20-letter words containing n, o, c, e
- therapeutic abortion — abortion performed when a woman's pregnancy endangers her health.
- there is no call for — If you say that there is no call for someone to behave in a particular way, you are criticizing their behaviour, usually because you think it is rude.
- thermal conductivity — the amount of heat per unit time per unit area that can be conducted through a plate of unit thickness of a given material, the faces of the plate differing by one unit of temperature.
- thermodynamic system — a system whose states of equilibrium can be specified by a few macroscopic properties.
- thomas of erceldoune — Thomas of, Thomas of Erceldoune.
- thought transference — transference of thought by extrasensory means from the mind of one individual to another; telepathy.
- three-thorned acacia — honey locust.
- to clean up your act — If someone who has been behaving badly cleans up their act, they start to behave in a more acceptable or responsible way.
- to cost someone dear — If something that someone does costs them dear, they suffer a lot as a result of it.
- to cross the rubicon — If you say that someone has crossed the Rubicon, you mean that they have reached a point where they cannot change a decision or course of action.
- to get your own back — If you get your own back on someone, you have your revenge on them because of something bad that they have done to you.
- to keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example, when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- to line your pockets — If you say that someone is lining their own or someone else's pockets, you disapprove of them because they are making money dishonestly or unfairly.
- to pull your punches — If you say that someone does not pull their punches when they are criticizing a person or thing, you mean that they say exactly what they think, even though this might upset or offend people.
- to reach new heights — to become higher than ever before
- to stick in the craw — to be unacceptable or displeasing to someone
- tom, dick, and jerry — a hot mixed drink containing rum, brandy, egg, nutmeg, and sometimes milk
- toxemia of pregnancy — an abnormal condition of pregnancy characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, edema, and the presence of protein in the urine.
- toxic shock syndrome — a rapidly developing, sometimes fatal infection characterized by sudden onset of fever, gastrointestinal upsets, a sunburnlike rash, and a drop in blood pressure: caused by a Staphylococcus aureus toxin and occurring especially in menstruating women using high-absorbency tampons. Abbreviation: TSS.
- traditional medicine — systems of medicine developed before the era of modern medicine, based on cultural beliefs and practices handed down from generation to generation
- transcendental logic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of the mind with reference to its perceptions of external objects and to the objective truth of such perceptions.
- transposed conjugate — adjoint (def 2).
- transposition cipher — a cipher that rearranges the letters of the plain text in a different sequence.
- trigonometric series — an infinite series involving sines and cosines of increasing integral multiples of a variable.
- trimetric projection — a three-dimensional projection with three different linear scales at arbitrary angles.
- triple witching hour — the last hour of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on the four Fridays each year when stock options, stock index futures, and options on such futures simultaneously expire: regarded as a time of extreme volatility in trading.
- troilus and cressida — a satiric comedy (1598–1602?) by Shakespeare.
- tropical continental — a type of warm, dry air mass originating at low latitudes over land areas
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- turn the other cheek — not retaliate
- turnip-rooted celery — celeriac.
- 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 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.
- uniform crime report — an annual report issued by the FBI that presents data on selected categories of crimes reported to the police. Abbreviation: UCR.
- university education — a course of study undertaken and completed at a university
- unsaddling enclosure — the area at a racecourse where horses are unsaddled after a race and often where awards are given to owners, trainers, and jockeys
- until further notice — If a situation is said to exist until further notice, it will continue for an uncertain length of time until someone changes it.
- upper income bracket — a grouping of the highest earning tax payers
- van der waals forces — weak electrostatic forces between atoms and molecules caused by transient distortions in the distribution of electrons in the interacting atoms or molecules
- vertical combination — the integration within one company of individual businesses working separately in related phases of the production and sale of a product.
- vertical envelopment — envelopment of an enemy accomplished by parachuting and landing airborne troops at the rear of the enemy's position.
- vertical integration — the joining together of all companies or firms involved in manufacturing a product into one company or firm
- viscount northcliffe — Viscount, Alfred Charles William Harmsworth.
- vitoria de conquista — a city in Bahía state, E central Brazil.
- vocalic alliteration — the commencement of two or more stressed syllables of a word group either with the same consonant sound or sound group (consonantal alliteration) as in from stem to stern, or with a vowel sound that may differ from syllable to syllable (vocalic alliteration) as in each to all. Compare consonance (def 4a).
- vocational education — educational training that provides practical experience in a particular occupational field, as agriculture, home economics, or industry.
- voice over broadband — a transmission technique that enables a user to make and receive telephone calls over a broadband connection
- voluntary redundancy — a financial package to encourage employees to voluntarily leave an organization that needs to restructure
- wardrobe malfunction — an embarrassing situation caused by the clothes a person is wearing
- watch someone's back — the rear part of the human body, extending from the neck to the lower end of the spine.