (computability) (Or "Hamilton's problem") A problem in graph theory posed by William Hamilton: given a graph, is there a path through the graph which visits each vertex precisely once (a "Hamiltonian path")? Is there a Hamiltonian path which ends up where it started (a "Hamiltonian cycle" or "Hamiltonian tour")? Hamilton's problem is NP-complete. It has numerous applications, sometimes completely unexpected, in computing.
- handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
- heat of sublimation — the heat absorbed by one gram or unit mass of a substance in the process of changing, at a constant temperature and pressure, from a solid to a gaseous state. Compare sublime (def 10).
- horizontal mobility — movement from one position to another within the same social level, as changing jobs without altering occupational status, or moving between social groups having the same social status.
- human rights abuses — acts that contravene human rights
- incommensurableness — (rare) Incommensurability.
- incomplete abortion — a miscarriage in which some fetal or placental tissue remains in the uterus.
- information algebra — Theoretical formalism for DP, never resulted in a language. Language Structure Group of CODASYL, ca. 1962. Sammet 1969, 709.
- internal-combustion — of or relating to an internal-combustion engine.
- isthmus of san blas — the narrowest part of the Isthmus of Panama. Width: about 50 km (30 miles)
- job creation scheme — a governmental scheme to increase the number of jobs in an area, organization, etc
- judgment by default — a judgment in the plaintiff's favour when the defendant fails to plead or to appear
- jumping bristletail — any of several thysanuran insects that live in dark, warm, moist places, as under leaves, bark, and dead tree trunks and along rocky seacoasts, and are active jumpers, making erratic leaps when disturbed.
- junior bantamweight — a boxer weighing up to 115 pounds (51.7 kg), between flyweight and bantamweight.
- keyboard instrument — any musical instrument that is played using a keyboard
- king's remembrancer — (in Great Britain) a judiciary official who collects debts owed to the king.
- knock someone bandy — to amaze or astound
- logical unit number — (storage) (LUN) A 3-bit identifier used on a SCSI bus to distinguish between up to eight devices (logical units) with the same SCSI ID.
- magnesium carbonate — a white powder, MgCO 3 , insoluble in water and alcohol, soluble in acids, used in dentifrices and cosmetics, in medicine as an antacid, and as a refractory material.
- make no bones about — Anatomy, Zoology. one of the structures composing the skeleton of a vertebrate. the hard connective tissue forming the substance of the skeleton of most vertebrates, composed of a collagen-rich organic matrix impregnated with calcium, phosphate, and other minerals.
- malleable cast iron — white cast iron that has been malleablized.
- mary mcleod bethune — Mary McLeod [muh-kloud] /məˈklaʊd/ (Show IPA), 1875–1955, U.S. educator and civil-rights leader.
- megabits per second — (unit) (Mbps, Mb/s) Millions of bits per second. A unit of data rate. 1 Mb/s = 1,000,000 bits per second (not 1,048,576). E.g. Ethernet can carry 10 Mbps.
- mexican bean beetle — a ladybird beetle, Epilachna varivestis, introduced into the U.S. from Mexico, that feeds on the foliage of the bean plant.
- minimum iron fabric — cloth used to make clothes that require little ironing
- monoclonal antibody — antibody produced by a laboratory-grown cell clone, either of a hybridoma or a virus-transformed lymphocyte, that is more abundant and uniform than natural antibody and is able to bind specifically to a single site on almost any chosen antigen or reveal previously unknown antigen sites: used as an analytic tool in scientific research and medical diagnosis and potentially important in the treatment of certain diseases. Abbreviation: MAb.
- mordvinian republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Saransk. Pop: 888 700 (2002). Area: 26 200 sq km (10 110 sq miles)
- municipal bond fund — a mutual fund that invests in municipal bonds.
- mutual masturbation — the act of two or more people masturbating each other
- mutual savings bank — a noncapitalized savings bank that distributes its net earnings to depositors.
- neville chamberlain — (Arthur) Neville, 1869–1940, British statesman: prime minister 1937–40.
- nominative absolute — a construction consisting in English of a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in the nominative case followed by a predicate lacking a finite verb, used as a loose modifier of the whole sentence, as the play done in The play done, the audience left the theater.
- normal distribution — a theoretical frequency distribution represented by a normal curve.
- on someone's behalf — in / on behalf of, as a representative of or a proxy for: On behalf of my colleagues, I address you tonight.
- once in a blue moon — very rarely; almost never
- parliament building — structure housing legislative offices
- party-column ballot — Indiana ballot.
- peridental membrane — periodontal membrane.
- phenylthiocarbamide — a crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid, C 6 H 5 NHCSNH 2 , that is either tasteless or bitter, depending upon the heredity of the taster, and is used in medical genetics and as a diagnostic.
- pointe-aux-trembles — a city in S Quebec, in E Canada, N of Montreal, on the St. Lawrence.
- potassium carbonate — a white, granular, water-soluble powder, K 2 CO 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of soap, glass, and potassium salts.
- pseudorandom number — (programming) One of a sequence of numbers generated by some algorithm so as to have an even distribution over some range of values and minimal correlation between successive values. Pseudorandom numbers are used in simulation and encryption. They are pseudorandom not random because the sequence eventually repeats exactly and is entirely determined by the initial conditions. One of the simplest algorithms is x[i+1] = (a * x[i] + c) mod m but this repeats after at most m numbers and successive numbers are closely related. Better algorithms generally use more previous numbers to calculate the next number.
- registration number — number on vehicle licence plate
- republic of vietnam — the name (from 1955–75) for South Vietnam, as an independent republic, following the division of the country in 1954 into North Vietnam and South Vietnam