21-letter words containing o, s, m, u, n
- environmental studies — a university course studying the environment and related issues
- exposure compensation — the act of overriding a camera's automatic exposure in order to achieve a particular effect or due to difficult lighting conditions
- finite state automata — Finite State Machine
- foot-in-mouth disease — the habit of making inappropriate, insensitive, or imprudent statements.
- frequent wash shampoo — a shampoo whose mildness allows it to be used frequently
- game of cat and mouse — In a fight or contest, if one person plays cat and mouse, or a game of cat and mouse, with the other, the first person tries to confuse or deceive the second in order to defeat them.
- gastrohepatic omentum — lesser omentum.
- give someone a leg up — to help someone to climb an obstacle by pushing upwards
- government securities — securities issued by the US Government
- great smoky mountains — the W part of the Appalachians, in W North Carolina and E Tennessee. Highest peak: Clingman's Dome, 2024 m (6642 ft)
- have someone's number — a numeral or group of numerals.
- 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.
- 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
- ibm customer engineer — (job) (CE) A hardware guy from IBM.
- 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.
- immunoelectrophoresis — a technique for the separation and identification of mixtures of proteins, consisting of electrophoresis followed by immunodiffusion.
- immunohistochemically — By means of or in regard to immunohistochemistry.
- in good circumstances — (of a person) in a good financial situation
- 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 saecula saeculorum — for ever and ever.
- in someone's judgment — in someone's opinion
- in the course of time — eventually
- induction loop system — a system enabling partially deaf people to hear dialogue and sound in theatres, cinemas, etc, consisting of a loop of wire placed round the perimeter of a designated area. This emits an electromagnetic signal which is picked up by a hearing aid
- 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
- infectious ectromelia — ectromelia (def 2).
- jump all over someone — to spring clear of the ground or other support by a sudden muscular effort; leap: to jump into the air; to jump out a window.
- keep one's mouth shut — to keep a secret
- keep someone guessing — If someone keeps you guessing, they do not tell you what you want to know.
- keto-enol tautomerism — tautomerism in which the tautomers are an enol and a keto form. The change occurs by transfer of a hydrogen atom within the molecule
- knights of st columba — an international, semi-secret fraternal and charitable order for Catholic laymen, which originated in New Haven, Connecticut in 1882 (the Knights of Columbus)
- least common multiple — lowest common multiple.
- loch ness monster bug — (humour) (Or "Bugfoot") A bug which cannot be reproduced or has only been sighted by one person. Named after the mythical creature claimed to inhabit Loch Ness in Scotland.
- lost-and-found column — a column in a newspaper that carries advertisements from people who have lost or found things
- luminous flux density — luminous flux per unit of cross-sectional area.
- made of sterner stuff — If you say that someone is made of sterner stuff, you mean that they have a strong personality and are capable of overcoming difficulties and problems.
- magnetofluid dynamics — magnetohydrodynamics.
- management consultant — A management consultant is someone whose job is to advise companies on the most efficient ways to run their business.
- manufacturing process — chain of production
- mauna kea observatory — an astronomical observatory on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, situated at an altitude of 13,600 feet (4145 meters).
- mean square deviation — variance (def 3).
- mechanical suspension — the act of suspending.
- medium access control — Media Access Control
- motor neurone disease — Motor neurone disease is a disease which destroys the part of a person's nervous system that controls movement.
- munchausen's syndrome — a mental disorder in which a patient feigns illness to obtain hospital treatment
- muon-catalysed fusion — an experimental form of nuclear fusion in which hydrogen and deuterium muonic atoms are formed. Because the mass of the muon is much larger than that of the electron, the atoms are smaller, and the nuclei are close enough for fusion to occur
- negotiable instrument — order or promise to pay money
- night-blooming cereus — any of various cacti of the genera Hylocereus, Peniocereus, Nyctocereus, or Selenicereus, having large, usually white flowers that open at night.
- nine times out of ten — If you say that something happens or is the case nine times out of ten or ninety-nine times out of a hundred, you mean that it happens on nearly every occasion or is almost always the case.