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21-letter words containing o, r, a, t, e

  • arithmetic logic unit — the part of a central processing unit that performs arithmetic and logical operations
  • arithmetic/logic unit — ALU.
  • articles of agreement — a contract between the captain of a ship and a crew member regarding stipulations of a voyage, signed prior to and upon termination of a voyage.
  • as a matter of course — If you do something as a matter of course, you do it as part of your normal work or way of life.
  • assisted reproduction — the use of medical techniques to bring about the conception and birth of a child, including artificial insemination, in vitro fertilization, egg and embryo donation, and drug therapy.
  • astronomical distance — the distance from one celestial body to another, measured in astronomical units, light-years, or parsecs.
  • astronomical latitude — the angle between the direction of gravity at the observer's position and the plane of the celestial equator
  • astronomical triangle — the spherical triangle formed by the great circles connecting a celestial object, the zenith, and the celestial pole.
  • atmospheric inversion — inversion (def 12).
  • atmospheric-inversion — an act or instance of inverting.
  • atomic disintegration — a process resulting in the change of a radioactive nucleus, either by emission of an alpha, beta, or gamma ray or by fission, and producing a change in the original mass, atomic number, or energy
  • atrioventricular node — a small mass of muscular fibers at the base of the wall between the atria, conducting impulses received from the sinoatrial node by way of the atrioventricular bundles and, under certain conditions, functioning for the sinoatrial node as pacemaker of the heart. Abbreviation: A-V node.
  • australian cattle dog — a compact strongly-built dog of a breed with pricked ears and a smooth bluish-grey coat, often used for controlling and moving cattle
  • aversive conditioning — a type of behavior conditioning in which noxious stimuli are associated with undesirable or unwanted behavior that is to be modified or abolished, as the use of nausea-inducing drugs in the treatment of alcoholism.
  • background projection — the projection from the rear of previously photographed material on a translucent screen, used as background for a television or motion-picture shot.
  • bad conduct discharge — a discharge of a person from military service for an offense less serious than one for which a dishonorable discharge is given.
  • baja california norte — a state of NW Mexico, in the N part of the Lower California peninsula. Capital: Mexicali. Pop: 2 487 700 (2000). Area: about 71 500 sq km (27 600 sq miles)
  • barbiturate poisoning — poisoning caused by overdose of a barbiturate
  • barrier contraceptive — any form of contraceptive that prevents impregnation by physically preventing the sperm from reaching the egg
  • baudouin de courtenay — Jan Ignacy Niecisław [yahn ig-nah-tsi nye-tsis-lahf] /yɑn ɪgˈnɑ tsɪ ˈnyɛ tsɪsˌlɑf/ (Show IPA), 1845–1929, Polish linguist: pioneer in modern phonology.
  • be (one) too many for — to defeat; overwhelm
  • be on the danger list — to be critically ill in hospital
  • beat one's brains out — Anatomy, Zoology. the part of the central nervous system enclosed in the cranium of humans and other vertebrates, consisting of a soft, convoluted mass of gray and white matter and serving to control and coordinate the mental and physical actions.
  • been there, done that — in or at that place (opposed to here): She is there now.
  • before-and-after test — a test which compares the state or function of something before intervention or modification, and after it
  • behavior modification — a technique that seeks to modify animal and human behavior through application of the principles of conditioning, in which rewards and reinforcements, or punishments, are used to establish desired habits, or patterns of behavior
  • behavioural contagion — the spread of a particular type of behaviour, such as crying, through a crowd or group of people
  • bernadette of lourdes — Saint. original name Marie Bernarde Soubirous. 1844–79, French peasant girl born in Lourdes, whose visions of the Virgin Mary led to the establishment of Lourdes as a centre of pilgrimage, esp for the sick or crippled. Feast day: Feb 18
  • binomial nomenclature — a system for naming plants and animals by means of two Latin names: the first indicating the genus and the second the species to which the organism belongs, as in Panthera leo (the lion)
  • blow one's brains out — to kill oneself by shooting oneself in the head
  • bluethroat pikeblenny — See under pikeblenny.
