16-letter words containing u, m, b
- el camino bignum — (humour) /el' k*-mee'noh big'nuhm/ The road mundanely called El Camino Real, a road through the San Francisco peninsula that originally extended all the way down to Mexico City and many portions of which are still intact. Navigation on the San Francisco peninsula is usually done relative to El Camino Real, which defines logical north and south even though it isn't really north-south many places. El Camino Real runs right past Stanford University. The Spanish word "real" (which has two syllables: /ray-al'/) means "royal"; El Camino Real is "the royal road". In the Fortran language, a "real" quantity is a number typically precise to seven significant digits, and a "double precision" quantity is a larger floating-point number, precise to perhaps fourteen significant digits (other languages have similar "real" types). When a hacker from MIT visited Stanford in 1976, he remarked what a long road El Camino Real was. Making a pun on "real", he started calling it "El Camino Double Precision" - but when the hacker was told that the road was hundreds of miles long, he renamed it "El Camino Bignum", and that name has stuck. (See bignum).
- elburz mountains — a mountain range in N Iran, parallel to the SW and S shores of the Caspian Sea. Highest peak: Mount Demavend, 5671 m (18 606 ft)
- embourgeoisement — (chiefly UK) The taking-up of middle-class attitudes or values; bourgeoisification; the process of becoming affluent.
- emotional labour — work that requires good interpersonal skills
- executive member — a member of an executive committee
- fibonacci number — a number in the Fibonacci sequence, each of which is the sum of the previous two
- first-time buyer — someone who is buying his or her first house
- flamborough head — a chalk promontory in NE England, on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
- flashbulb memory — the clear recollections that a person may have of the circumstances associated with a dramatic event
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- four-masted brig — jackass bark (def 2).
- full to the brim — If something, especially a container, is filled to the brim or full to the brim with something, it is filled right up to the top.
- fundamental bass — a bass consisting of the roots of the chords employed.
- gentlemen's club — a private social club whose members were traditionally aristocratic males
- gingerbread plum — a tree, Neocarya macrophylla, of western Africa, bearing a large, edible, starchy fruit.
- global community — the people or nations of the world, considered as being closely connected by modern telecommunications and as being economically, socially, and politically interdependent
- go out on a limb — say sth daring
- gulf of martaban — an inlet of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar
- have a big mouth — to speak indiscreetly, loudly, or excessively
- heterometabolous — undergoing development in which the young are born adultlike in form, often maturing without a pupal stage.
- hot buttered rum — a drink made with rum, hot water, and sugar, served with a lump of butter in a mug.
- humanly possible — feasible, practical
- humboldt current — a cold Pacific Ocean current flowing N along the coasts of Chile and Peru.
- hummingbird moth — hawk moth.
- hunt the thimble — a children's game in which the players look for a hidden thimble
- hydration number — the number of molecules of water with which an ion can combine in an aqueous solution of given concentration.
- hyperreal number — any of the set of numbers formed by the addition of infinite numbers and infinitesimal numbers to the set of real numbers
- imaginary number — Also called imaginary, pure imaginary number. a complex number having its real part equal to zero.
- immeasurableness — The state or condition of being immeasurable.
- imperturbability — incapable of being upset or agitated; not easily excited; calm: imperturbable composure.
- incombustibility — The quality or state of being incombustible.
- incommensurables — Plural form of incommensurable.
- jacques bonhomme — the contemptuous title given by the nobles to the peasants in the revolt of the Jacquerie in 1358 and adopted by the peasants in subsequent revolts.
- journeyman baker — a baker who is qualified to work in the employment of another
- judas maccabaeus — Judas or Judah [joo-duh] /ˈdʒu də/ (Show IPA), ("the Hammer") died c. 160 b.c, Judean patriot, one of the Maccabees: military leader 166–160 (son of Mattathias).
- kingdom-of-nubia — a region in S Egypt and the Sudan, N of Khartoum, extending from the Nile to the Red Sea.
- labour agreement — a contract between workers and managers setting out working conditions, wages, etc
- lambada-calculus — (humour, logic) (A pun on "lambda-calculus") Teaching logic thru spanish dance steps. Invented by P. van der Linden <[email protected]>.
- latent ambiguity — uncertainty that arises when a seemingly clear written instrument is matched against an extrinsic fact, as when a description of something being sold fits two different items.
- lesbian cymatium — cyma reversa.
- lightbulb moment — a moment of sudden inspiration, revelation, or recognition
- limited-stop bus — a bus which only stops at a small number of predetermined stops, rather than on request
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- madame butterfly — an opera (1904) by Giacomo Puccini.
- mahalla el kubra — a city in Egypt, on the Nile delta.
- mari el republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Yoshkar-Ola. Pop: 728 000 (2002). Area: 23 200 sq km (8955 sq miles)
- martin van buren — Martin, 1782–1862, 8th president of the U.S. 1837–41.
- medulloblastomas — Plural form of medulloblastoma.
- mesembryanthemum — any of various chiefly Old World plants of the genus Mesembryanthemum, having thick, fleshy leaves and often showy flowers.
- metes and bounds — the precisely described boundary lines of a parcel of land, as found in a deed