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22-letter words containing r, a, b, l, i, n

  • little st bernard pass — a pass over the Savoy Alps, between Bourg-Saint-Maurice, France, and La Thuile, Italy: 11th-century hospice. Height: 2187 m (7177 ft)
  • lower canada rebellion — an uprising of 1837, quickly crushed by the British militia, against the British colonial administration in Quebec.
  • make a beeline for sth — If you make a beeline for a place, you go to it as quickly and directly as possible.
  • metasyntactic variable — (grammar)   Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
  • miniature bull terrier — one of an English breed of small muscular dogs resembling a smaller version of a standard bull terrier, with a short, flat, harsh coat of glossy white or white with brindle patches.
  • motorcycle combination — a motorcycle with a sidecar attached
  • native elm bark beetle — elm bark beetle (def 2).
  • nickel-cadmium battery — a storage battery, with an alkaline electrolyte, having nickel oxide as the positive element and cadmium as the negative.
  • non-maskable interrupt — (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
  • object-oriented pascal — Object Pascal
  • obligational authority — the necessary authority that precedes budget spending by a government agency or department, granted by Congress through appropriations.
  • partial-birth abortion — (term used chiefly by opponents of abortion) D & C.
  • portable standard lisp — (language)   (PSL) A dialect of Lisp from Utah University. PSL is available as a kit for 68000 and also runs on VAX. It compiles Lisp to C-code virtual machine language.
  • preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
  • public domain software — public domain
  • pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
  • punctuated equilibrium — theory of, Biology. a hypothesis holding that the evolution of species proceeds in a characteristic pattern of relative stability for long periods of time interspersed with much shorter periods during which many species become extinct and new species emerge. Also called punctuationalism. Compare gradualism (def 3).
  • read between the lines — a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth, made with a pen, pencil, tool, etc., on a surface: a line down the middle of the page.
  • reliable communication — (communications)   Communication where messages are guaranteed to reach their destination complete and uncorrupted and in the order they were sent. This reliability can be built on top of an unreliable protocol by adding sequencing information and some kind of checksum or cyclic redundancy check to each message or packet. If the communication fails, the sender will be notified. Transmission Control Protocol is a reliable protocol used on Ethernet.
  • replacement cost basis — Replacement cost basis is a method of valuing insured property in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
  • research establishment — an establishment or institution where research or investigation into a subject, topic, etc, can be conducted
  • round-table discussion — a discussion held at a meeting of parties or people on equal terms
  • satellite broadcasting — the transmission of television or radio programmes from an artificial satellite at a power suitable for direct reception in the home
  • sb can whistle for sth — If you say that someone can whistle for a particular thing, you mean that you are not willing or able to give it to them.
  • scalable sampling rate — (compression, standard, algorithm)   (SSR) See, e.g., MPEG-4 AAC SSR.
  • simultaneous broadcast — a programme, etc, broadcast simultaneously on radio and television
  • sir william blackstone — Sir William, 1723–80, English jurist and writer on law.
  • social security number — A Social Security number is a nine digit number that is given to U.S. citizens and to people living in the U.S. You need it to get a job, collect Social Security benefits and receive some government services.
  • south african republic — former name of Transvaal.
  • start the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
  • subliminal advertising — a form of advertising on film or television that employs subliminal images to influence the viewer unconsciously
  • tapered roller bearing — a rolling bearing that uses tapered rollers running in coned races and is able to accept axial thrust as well as providing shaft location
  • the edinburgh festival — an arts festival held in Edinburgh in August
  • the golden gate bridge — a bridge crossing the strait between the Pacific and San Francisco Bay, with a central span of 1280 m (4200 ft)
  • threespine stickleback — a widely distributed stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, occurring in marine, brackish, or fresh waters throughout the northern hemisphere.
  • trans-siberian railway — a railway in S Russia, extending from Moscow to Vladivostok on the Pacific: constructed between 1891 and 1916, making possible the settlement and industrialization of sparsely inhabited regions. Length: 9335 km (5800 miles)
  • transition probability — the probability of going from a given state to the next state in a Markov process.
  • unreasonable behaviour — conduct by a spouse sufficient to cause the irretrievable breakdown of a marriage
  • urban district council — a council of an urban district that, in conjunction with a county council, has responsibilities for local government issues
  • william jennings bryan — William Jennings [jen-ingz] /ˈdʒɛn ɪŋz/ (Show IPA), 1860–1925, U.S. political leader.
  • william's bon chrétien — a variety of pear that has large yellow juicy sweet fruit
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