23-letter words containing o, n, s, l, a, u
- locally euclidean space — a topological space in which each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open set in a Euclidean space of specified dimension.
- lossy audio compression — (audio, compression) Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bit of data but only reproduces a signal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC.
- meaningful relationship — a romantic relationship based upon mutual respect and supportiveness and marked by a sense of commitment and fulfillment.
- micro assembly language — (language) (MAL) A microprogramming language with high-level syntax, used in the reference below. See also Mic-1, Mac-1.
- national safety council — a non profit organization that promotes and ensures health and safety standards
- national superannuation — a means-related pension paid to elderly people
- new year's honours list — an Honour's List published at the beginning of a new year
- nondisclosure agreement — a legal contract in which one or more parties agree to keep information, as a trade secret, confidential and protected for a specific amount of time. Abbreviation: NDA.
- north ossetian republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the N slopes of the central Caucasus Mountains. Capital: Vladikavkaz. Pop: 709 900 (2002). Area: about 8000 sq km (3088 sq miles)
- occupational psychology — the study of human behaviour at work, including ergonomics, selection procedures, and the effects of stress
- ordinary life insurance — life insurance with premiums paid throughout the lifetime of the insured.
- parasexual reproduction — reproduction by recombination of genes from genetically dissimilar nuclei within binucleate or multinucleate cells, as in filamentous fungi.
- peroxymonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
- pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
- price escalation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to raise prices if the cost of inputs increases
- probabilistic automaton — nondeterministic automaton
- professional misconduct — a violation of the rules or boundaries set by the governing body of a profession
- profit and loss account — income account (def 2).
- program design language — Any of a large class of formal and profoundly useless pseudo-languages in which management forces one to design programs. Too often, management expects PDL descriptions to be maintained in parallel with the code, imposing massive overhead of little or no benefit. See also flow chart.
- put in a false position — to cause misunderstanding of the intentions, opinions, etc. of
- quantum electrodynamics — the quantum field theory that deals with the electromagnetic field and its interaction with electrons and positrons. Abbreviation: QED.
- quantum flavourdynamics — a gauge theory of the electromagnetic and weak interactions
- quay financial software — CSK Software
- queen charlotte islands — a group of about 150 islands off the W coast of Canada: part of British Columbia. Pop: about 6000 (latest est). Area: 9596 sq km (3705 sq miles)
- rectangular coordinates — Usually, rectangular coordinates. either of two Cartesian coordinates in which the axes meet at right angles.
- relative sunspot number — a number indicating the degree of sunspot activity on the sun as a factor of observer idiosyncrasies, the number of sunspot groups, and the number of individual sunspots.
- school (crossing) guard — a person, either an adult or an older student, whose duty it is to help children cross streets near schools safely
- settle (one's) accounts — To settle accounts with an enemy or opponent means to bring your fight or quarrel to an end by defeating them.
- social education centre — a daycentre, run by a local authority, for people with learning disabilities and sometimes also for people who have physical disabilities or are mentally ill
- social insurance number — a nine-digit number used by the federal government to identify a citizen
- social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
- squamous cell carcinoma — a carcinoma that arises from squamous epithelium in the skin and sometimes in the mucous membranes.
- st. pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
- steal someone's thunder — to strike, drive, inflict, give forth, etc., with loud noise or violent action.
- stimulus generalization — generalization (def 4a).
- stimulus-generalization — the act or process of generalizing.
- structural anthropology — a school of anthropology founded by Claude Lévi-Strauss and based loosely on the principles of structural linguistics.
- structural unemployment — unemployment caused by basic changes in the overall economy, as in demographics, technology, or industrial organization.
- suprasegmental phonemes — phonemes or features of speech, as pitch, stress, and juncture, that may extend over and modify series of segmental phonemes
- sustainable development — supporting economy via renewable resources
- system control language — (language) (SCL) The command language for the VME/B operating system on the ICL2900. SCL was block structured and supported strings, lists of strings ("superstrings"), integer, Boolean, and array types. You could trigger a block whenever a condition on a variable value occured. It supported macros and default arguments. Commands were treated like procedure calls.
- thank one's lucky stars — any of the heavenly bodies, except the moon, appearing as fixed luminous points in the sky at night.
- to add insult to injury — You say to add insult to injury when mentioning an action or fact that makes an unfair or unacceptable situation even worse.
- to call someone's bluff — If you call someone's bluff, you tell them to do what they have been threatening to do, because you are sure that they will not really do it.
- to have your hands full — If you have your hands full with something, you are very busy because of it.
- to jump to a conclusion — If you say that someone jumps to a conclusion, you are critical of them because they decide too quickly that something is true, when they do not know all the facts.
- to keep your nose clean — If you keep your nose clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble.
- to make your skin crawl — If something makes your skin crawl or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel shocked or disgusted.
- to rest on your laurels — If someone is resting on their laurels, they appear to be satisfied with the things they have achieved and have stopped putting effort into what they are doing.
- transcendental equation — an equation that involves transcendental functions.