19-letter words containing o, u
- aqueduct of sylvius — a canal in the midbrain, connecting the third and fourth ventricles of the brain.
- armed response unit — (in Britain) a unit of police officers who are trained to use firearms in situations where unarmed police officers would be in danger
- as long as your arm — If you say that a list is as long as your arm, you are emphasizing that it is very long.
- ask for a signature — If you ask for a signature, you ask someone to write their name, in their own characteristic way, on a document.
- at your convenience — at a time suitable to you
- audio response unit — a device that enables a computer to give a spoken response by generating sounds similar to human speech.
- augmented cognition — the study of the augmenting of human mental functions by computer programs
- augsburg confession — the statement of beliefs and doctrines of the Lutherans, formulated by Melanchthon and endorsed by the Lutheran princes, which was presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 and which became the chief creed of the Lutheran Church.
- auriculoventricular — atrioventricular.
- austro-prussian war — the war (1866) in which Prussia, Italy, and some minor German states opposed Austria, Saxony, Hanover, and the states of southern Germany.
- author's alteration — a correction or change made in typeset copy that is not a correction of an error introduced by the compositor. Abbreviation: AA, A.A., a.a., aa.
- autoerotic asphyxia — asphyxia caused by intentionally strangling oneself while masturbating in order to intensify the orgasm through reduced oxygen flow to the brain.
- autotransplantation — autograft.
- ave regina coelorum — a Latin hymn in honor of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven.
- backward somersault — a somersault performed in a backward direction with the legs leading the rest of the body
- baja california sur — a state of NW Mexico, in the S part of the Lower California peninsula. Capital: La Paz. Pop: 423 516 (2000). Area: 73 475 sq km (28 363 sq miles)
- balfour declaration — the statement made by Arthur Balfour in 1917 of British support for the setting up of a national home for the Jews in Palestine, provided that the rights of "existing non-Jewish communities" in Palestine could be safeguarded
- ballot-box stuffing — the act of illegally submitting more than one vote in a ballot in which only one vote is permitted
- bang for one's buck — value for money
- bankruptcy petition — an official request for protection under bankruptcy laws, which initiates bankruptcy proceedings
- barometric pressure — atmospheric pressure as indicated by a barometer
- battle of the bulge — (in World War II) the final major German counteroffensive in 1944 when the Allied forces were pushed back into NE Belgium; the Germans were repulsed by Jan 1945
- battle-ground state — a state of the U.S. in which the Democratic and Republican candidates both have a good chance of winning and that is considered key to the outcome of a presidential election: the swing states of Ohio and Indiana.
- battles of bull run — two battles fought at Manassas Junction near a stream named Bull Run, during the American Civil War (July, 1861 and August, 1862), in both of which the Federal army was routed by the Confederates
- baudotbetical order — (algorithm) /baw do bet' i k*l/ Sorted into an order where numerics and special characters are intermixed by sorting a 5-bit Baudot code file ignoring the numeric shift and unshift codes.
- bbc networking club — (body) A bulletin board run by the British Broadcasting Corporation Education department from April 1994 to 30 Nov 1995.
- be burnt to a crisp — If something is burnt to a crisp, it is completely burnt.
- be of use/be no use — If something or someone is of use, they are useful. If they are no use, they are not at all useful.
- be someone's junior — to be younger than someone
- be up to one's neck — the part of the body of an animal or human being that connects the head and the trunk.
- beat about the bush — to avoid the point at issue; prevaricate
- beauty preparations — the cosmetics, creams etc used to improve someone's beauty
- beggar-my-neighbour — a card game in which one player tries to win all the cards of the other player
- behavioural science — the application of scientific methods to the study of the behaviour of organisms
- bellybutton surgery — laparoscopy.
- below par/under par — If you feel below par or under par, you feel tired and unable to perform as well as you normally do.
- benedict's solution — a chemical solution used to detect the presence of glucose and other reducing sugars. Medically, it is used to test the urine of diabetics
- bernoulli principle — (Or "air foil principle", after Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli, 1700-1782) The law that pressure in a fluid decreases with the rate of flow. It has been applied to a class of hard disk drives. See Bernoulli Box.
- bernoulli's theorem — Statistics. law of averages (def 1).
- beside the question — not related to the subject under discussion
- beta-naphthyl group — See under naphthyl.
- bilingual education — schooling in which those not fluent in the standard or national language are taught in their own language.
- bill of particulars — an itemized statement of claims or counterclaims provided to the opposing party of a lawsuit
- binocular disparity — the small differences in the positions of the parts of the images falling on each eye that results when each eye views the scene from a slightly different position; these differences make stereoscopic vision possible
- bismuth oxychloride — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble powder, BiOCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of pigments, face powders, and artificial pearls.
- black forest gateau — a chocolate sponge cake containing morello cherries and whipped cream, with a topping of chocolate icing
- black-billed cuckoo — a black-billed North American cuckoo, Coccyzus erythropthalmus, that, unlike most cuckoos, constructs its own nest and rears its own young.
- blood pressure cuff — A blood pressure cuff is a medical device consisting of a piece of rubber or similar material that is wrapped around a patient's arm and then inflated in order to measure their blood pressure.
- bloodstock industry — the breeding and training of racehorses
- blowing your buffer — (jargon) Losing your train of thought. A reference to buffer overflow.