  • boiling-water reactor — a nuclear reactor using water as coolant and moderator, steam being produced in the reactor itself: enriched uranium oxide cased in zirconium is the fuel
  • bottlebrush moustache — a short, bristly moustache
  • box-office attraction — something or something that persuades people to buy tickets for a film or play
  • brainstorming session — a meeting held for the purpose of intensive discussion to solve problems or generate ideas
  • break someone's heart — an act or instance of breaking; disruption or separation of parts; fracture; rupture: There was a break in the window.
  • break the fourth wall — (esp of a character in a television programme, film, or play) to refer to, acknowledge, or address the audience, usually for comedic effect or as an avante-garde technique
  • breakthrough bleeding — bleeding from the uterus that occurs between menstrual periods
  • breath-of-life packet — (XEROX PARC) An Ethernet packet that contains bootstrap code, periodically sent out from a working computer to infuse the "breath of life" into any computer on the network that has crashed. Computers depending on such packets have sufficient hardware or firmware code to wait for (or request) such a packet during the reboot process. See also dickless workstation. The notional "kiss-of-death packet", with a function complementary to that of a breath-of-life packet, is recommended for dealing with hosts that consume too many network resources. Though "kiss-of-death packet" is usually used in jest, there is at least one documented instance of an Internet subnet with limited address-table slots in a gateway computer in which such packets were routinely used to compete for slots, rather like Christmas shoppers competing for scarce parking spaces.
  • british north america — (formerly) Canada or its constituent regions or provinces that formed part of the British Empire
  • broadleaved whitebeam — a whitebeam, Sorbus latifolia, widely found in France and England, also planted as an ornamental
  • bromine pentafluoride — a colorless, corrosive liquid, BrF 5 , used as an oxidizer in liquid rocket propellants.
  • bryan-chamorro treaty — a treaty (1914) between the U.S. and Nicaragua by which the U.S. secured exclusive rights to build a canal across Nicaragua, to connect the Atlantic and Pacific.
  • buffalo carpet beetle — any of several small beetles of the family Dermestidae, the larvae of which are household pests, feeding on rugs and other woolen fabrics, especially Anthrenus scrophulariae (buffalo carpet beetle) and Attagenus piceus (black carpet beetle)
  • bulletin board system — (communications, application)   (BBS, bboard /bee'bord/, message board, forum; plural: BBSes) A computer and associated software which typically provides an electronic message database where people can log in and leave messages. Messages are typically split into topic groups similar to the newsgroups on Usenet (which is like a distributed BBS). Any user may submit or read any message in these public areas. The term comes from physical pieces of board on which people can pin messages written on paper for general consumption - a "physical bulletin board". Ward Christensen, the programmer and operator of the first BBS (on-line 1978-02-16) called it a CBBS for "computer bulletin board system". Since the rise of the World-Wide Web, the term has become antiquated, though the concept is more popular than ever, with many websites featuring discussion areas where users can post messages for public consumption. Apart from public message areas, some BBSes provided archives of files, personal electronic mail and other services of interest to the system operator (sysop). Thousands of BBSes around the world were run from amateurs' homes on MS-DOS boxes with a single modem line each. Although BBSes were traditionally the domain of hobbyists, many connected directly to the Internet (accessed via telnet), others were operated by government, educational, and research institutions. Fans of Usenet or the big commercial time-sharing bboards such as CompuServe, CIX and GEnie tended to consider local BBSes the low-rent district of the hacker culture, but they helped connect hackers and users in the personal-micro and let them exchange code. Use of this term for a Usenet newsgroup generally marks one either as a newbie fresh in from the BBS world or as a real old-timer predating Usenet.
  • cantilever foundation — a building foundation supporting its load partly or wholly upon cantilevers.
  • cartesian coordinates — a system of representing points in space in terms of their distance from a given origin measured along a set of mutually perpendicular axes. Written (x,y,z) with reference to three axes
  • category merchandiser — A category merchandiser is a person whose job is to maintain stocks, manage displays and promote sales of a certain product category such as footwear.
  • catherine of braganza — 1638–1705, wife of Charles II of England, daughter of John IV of Portugal
  • caviar to the general — a thing appealing only to a highly cultivated taste: Hamlet II, ii
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