18-letter words containing u, r, i
- language universal — a trait or property of language that exists, or has the potential to exist, in all languages.
- last in, first out — The expression last in, first out is used to say that the last person who started work in an organization should be the first person to leave it, if fewer people are needed.
- last-in, first-out — an inventory plan based on the assumption that materials constituting manufacturing costs should be carried on the books at the market price of the last lot received. Abbreviation: LIFO. Compare first-in, first-out.
- laugh like a drain — to laugh loudly and coarsely
- launching ceremony — a ceremony that celebrates the launch of a ship for the first time into the water
- laurentian plateau — (in Canada) the wide area of Precambrian rock extending west from the Labrador coast to the basin of the Mackenzie and north from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and the Arctic: rich in minerals
- lean manufacturing — efficiency in the production of goods
- leave in the lurch — a situation at the close of various games in which the loser scores nothing or is far behind the opponent.
- lenticular process — a method for producing images with a three-dimensional effect by photographing on lenticulated film.
- lieutenant general — a commissioned officer ranking next below a general and next above a major general.
- like a house afire — a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
- limburger (cheese) — a semisoft cheese of whole milk, with a strong odor and flavor, made originally in Limburg, Belgium
- liqueur chocolates — chocolates containing liqueur
- liquid distributor — A liquid distributor is a device which is used to spread liquid when it enters a packed column (= a tall vessel with packing, used for separating substances).
- literae humaniores — (at Oxford University) the faculty concerned with Greek and Latin literature, ancient history, and philosophy; classics
- logarithmus dualis — (mathematics) (ld) Latin for logarithm base two. More commonly written as "log" with a subscript "2". Roughly the number of bits required to represent an integer.
- long hundredweight — a hundredweight of 112 pounds (50.8 kg), the usual hundredweight in Great Britain, but now rare in the U.S.
- lord chief justice — the presiding judge of Britain's High Court of Justice, the superior court of record for both criminal and civil cases.
- loschmidt's number — the number of molecules in one cubic centimeter of an ideal gas at standard temperature and pressure, equal to 2.687 × 10 19.
- louisiana purchase — a treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
- lunitidal interval — the period of time between the moon's transit and the next high lunar tide.
- maclaurin's series — an infinite sum giving the value of a function f(x) in terms of the derivatives of the function evaluated at zero: f(x) = f(0) + (f′(0)x)/1! + (f″(0)x2)/2! + …
- magistrate's court — a court having limited jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters, as matters of contract not exceeding a particular amount of money.
- magistrates' court — law: handles minor crimes
- magnesium arsenate — a white, water-insoluble powder, Mg 3 (AsO 4) 2 ⋅xH 2 O, used chiefly as an insecticide.
- magnesium peroxide — a white, tasteless, water-insoluble powder, MgO 2 , used as an antiseptic and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
- magnesium stearate — Magnesium stearate is a salt that is often used as a diluent and lubricant in tablets and capsules.
- major tranquilizer — antipsychotic (def 2).
- manufacturing base — the manufacturing industries of an area or a country considered as a unit and a constituent part of the economy
- marine underwriter — an underwriter who specializes in marine insurance
- market opportunity — a situation in which a company can meet an unsatisfied customer need before its competitors
- marriage encounter — a meeting with a person or thing, especially a casual, unexpected, or brief meeting: Our running into each other was merely a chance encounter.
- marsilius of padua — c1280–1343? Italian scholar and political theorist.
- melt in your mouth — to require little or no chewing
- mercurous chloride — calomel.
- mercury delay line — (storage, history) An archaic first-in first-out fixed time period data storage device using acoustic transducers to transmit data as waves in a trough or tube of mercury. EDSAC (Cambridge) and UNIVAC I used delay lines.
- mergui archipelago — a group of over 200 islands in the Andaman Sea, off the Tenasserim coast of S Myanmar: mountainous and forested
- microencapsulation — the process of enclosing chemical substances in microcapsules.
- microminiaturizing — Present participle of microminiaturize.
- microwave spectrum — a spectrum of electromagnetic radiations whose wavelengths fall in the microwave range.
- middleburg heights — a town in N Ohio.
- milkweed butterfly — monarch butterfly.
- mineral supplement — a pill containing minerals that you take to improve your health
- miniature pinscher — one of a German breed of toy dogs resembling a smaller version of the Doberman pinscher, having a flat skull, a smooth coat, erect ears, and a docked tail, bred originally as a watchdog.
- minor tranquilizer — antianxiety drug.
- misunderestimation — (nonstandard) An inaccurate underestimation, or an act of misunderestimating.
- mixed-flow turbine — a water turbine in which water flows radially and axially through the rotating vanes
- modular arithmetic — arithmetic in which numbers that are congruent modulo a given number are treated as the same. Compare congruence (def 2), modulo, modulus (def 2b).
- modulus of torsion — a coefficient of elasticity of a substance, expressing the ratio between the force per unit area (shearing stress) that laterally deforms the substance and the shear (shearing strain) that is produced by this force.
- molecular genetics — a subdivision of genetics concerned with the structure and function of genes at the molecular level.