18-letter words containing v, e, s, l
- gravitational lens — a heavy, dense body, as a galaxy, that lies along our line of sight to a more distant object, as a quasar, and whose gravitational field refracts the light of that object, splitting it into multiple images as seen from the earth.
- gulf saint vincent — a shallow inlet of SE South Australia, to the east of the Yorke Peninsula: salt industry
- gulliver's travels — a social and political satire (1726) by Jonathan Swift, narrating the voyages of Lemuel Gulliver to four imaginary regions: Lilliput, Brobdingnag, Laputa, and the land of the Houyhnhnms.
- have a screw loose — a metal fastener having a tapered shank with a helical thread, and topped with a slotted head, driven into wood or the like by rotating, especially by means of a screwdriver.
- have a slate loose — to be eccentric or crazy
- have eyes only for — the organ of sight, in vertebrates typically one of a pair of spherical bodies contained in an orbit of the skull and in humans appearing externally as a dense, white, curved membrane, or sclera, surrounding a circular, colored portion, or iris, that is covered by a clear, curved membrane, or cornea, and in the center of which is an opening, or pupil, through which light passes to the retina.
- high-sided vehicle — an official term for lorries, vans, trailers, etc with a height greater than that of motor cars
- hold a reservation — If a hotel holds a reservation, it keeps a room for someone, and does not give it to someone else.
- homelands movement — the programme to resettle native Australians on their tribal lands
- inclusive language — language that avoids the use of certain expressions or words that might be considered to exclude particular groups of people, esp gender-specific words, such as "man", "mankind", and masculine pronouns, the use of which might be considered to exclude women
- industrial vehicle — a vehicle designed for use in industry
- inverse square law — one of several laws relating two quantities such that one quantity varies inversely as the square of the other, as the law that the illumination produced on a screen by a point source varies inversely as the square of the distance of the screen from the source.
- investment analyst — a specialist in forecasting the prices of stocks and shares
- invisible earnings — earnings from services provided rather than goods
- involuntary muscle — muscle: contracts involuntarily
- isidore of seville — Saint (Isidorus Hispalensis) a.d. c570–636, Spanish archbishop, historian, and encyclopedist.
- iverson's language — APL, which went unnamed for many years.
- jacksonville beach — a city in NE Florida.
- language universal — a trait or property of language that exists, or has the potential to exist, in all languages.
- leave sth too late — If you leave something too late, you delay doing it so that when you eventually do it, it is useless or ineffective.
- legislative branch — the branch of government having the power to make laws; the legislature.
- lifesaving service — a private organization or government agency for general marine rescue operations.
- limestone pavement — a horizontal surface of exposed limestone in which the joints have been enlarged, cutting the surface into roughly rectangular blocks
- linear perspective — a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point (one-point perspective) two points (two-point perspective) or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position.
- live by one's wits — the keen perception and cleverly apt expression of those connections between ideas that awaken amusement and pleasure. Synonyms: drollery, facetiousness, waggishness, repartee.
- lives of the poets — a collection (1779–81), by Samuel Johnson, of biographical and critical essays on 52 English poets.
- love-lies-bleeding — an amaranth, especially Amaranthus caudatus, having spikes of crimson flowers.
- lowell observatory — the astronomical observatory, situated in Flagstaff, Arizona, at which Pluto was discovered in 1930.
- maksutov telescope — a reflecting telescope in which coma and spherical aberration are reduced to a minimum by a combination of a spherical mirror and a meniscus lens placed inside the radius of curvature of the mirror.
- margaret of valois — ("Queen Margot") 1533–1615, 1st wife of Henry IV of France: queen of Navarre; patron of science and literature (daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici).
- melville peninsula — a peninsula in N Canada, SE of the Gulf of Boothia. 250 miles (405 km) long.
- menendez de aviles — Pedro [pe-th raw] /ˈpɛ ðrɔ/ (Show IPA), 1519–74, Spanish admiral and colonizer: founder of St. Augustine, Florida 1565.
- mental reservation — an unexpressed doubt or qualification about a situation, person, etc.
- minimally invasive — (of medical treatments or procedures) requiring only a small incision or the insertion of an instrument into a body cavity; involving minimal damage of body tissue: minimally invasive endoscopy.
- move the goalposts — to change the aims of an activity to ensure the desired results
- mutually exclusive — of or relating to a situation involving two or more events, possibilities, etc., in which the occurrence of one precludes the occurrence of the other: mutually exclusive plans of action.
- mutually recursive — recursion
- negative cash flow — the situation when income is less than payments
- neovascularization — the development of new blood vessels, especially in tissues where circulation has been impaired by trauma or disease.
- non-conversational — able or ready to converse; given to conversation.
- non-self-governing — governed by itself or having self-government, as a state or community; independent.
- northern transvaal — province of South Africa, in the N part: 47,599 sq mi (123,280 sq km); pop. 5,202,000; cap. Pietersburg
- nueva san salvador — Santa Tecla.
- objective idealism — a form of idealism asserting that the act of experiencing has a reality combining and transcending the natures of the object experienced and of the mind of the observer.
- offensive material — any published or broadcast content (such as articles, photographs, films, or websites) that is likely to be upsetting, insulting, or objectionable to some or most people
- on everyone's lips — being much discussed
- one false move and — You use one false move to introduce the very bad or serious consequences which will result if someone makes a mistake, even a very small one.
- optical disc drive — optical disk drive
- optical disk drive — (hardware) (Or "optical disc drive", "optical storage") A generic term for any device that reads and/or writes optical media, i.e. compact discs, DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs or future media that uses light (from a small laser) to read data off a removable, rotating disk. At least one such drive is commonly installed in most personal computers to allow them to play and/or record audio and video media and load and store data such as program installers. The floppy disk has been replaced by optical media due to its vastly greater capacity, e.g. 50,000 megabytes for a dual-layer blu-ray disc compared with 1.5 megabytes for a floppy (over 30,000 times as much).
- overspecialization — excessive specialization, as in a field of study.