18-letter words containing o, b, s, l, e
- love-lies-bleeding — an amaranth, especially Amaranthus caudatus, having spikes of crimson flowers.
- low blood pressure — hypotension.
- lowell observatory — the astronomical observatory, situated in Flagstaff, Arizona, at which Pluto was discovered in 1930.
- lubber grasshopper — plains grasshopper.
- metabolic syndrome — Pathology. a group of medical conditions present simultaneously in a patient, as high blood pressure, low HDL cholesterol levels, and an excess of abdominal fat, that increases a person's risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Also called insulin resistance syndrome.
- mobile data system — a system consisting of a client computer requesting information and a server supplying this information
- multicast backbone — (MBONE) A virtual network on top of the Internet which supports routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission. MBONE gives public access desktop video communications. The quality is poor with only 3-5 frames per second instead of the 30 frames per second of commercial television. Its advantage is that it avoids all telecommunications costs normally associated with teleconferencing. An interesting innovation is the use of MBONE for audio communications and an electronic "whiteboard" where the computer screen becomes a shared workspace where two physically remote parties can draw on and edit shared documents in real-time.
- nebular hypothesis — the theory that the solar system evolved from a mass of nebular matter: prominent in the 19th century following its precise formulation by Laplace.
- non-responsibility — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- non-understandable — capable of being understood; comprehensible.
- notifiable disease — any one of a number of infectious diseases of humans and animals, that must be reported to the public health authorities
- objective idealism — a form of idealism asserting that the act of experiencing has a reality combining and transcending the natures of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer.
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- one's heart bleeds — used to express sympathetic grief, but often used ironically
- oriental alabaster — alabaster (def 2).
- passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
- personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
- prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
- pseudotuberculosis — an acute, sometimes fatal disease of rodents, birds, and other animals, including humans, caused by the bacterium Yersinia (Pasteurella) pseudotuberculosis, and characterized by the formation of nodules resembling those that result from tuberculosis.
- pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- rheims-douay bible — Douay Bible.
- rosebay willowherb — a perennial onagraceous plant, Chamerion (formerly Epilobium) angustifolium, that has spikes of deep pink flowers and is widespread in open places throughout N temperate regions
- rub shoulders with — to mix with socially or associate with
- rubbish collection — the collection of domestic refuse for disposal
- schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
- scottish blackface — a common breed of hardy mountain sheep having horns and a black face, kept chiefly on the mainland of Scotland
- see the last of sb — not encounter sb anymore
- selective abortion — the aborting of particular embryos for medical or social reasons
- september holidays — a period of time in September when people do not have to go to school, college or work
- seven-league boots — mythical boots that allowed the wearer to travel seven leagues (a former unit of measurement), ie a great length, at each step
- shrubby cinquefoil — a small shrub, Potentilla fruticosa, of the rose family, native to the Northern temperate region, having pinnate leaves and numerous, showy, bright-yellow flowers.
- sindbad the sailor — (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments), a wealthy citizen of Baghdad who relates the adventures of his seven wonderful voyages.
- sir george gilbert — Barbara Ann, 1928–2012, Canadian figure skater.
- slobodan milosevic — Slobodan [sloh-buh-dain] /ˈsloʊ bəˌdɛən/ (Show IPA), 1941–2006, Yugoslav and Serbian politician: president of Serbia 1989–97, president of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia 1997–2000, accused of war crimes 2001.
- small pastern bone — the part of the foot of a horse, cow, etc., between the fetlock and the hoof.
- software backplane — (programming, tool) A CASE framework from Atherton.
- stationary bicycle — an exercise bike
- subatomic particle — physics:
- subject complement — a word or a group of words, usually functioning as an adjective or noun, that is used in the predicate following a copula and describes or is identified with the subject of the sentence, as sleepy in The travelers became sleepy.
- subordinate clause — a clause that modifies the principal clause or some part of it or that serves a noun function in the principal clause, as when she arrived in the sentence I was there when she arrived or that she has arrived in the sentence I doubt that she has arrived.
- supraorbital ridge — browridge.
- symbolist movement — a movement beginning in French and Belgian poetry towards the end of the 19th century with the verse of Mallarmé, Valéry, Verlaine, Rimbaud, Maeterlinck, and others, and seeking to express states of mind rather than objective reality by making use of the power of words and images to suggest as well as denote
- teleobjective lens — telephoto lens.
- television cabinet — a cabinet on which a television set is placed or in which it is encased
- the bird has flown — the person in question has fled or escaped
- the bottomless pit — the underworld; hell
- tick all the boxes — to satisfy all of the apparent requirements for success
- tighten one's belt — a band of flexible material, as leather or cord, for encircling the waist.
- to bare one's soul — If you bare your soul, you tell someone your most secret thoughts and feelings.