18-letter words containing r, e, i, n
- alternating series — a series, usually infinite, in which successive terms have opposite signs, as 1 − ½ + ¼ − ⅛ +. ….
- alternative comedy — a style of comedy originating in the UK in the 1980s that seeks to avoid racist or sexist stereotypes, and usually puts forward left-wing, anti-establishment views
- alternative energy — a form of energy derived from a natural source, such as the sun, wind, tides, or waves
- alternative school — any public or private school having a special curriculum, especially an elementary or secondary school offering a more flexible program of study than a traditional school.
- alumina trihydrate — a crystalline, water-insoluble powder, Al(OH) 3 or Al 2 O 3 ⋅3H 2 O, obtained chiefly from bauxite: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, and printing inks, in dyeing, and in medicine as an antacid and in the treatment of ulcers.
- aluminum hydroxide — a white powder, Al(OH)3, obtained from bauxite and used to make glass, paper, etc. and in antacids
- american brooklime — any of various speedwells found along brooks, in marshes, etc., as Veronica americana (American brooklime) a creeping plant having leafy stems and loose clusters of small blue flowers.
- american chameleon — anole: lizards of this type (family Iguanidae) are incorrectly called “chameleons”
- american civil war — the war in the U.S. between the North and the South, 1861–65.
- american cockroach — a large, reddish-brown cockroach, Periplaneta americana, found originally in the southern U.S. but now widely distributed.
- american cranberry — See under cranberry (def 1).
- ammonium carbamate — a white soluble crystalline compound produced by reaction between dry ammonia and carbon dioxide and used as a nitrogen fertilizer. Formula: (NH4)CO2NH2
- ammonium carbonate — an unstable pungent soluble white powder that is a double salt of ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium carbamate: used in the manufacture of baking powder, smelling salts, and ammonium compounds. Formula: (NH4)HCO3.(NH4)CO2NH2
- ammonium hydroxide — a compound existing only in aqueous solution, formed when ammonia dissolves in water to form ammonium ions and hydroxide ions. Formula: NH4OH
- ammonium purpurate — murexide.
- an overgrown child — an adult whose behaviour is characteristic of a child
- analogue recording — a sound recording process in which an audio input is converted into an analogous electrical waveform
- analytical reagent — a chemical compound of a known high standard of purity
- andorre la vieille — French name for the capital of Andorra, situated in the west of the principality. Pop: 22 035 (2003 est)
- andrew file system — (operating system, storage) (AFS) The distributed file system of the Andrew Project, adopted by the OSF as part of their Distributed Computing Environment.
- angular dispersion — a measure of the angular separation of light rays of different wavelength or color traversing a prism or diffraction grating, equal to the rate of change of the angle of deviation with respect to the change in wavelength.
- anniversary dinner — a dinner held to celebrate an event that occurred in some previous year
- anterior pituitary — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- anthropocentricity — the state or quality of being anthropocentric.
- anti-aircraft fire — the discharging of weapons, artillery, etc aimed at destroying enemy aircraft
- anti-commercialism — the principles, practices, and spirit of commerce.
- anti-revolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- anticholinesterase — any of a group of substances that inhibit the action of cholinesterase
- anticipated profit — the profit that one expects to make from a deal, transaction, or project
- antiferromagnetism — the phenomenon exhibited by substances that resemble paramagnetic substances in the value of their relative permeability but that behave like ferromagnetic substances when their temperature is varied
- antisegregationist — opposed to the segregation of different races in any human activity
- antivirus software — (tool) Programs to detect and remove computer viruses. The simplest kind scans executable files and boot blocks for a list of known viruses. Others are constantly active, attempting to detect the actions of general classes of viruses. antivirus software should always include a regular update service allowing it to keep up with the latest viruses as they are released.
- apartment building — An apartment building or apartment house is a tall building which contains different apartments on different floors.
- aperture synthesis — an array of radio telescopes used in radio astronomy to simulate a single large-aperture telescope. Some such instruments use movable dishes while others use fixed dishes
- apparent magnitude — magnitude (sense 3)
- application server — 1.
A designer's or developer's suite of software that helps programmers isolate the business logic in their programs from the platform-related code. Application servers can handle all of the application logic and connectivity found in client-server applications. Many application servers also offer features such as transaction management, clustering and failover, and load balancing; nearly all offer ODBC support. 2. Production programs run on a mid-sized computer that handle all application operations between browser-based computers and an organisation's back-end business applications or databases. The application server works as a translator, allowing, for example, a customer with a browser to search an online retailer's database for pricing information. 3. The device on which application server software runs. Application Service Providers offer commercial access to such devices. - apprentice plumber — a trainee plumber
- arbiter elegantiae — Gaius [gey-uh s] /ˈgeɪ əs/ (Show IPA), (Gaius Petronius Arbiter"Arbiter Elegantiae") died a.d. 66? Roman satirist.
- arbitration clause — a clause in a contract laying down that disputes between the parties should be settled by arbitration
- aristotelian logic — the logical theories of Aristotle as developed in the Middle Ages, concerned mainly with syllogistic reasoning: traditional as opposed to modern or symbolic logic
- aristotles-lantern — a complex arrangement of muscles and calcareous teeth and plates forming an eversible organ in most echinoids, functioning in mastication.
- arm's-length price — a price of a transaction agreed in accordance with market values, disregarding any connection such as common ownership of the companies involved
- armed intervention — an official response to a situation which involves the armed forces
- arsenic trisulfide — a yellow or red crystalline substance, As 2 S 3 , occurring in nature as the mineral orpiment, and used as a pigment (king's yellow) and in pyrotechnics.
- as near as damn it — as near as possible; very near
- assignment problem — (mathematics, algorithm) (Or "linear assignment") Any problem involving minimising the sum of C(a, b) over a set P of pairs (a, b) where a is an element of some set A and b is an element of set B, and C is some function, under constraints such as "each element of A must appear exactly once in P" or similarly for B, or both. For example, the a's could be workers and the b's projects. The problem is "linear" because the "cost function" C() depends only on the particular pairing (a, b) and is independent of all other pairings.
- association cortex — any of the regions of the cerebral cortex of the brain connected by numerous nerve fibers to all parts of both cerebral hemispheres and coordinating such higher activities as learning and reasoning.
- assortative mating — the reproductive pairing of individuals that have more traits in common than would likely be the case if mating were random (contrasted with disassortative mating).
- ast research, inc. — (company) A company, formed some time before 1980, that was a leading personal computer manufacturer. AST developed desktop computers, mobile computers, and servers that were sold in more than 100 countries worldwide. In January 1999 the name and intellectual property were acquired by a new company named AST Computers, LLC. As of 2000-03-02 it was trading as ARI Service.
- astrometric binary — a binary star that can be recognized as such because of its undulating proper motion.