20-letter words containing u, n, m, e, r
- consumer electronics — computers and other electronic devices designed for private individuals as opposed to businesses
- consumer price index — The consumer price index is an official measure of the rate of inflation within a country's economy. The abbreviation CPI is also used.
- council of ministers — the EU's most important decision-making body
- council-manager plan — (in the US) a system of local government with an elected legislative council and an appointed administrative manager
- counterdemonstration — a demonstration that is held in reaction to another demonstration
- crime against nature — Law. sodomy.
- crime and punishment — a novel (1866) by Feodor Dostoevsky.
- declaratory judgment — a judgment that merely decides the rights of parties in a given transaction, situation, or dispute but does not order any action or award damages.
- diamond in the rough — a diamond in its natural state
- displacement current — the rate of change, at any point in space, of electric displacement with time.
- documentary evidence — law: written
- drum and bugle corps — a marching band of drum players and buglers.
- drunk mouse syndrome — (Also "mouse on drugs") A malady exhibited by the mouse pointing device of some computers. The typical symptom is for the mouse cursor on the screen to move in random directions and not in sync with the motion of the actual mouse. Can usually be corrected by unplugging the mouse and plugging it back again. Another recommended fix for optical mice is to rotate your mouse mat 90 degrees. At Xerox PARC in the 1970s, most people kept a can of copier cleaner (isopropyl alcohol) at their desks. When the steel ball on the mouse had picked up enough cruft to be unreliable, the mouse was doused in cleaner, which restored it for a while. However, this operation left a fine residue that accelerated the accumulation of cruft, so the dousings became more and more frequent. Finally, the mouse was declared "alcoholic" and sent to the clinic to be dried out in a CFC ultrasonic bath.
- dun & bradstreet — an agency furnishing subscribers with information as to the financial standing and credit rating of businesses
- early sunday morning — a painting (1930) by Edward Hopper.
- ecumenical patriarch — the patriarch of Constantinople, regarded as the highest dignitary of the Greek Orthodox Church.
- education department — the department of a local authority that is concerned with education, or the government department concerned with education
- eight queens problem — eight queens puzzle
- electromagnetic pump — a device for pumping liquid metals by placing a pipe between the poles of an electromagnet and passing a current through the liquid metal
- electromagnetic unit — any unit that belongs to a system of electrical cgs units in which the magnetic constant is given the value of unity and is taken as a pure number
- elementary education — the first six to eight years of a child's education
- eleusinian mysteries — a mystical religious festival, held in September at Eleusis in classical times, in which initiates celebrated Persephone, Demeter, and Dionysus
- equilibrium constant — The equilibrium constant is the ratio between the amount of reactants and the amount of product for a particular chemical reaction, used to calculate chemical behavior.
- equity of redemption — the right that a mortgager has in equity to redeem his property on payment of the sum owing, even though the sum is overdue
- erythema infectiosum — a mild infectious disease of childhood, caused by a virus, characterized by fever and a red rash spreading from the cheeks to the limbs and trunk
- estrela mountain dog — a sturdy well-built dog of a Portuguese breed with a long thick coat and a thick tuft of hair round the neck, often used as a guard dog
- financial instrument — A financial instrument is a document or contract that can be traded in a market, that represents an asset to one party and a liability or equity to the other.
- first-cause argument — an argument for the existence of God, asserting the necessity of an uncaused cause of all subsequent series of causes, on the assumption that an infinite regress is impossible.
- flame-fusion process — Verneuil process.
- flavour of the month — If you think that something or someone is very popular at a particular time, you can say that they are flavour of the month.
- fourteenth amendment — an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, defining national citizenship and forbidding the states to restrict the basic rights of citizens or other persons.
- frame check sequence — (communications) (FCS) The extra characters added to a frame for error detection and correction(?). FCS is used in X.25, HDLC, Frame Relay, and other data link layer protocols.
- frequency modulation — FM.
- fulminate of mercury — a gray, crystalline solid, Hg(CNO) 2 , used chiefly in the manufacture of commercial and military detonators.
- fundamental particle — elementary particle.
- fundamental research — research carried out to deepen understanding of the fundamental or basic principles of something
- gastroduodenostomies — Plural form of gastroduodenostomy.
- gentleman of fortune — an adventurer.
- geoffrey of monmouth — 1100?–1154, English chronicler.
- get someone's number — a numeral or group of numerals.
- green mountain state — Vermont (used as a nickname).
- hampton court palace — a royal palace in Hampton, London, built in 1515 by Cardinal Wolsey
- hexafluoroantimonate — (inorganic chemistry) The anion SbF6- or any salt containing this anion; it is used as an acidic catalyst in epoxide opening reactions.
- hindu-arabic numeral — Arabic numeral.
- honeysuckle ornament — anthemion.
- houses of parliament — In Britain, the Houses of Parliament are the British parliament, which consists of two parts, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The buildings where the British parliament does its work are also called the Houses of Parliament.
- human genome project — a federally funded U.S. scientific project to identify both the genes and the entire sequence of DNA base pairs that make up the human genome.
- human growth hormone — somatotropin. Abbreviation: hGH.
- human interest story — news item about people's lives
- human-interest story — a story or report, as in a newspaper or on a newscast, designed to engage attention and sympathy by enabling one to identify readily with the people, problems, and situations described.