21-letter words containing o, s, a
- have one's hands tied — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- have someone's number — a numeral or group of numerals.
- help a person on with — to assist a person in the putting on of (clothes)
- henry steele commager — Henry Steele, 1902–98, U.S. historian, author, and teacher.
- highest common factor — greatest common divisor. Abbreviation: H.C.F.
- historic places trust — (in New Zealand) the statutory body concerned with the conservation of historic buildings, esp with ancient Māori sites
- homogeneous catalysis — Homogeneous catalysis is catalysis in which the catalyst takes part in the reaction that it increases.
- hop, skip, and a jump — a short distance: The laundry is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
- horizontal stabilizer — the horizontal surface, usually fixed, of an aircraft empennage, to which the elevator is hinged.
- horns and halo effect — a tendency to allow one's judgement of another person, esp in a job interview, to be unduly influenced by an unfavourable (horns) or favourable (halo) first impression based on appearances
- host command facility — (operating system) (HCF) Used to access IBM S/36 and AS/400 computers from a mainframe.
- hubble classification — a method of classifying galaxies depending on whether they are elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, or irregular
- human papilloma virus — a species of virus that causes genital warts. Abbreviation: HPV.
- humanistic psychology — an approach to psychology that emphasizes emotions and the better understanding of the self in terms of observation of oneself and one's relations with others
- hypercholesterolaemia — the condition of having a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood
- hysterosalpingography — (medicine) X-ray examination of the uterus and oviducts following injection of a radiopaque substance.
- identical proposition — a proposition in which the subject and predicate have the same meaning, as, “That which is mortal is not immortal.”.
- identification papers — documents that serve to establish someone's identity
- immediate constituent — one of the usually two largest constituents of a construction: The immediate constituents of He ate his dinner are he and ate his dinner; of ate his dinner are ate and his dinner; etc. Abbreviation: IC.
- immunohistochemically — By means of or in regard to immunohistochemistry.
- imprecise probability — (probability) A probability that is represented as an interval (as opposed to a single number) included in [0,1].
- in (or out of) phase — in (or not in) a state of exactly parallel movements, oscillations, etc.; in (or not in) synchronization
- in a class of its own — unequalled; unparalleled
- in a state of undress — If someone is in a state of undress, they do not have all their clothes on.
- in bad/good/etc taste — If you say that something that is said or done is in bad taste or in poor taste, you mean that it is offensive, often because it concerns death or sex and is inappropriate for the situation. If you say that something is in good taste, you mean that it is not offensive and that it is appropriate for the situation.
- in good circumstances — (of a person) in a good financial situation
- in more ways than one — You say in more ways than one to indicate that what you have said is intended to have more than one meaning.
- in no uncertain terms — If you say that someone tells a person something in no uncertain terms, you are emphasizing that they say it strongly and clearly so that there is no doubt about what they mean.
- in phase/out of phase — If two things are out of phase with each other, they are not working or happening together as they should. If two things are in phase, they are working or occurring together as they should.
- in saecula saeculorum — for ever and ever.
- indicated horse-power — the horsepower of a reciprocating engine as shown by an indicator record. Abbreviation: ihp, IHP.
- indigenous australian — another name for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- indo-australian plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising India and the Australian continent and adjacent suboceanic basins (the Tasman, South Australian, Mid-Indian, Cocos, and Australian basins); separated from the Eurasian Plate by the Java Trench, from the Pacific Plate by the Tonga-Kermadec Trench, and from the African Plate by a series of mid-ocean ridges (the Carlsberg, Mid-Indian, and Southeast Indian ridges).
- industrial misconduct — behaviour by an employee that is considered to be negligent or irregular to such an extent that disciplinary action may be taken, usually by agreement between management and the employee's representatives
- industrial psychology — the application of psychological principles and techniques to business and industrial problems, as in the selection of personnel or development of training programs.
- industrial revolution — (sometimes initial capital letters) the totality of the changes in economic and social organization that began about 1760 in England and later in other countries, characterized chiefly by the replacement of hand tools with power-driven machines, as the power loom and the steam engine, and by the concentration of industry in large establishments.
- infectious ectromelia — ectromelia (def 2).
- inflationary universe — a version of the big bang theory in which the universe underwent very rapid growth during the first fraction of a second before it settled down to its current rate of expansion.
- information scientist — someone who works in information science
- innateness hypothesis — the theory that humans are biologically equipped with a knowledge of certain universal elements of language structure that is brought into play in the course of native-language acquisition.
- input-output analysis — an analysis of production relationships between the industries of an economy involving a study of each industry's inputs and outputs, esp as used in social accounting
- insulin shock therapy — a former treatment for mental illness, especially schizophrenia, employing insulin-induced hypoglycemia as a method for producing convulsive seizures.
- integer specbaseratio — SPECbase_int92
- interpersonal therapy — a type of psychotherapy that focuses on conflicts in one's personal relationships.
- intracoastal waterway — a mostly inland water route, partly natural and partly artificial, extending 1550 miles (2500 km) along the Atlantic coast from Boston to Florida Bay (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) and 1116 miles (1800 km) along the Gulf coast from Carrabelle, Fla., to Brownsville, Tex. (Gulf Intracoastal Waterway) constructed to protect small craft from the hazards of the open sea.
- intravenous drug user — a drug addict who injects drugs (esp heroin) intravenously
- isolation transformer — An isolation transformer is a transformer with physically separate primary and secondary windings, that prevent it from transferring unwanted noise from the input circuit to the output windings.
- isopropylideneacetone — mesityl oxide.
- it takes two to tango — If you say it takes two or it takes two to tango, you mean that a situation or argument involves two people and they are both therefore responsible for it.
- jacques yves cousteau — Jacques Yves [zhahk eev] /ʒɑk iv/ (Show IPA), 1910–97, French naval officer, author, and underseas explorer: developed the Aqua-Lung.