16-letter words containing o, s, m
- appraisal method — a method used for the appraisal of an employee
- archaeoastronomy — the scientific study of the beliefs and practices concerning astronomy that existed in ancient and prehistoric civilizations
- archaeomagnetism — an archaeological technique for dating certain clay objects by measuring the extent to which they have been magnetized by the earth's magnetic field
- armed forces day — the third Saturday in May, observed in some areas of the U.S. as a holiday in honor of all branches of the armed forces.
- as distinct from — If you say that you are talking about one thing as distinct from another, you are indicating exactly which thing you mean.
- ashmolean museum — a museum, attached to Oxford University and founded in 1683, noted for its paintings and archaeological collections
- assembly routine — assembler (def 2a).
- assimilationists — Plural form of assimilationist.
- associate member — a person who is a member of a club, organization etc. but has only partial rights and privileges or subordinate status
- astrometeorology — the study of the theoretical effects of astronomical bodies and forces on the earth's atmosphere.
- astronomer royal — an honorary title awarded to an eminent British astronomer: until 1972, the Astronomer Royal was also director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory
- asymptomatically — showing no evidence of disease.
- atmospheric tide — a movement of atmospheric masses caused by the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon and by daily solar heating.
- atomic mass unit — a unit of mass used to express atomic and molecular weights that is equal to one twelfth of the mass of an atom of carbon-12. It is equivalent to 1.66 × 10–27 kg
- atomic physicist — a scientist specializing in atomic physics
- atomic structure — the concept of an atom as a central positively charged nucleus consisting of protons and neutrons surrounded by a number of electrons. The number of electrons is equal to the number of protons: the whole entity is thus electrically neutral
- atwood's machine — a device consisting of two unequal masses connected by a string passed over a pulley, used to illustrate the laws of motion.
- authoritarianism — Authoritarianism is the state of being authoritarian or the belief that people with power, especially the State, have the right to control other people's actions.
- automatic pistol — a type of pistol having a mechanism that throws out the empty shell, puts in a new one, and prepares the pistol to be fired again.
- autotransformers — Plural form of autotransformer.
- away from sb/sth — If something is away from a person or place, it is at a distance from that person or place.
- axis of symmetry — Mathematics. a straight line for which every point on a given curve has corresponding to it another point such that the line connecting the two points is bisected by the given line.
- bachelor-at-arms — bachelor (def 4).
- background music — music of any kind that is played while some other activity is going on, so that people do not actively attend to it
- backus-naur form — (language, grammar) (BNF, originally "Backus Normal Form") A formal metasyntax used to express context-free grammars. Backus Normal Form was renamed Backus-Naur Form at the suggestion of Donald Knuth. BNF is one of the most commonly used metasyntactic notations for specifying the syntax of programming languages, command sets, and the like. It is widely used for language descriptions but seldom documented anywhere (how do you document a metasyntax?), so that it must usually be learned by osmosis (but see RFC 2234). Consider this BNF for a US postal address:
::= ::= | "." ::= [ ] | ::= [ ] ::= "," This translates into English as: "A postal-address consists of a name-part, followed by a street-address part, followed by a zip-code part. A personal-part consists of either a first name or an initial followed by a dot. A name-part consists of either: a personal-part followed by a last name followed by an optional "jr-part" (Jr., Sr., or dynastic number) and end-of-line, or a personal part followed by a name part (this rule illustrates the use of recursion in BNFs, covering the case of people who use multiple first and middle names and/or initials). A street address consists of an optional apartment specifier, followed by a street number, followed by a street name. A zip-part consists of a town-name, followed by a comma, followed by a state code, followed by a ZIP-code followed by an end-of-line." Note that many things (such as the format of a personal-part, apartment specifier, or ZIP-code) are left unspecified. These lexical details are presumed to be obvious from context or specified somewhere nearby. There are many variants and extensions of BNF, possibly containing some or all of the regexp wild cards such as "*" or "+". EBNF is a common one. In fact the example above isn't the pure form invented for the ALGOL 60 report. "[]" was introduced a few years later in IBM's PL/I definition but is now universally recognised. ABNF is another extension. - balkan mountains — a mountain range extending across Bulgaria from the Black Sea to the eastern border. Highest peak: Mount Botev, 2376 m (7793 ft)
- baron tweedsmuir — the title of Scottish novelist John Buchan
- bartholomeu dias — Bartholomeu [bahr-too-loo-me-oo] /ˌbɑr tʊ lʊˈmɛ ʊ/ (Show IPA), c1450–1500, Portuguese navigator: discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope.
- basal metabolism — the amount of energy required by an individual in the resting state, for such functions as breathing and circulation of the blood
- basement complex — the undifferentiated assemblage of rock (basement rock) underlying the oldest stratified rocks in any region: usually crystalline, metamorphosed, and mostly, but not necessarily, Precambrian in age.
- basic dichromate — an orange-red, amorphous, water-insoluble powder, Bi 2 O 3 ⋅2CrO 3 , used chiefly as a pigment in paints.
- bastard mahogany — an Australian tree, Eucalyptus botryoides, of the myrtle family, having lance-shaped leaves and furrowed bark.
- be one's own man — to be independent or free
- bed-sitting room — a combined bedroom and sitting room serving as a one-room apartment
- beefsteak tomato — a very large fleshy variety of tomato
- belgian malinois — one of a Belgian breed of medium-sized dogs having a short coat, tan to dark brown in color, a black mask, and erect ears, bred originally as a sheepherding dog.
- benito mussolini — Benito [buh-nee-toh;; Italian be-nee-taw] /bəˈni toʊ;; Italian bɛˈni tɔ/ (Show IPA), (I"Il Duce") 1883–1945, Italian Fascist leader: premier of Italy 1922–43.
- benoit samuelson — Joan (Joan Benoit) born 1957, U.S. distance runner: first Olympic marathon women's winner, 1984.
- bertillon system — a system formerly in use for identifying persons, esp criminals, by means of a detailed record of physical characteristics
- bessemer process — (formerly) a process for producing steel by blowing air through molten pig iron at about 1250°C in a Bessemer converter: silicon, manganese, and phosphorus impurities are removed and the carbon content is controlled
- binet-simon test — an intelligence test that consists of questions, problems, and things to do, graded in terms of mental age
- biometeorologist — the scientific study of the effects of natural or artificial atmospheric conditions, as temperature and humidity, on living organisms.
- blonde bombshell — Journalists sometimes use blonde bombshell to refer to a woman with blonde hair who is very attractive.
- bloomsbury group — a group of writers, artists, and intellectuals living and working in and around Bloomsbury in London from about 1907 to 1930. Influenced by the philosophy of G. E. Moore, they included Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Clive and Vanessa Bell, Roger Fry, E. M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, Duncan Grant, and John Maynard Keynes
- boatswain's mate — a job classification in the US navy
- bootstrap memory — memory that allows new programs to be entered because some simple preliminary instructions or information are already built in.
- bornholm disease — an epidemic virus infection characterized by pain round the base of the chest
- boston cream pie — a cake of two layers with icing and a creamy filling
- boulogne-sur-mer — a port in N France, on the English Channel. Pop: 44 859 (1999)
- bowman's capsule — a membranous, double-walled capsule surrounding a glomerulus of a nephron.