22-letter words containing r, t, c
- bankrupt's certificate — a document given to a bankrupt with the consent of their creditors, stating that the bankrupt has disclosed and surrendered all his property
- bankruptcy proceedings — the legal business of a bankruptcy case
- bartolome de las casas — Bartolomé de las [bahr-taw-law-me th e lahs] /ˌbɑr tɔ lɔˈmɛ ðɛ lɑs/ (Show IPA), Las Casas, Bartolomé de.
- basic operating system — (operating system) (BOS) An early [when?] IBM operating system. According to folklore, BOS was the predecessor to TOS on the IBM 360 and it was IPL'd from a card reader. It may have been intended for very small 360's with no disks and limited tape drives. BOS died out really early [when?] as disks such as the 2311 and 2314 became common with the IBM 360, whereas disks had been a real luxury on the IBM 7090.
- behaviour modification — the use of techniques to change someone's behaviour by reinforcing desired behaviour
- being from outer space — a monster; an imaginary creature
- bereavement counsellor — a person giving advice to bereaved people to help them cope with their grief
- bernoulli's lemniscate — Analytic Geometry. lemniscate.
- bidirectional printing — (hardware) A feature of a printer whose printer head can print both when moving left to right and when moving right to left. Also known as "boustrophedonic".
- birthright citizenship — the practice of automatically granting citizenship to a child born in a particular country, regardless of the citizenship status of the parent or parents: an end to birthright citizenship.
- born in/out of wedlock — If a baby is born in wedlock, it is born while its parents are married. If it is born out of wedlock, it is born at a time when its parents are not married.
- brachiocephalic artery — a major artery, arising from the arch of the aorta, that supplies blood to the right arm and the head.
- bring down the curtain — If something brings down the curtain on an event or situation, it causes or marks the end of it.
- bristle-thighed curlew — an Alaskan curlew, Numenius tahitiensis, that winters in Polynesia, having bristlelike feathers on its thighs.
- bug-for-bug compatible — Same as bug-compatible, with the additional implication that much tedious effort went into ensuring that each (known) bug was replicated.
- calculus of variations — a branch of calculus concerned with maxima and minima of definite integrals
- carboxymethylcellulose — a white, water-soluble polymer derived from cellulose, used as a coating and sizing for paper and textiles, a stabilizer for various foods, and an appetite suppressor.
- cargo cult programming — (programming, humour) A style of (incompetent) programming dominated by ritual inclusion of code or program structures that serve no real purpose. A cargo cult programmer will usually explain the extra code as a way of working around some bug encountered in the past, but usually neither the bug nor the reason the code apparently avoided the bug was ever fully understood (compare shotgun debugging, voodoo programming). The term "cargo cult" is a reference to aboriginal religions that grew up in the South Pacific after World War II. The practices of these cults centre on building elaborate mockups of aeroplanes and military style landing strips in the hope of bringing the return of the god-like aeroplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war. Hackish usage probably derives from Richard Feynman's characterisation of certain practices as "cargo cult science" in his book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman" (W. W. Norton & Co, New York 1985, ISBN 0-393-01921-7).
- carpal tunnel syndrome — a condition characterized by pain and tingling in the fingers, caused by pressure on a nerve as it passes under the ligament situated across the front of the wrist
- catalyst transfer line — A catalyst transfer line is equipment which provides a smooth and constant catalyst flow.
- catch/take sb unawares — If something catches you unawares or takes you unawares, it happens when you are not expecting it.
- categorical imperative — (in the ethics of Kant) the unconditional moral principle that one's behaviour should accord with universalizable maxims which respect persons as ends in themselves; the obligation to do one's duty for its own sake and not in pursuit of further ends
- catoctin mountain park — a federal park in N central Maryland: site of Camp David. 9 sq. mi. (23 sq. km).
- cease-and-desist order — an order by a government agency to a person or corporation to terminate a business practice found by the agency to be illegal or unfair.
- centimeter-gram-second — designating or of a system of measurement in which the centimeter, gram, and second are the units of length, mass, and time, respectively
- central african empire — a former name (1976–79) of Central African Republic.
- central locking device — a small device that controls the central locking on a motor vehicle
- central nervous system — Your central nervous system is the part of your nervous system that consists of the brain and spinal cord.
- certificate of deposit — a negotiable certificate issued by a bank in return for a deposit of money for a term of up to five years
- challenge to the array — an objection by counsel to the whole panel of jurors called to a trial
- charity begins at home — If you say charity begins at home, you mean that people should deal with the needs of people close to them before they think about helping others.
- chicago board of trade — a major exchange in the United States that deals in futures, notably of grains and metals. Abbreviation: CBT.
- chinese army technique — Mongolian Hordes technique
- chinese water chestnut — a Chinese cyperaceous plant, Eleocharis tuberosa, with an edible succulent corm
- chlorotrifluoromethane — a colorless gas, CClF 3 , used chiefly as a refrigerant, in the hardening of metals, and in pharmaceutical processing.
- chorionic gonadotropin — Also called human chorionic gonadotropin. Biochemistry. a hormone, produced in the incipient placenta of pregnant women, that stimulates the production of estrogen and progesterone: its presence in blood or urine is an indication of pregnancy.
- chromosomal aberration — any irregularity or abnormality of chromosome distribution, number, structure, or arrangement.
- church of the brethren — the official name of the church of the Dunkers.
- cirrhosis of the liver — liver disease
- city of brotherly love — Philadelphia, Pa. (used as a nickname).
- classified advertising — advertising compactly arranged, as in newspaper columns, according to subject, under such listings as help wanted and lost and found
- client-centred therapy — a form of psychotherapy in which the therapist makes no attempt to interpret what the patient says but encourages him or her to develop his or her own attitudes and insights, often by questioning
- cockles of one's heart — one's deepest feelings (esp in the phrase warm the cockles of one's heart)
- cockpit voice recorder — a device which records conversations in and communications from the cockpit of an aircraft
- cognitive architecture — (architecture) A computer architecure involving non-deterministic, multiple inference processes, as found in neural networks. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers. The term might also refer to software architectures, e.g. fuzzy logic.
- coiled tubing drilling — Coiled tubing drilling is drilling using a narrow (1.75 to 3.5in) seamless tube of high-grade steel, wound onto a reel.
- collateral circulation — circulation of blood through a network of minor vessels that become enlarged and joined with adjacent vessels when a major vein or artery is impaired, as by obstruction.
- collective pitch lever — a lever in a helicopter to change the angle of attack of all the rotor blades simultaneously, causing it to rise or descend
- color graphics adapter — (hardware, graphics) (CGA) One of IBM's earliest hardware video display standards for use in IBM PCs. CGA can display 80*25 or 40*25 text in 16 colors, 640*200 pixels of graphics in two colors or 320*200 in four colors (IBM PC video modes 0-6). It is now obsolete.
- colorado potato beetle — a black and yellow leaf beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, originally of Colorado and neighboring states but now a common pest in all potato-growing regions of the U.S.