16-letter words containing x, n, a
- mason-dixon line — the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland, partly surveyed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon between 1763 and 1767, popularly considered before the end of slavery as a line of demarcation between free and slave states.
- matrix mechanics — a formulation of non-relativistic quantum mechanics in which physical quantities are represented by matrices and matrix algebra is used to predict the outcome of physical measurements.
- maximilian armor — full plate armor of the early 16th century, representing a combination of Italian and German styles and characterized by extensive use of fluting for lightness and strength.
- maximilien sully — Maximilien de Béthune [mak-see-mee-lyan duh bey-tyn] /mak si miˈlyɛ̃ də beɪˈtün/ (Show IPA), Duc de, 1560–1641, French statesman.
- medical examiner — a physician or other person trained in medicine who is appointed by a city, county, or the like, to perform autopsies on the bodies of persons supposed to have died from unnatural causes and to investigate the cause and circumstances of such deaths.
- mexican fruitfly — a brightly colored fly, Anastrepha ludens, whose larvae are a serious pest chiefly of citrus fruits and mangoes in Mexico, Central America, and southern Texas.
- mexican hairless — one of a breed of small dogs having no hair except for a tuft on the top of the head and a little fuzz on the lower part of the tail.
- mexican standoff — a stalemate or impasse; a confrontation that neither side can win.
- mexican-american — Also, Mexican American. a citizen or resident of the U.S. of Mexican birth or descent; Chicano.
- mock examination — an examination, esp in a school, taken as practice before an official examination
- mutual exclusion — (parallel, operating system) (Or "mutex", plural: "mutexes") A collection of techniques for sharing resources so that different uses do not conflict and cause unwanted interactions. One of the most commonly used techniques for mutual exclusion is the semaphore.
- neapolitan sixth — (in musical harmony) a chord composed of the subdominant of the key, plus a minor third and a minor sixth. Harmonically it is equivalent to the first inversion of a major chord built upon the flattened supertonic
- no fixed address — Someone who is of no fixed address does not have a permanent place to live.
- non-experiential — pertaining to or derived from experience.
- non-experimental — pertaining to, derived from, or founded on experiment: an experimental science.
- non-extraditable — capable of being extradited; subject to extradition: an extraditable person.
- non-intoxicating — causing or capable of causing intoxication: intoxicating beverages.
- orthodoxy sunday — a solemn festival held on the first Sunday of Lent (Orthodoxy Sunday) commemorating the restoration of the use of icons in the church (a.d. 842) and the triumph over all heresies.
- over-expectation — the act or the state of expecting: to wait in expectation.
- over-explanation — the act or process of explaining.
- overexploitation — use or utilization, especially for profit: the exploitation of newly discovered oil fields.
- oxidation number — the state of an element or ion in a compound with regard to the electrons gained or lost by the element or ion in the reaction that formed the compound, expressed as a positive or negative number indicating the ionic charge of the element or ion.
- phagocytic index — the average number of bacteria ingested per phagocyte in an incubated mixture of bacteria, phagocytes, and blood serum: used in determining the opsonic index.
- phenoxybenzamine — an alpha blocker, C 1 8 H 2 2 ClNO, used to dilate vascular peripheral blood vessels in the treatment of Raynaud's disease and in pheochromocytoma.
- postfix notation — (language) (Or "Reverse Polish Notation", RPN) One of the possible orderings of functions and operands: in postfix notation the functions are preceded by all their operands. For example, what may normally be written as "1+2" becomes "1 2 +". Postfix notation is well suited for stack based architectures but modern compilers reduced this advantage considerably. The best-known language with postfix syntax is FORTH. Some Hewlett-Packard calculators use it, e.g. HP-25, HP-29C, HP-41C, HP-23SII. Compare: infix notation, prefix notation.
- presentation box — a specially designed and attractive box to hold a product, and make it look more impressive
- proxima centauri — the nearest star to the sun at a distance of 4.3 light-years, part of the Alpha Centauri triple-star system located in the constellation Centaurus.
- radiant exitance — the ability of a surface to emit radiation expressed as the radiant flux emitted per unit area at a specified point on the surface
- rate of exchange — exchange rate.
- recreational sex — sex for the purpose of pleasure rather than reproduction, without the commitment of a relationship
- reflexive domain — A domain satisfying a recursive domain equation. E.g. D = D -> D.
- refractive index — index of refraction.
- rotation of axes — a process of replacing the axes in a Cartesian coordinate system with a new set of axes making a specified angle with and having the same origin as the original axes.
- russian orthodox — of or relating to the Russian Orthodox Church
- scandinavian lox — a kind of brine-cured salmon, having either a salt cure (Scandinavian lox) or a sugar cure (Nova Scotia lox) often eaten with cream cheese on a bagel.
- self-examination — examination into one's own state, conduct, motives, etc.
- self-explanatory — explaining itself; needing no explanation; obvious.
- self-explication — the act of explicating.
- sex-and-shopping — (of a novel) belonging to a genre of novel in which the central character, a woman, has a number of sexual encounters, and the author mentions the name of many up-market products
- sexual deviation — a type of mental disorder characterized by a preference for or obsession with unusual sexual practices, as pedophilia, sadomasochism, or exhibitionism.
- sexual relations — sexual intercourse; coitus.
- sexual selection — a special type of natural selection in which the sexes acquire distinct forms either because the members of one sex choose mates with particular features or because in the competition for mates among the members of one sex only those with certain traits succeed.
- social exclusion — Social exclusion is the act of making certain groups of people within a society feel isolated and unimportant.
- tax depreciation — Tax depreciation is depreciation in a company's internal financial records that is different from the amount that is used for the internal books.
- texas revolution — a revolutionary movement, 1832–36, in which U.S. settlers asserted their independence from Mexico and established the republic of Texas.
- titanium dioxide — a white, water-insoluble powder, TiO 2 , used chiefly in white pigments, plastics, ceramics, and for delustering synthetic fibers.
- triple-expansion — noting a power source, especially a steam engine, using the same fluid at three successive stages of expansion to do work in three or more cylinders.
- unix manual page — (operating system) (Or "man page") A part of Unix's extensive on-line documentation. To read a manual page from the Unix command line, type: man [-s
] e.g. "man ftp" (the section number can usually be omitted). Pages are traditionally referred to using the notation "page(section)", e.g. ftp(1). Under SunOS (which is fairly typical), Section 1 covers commands, 2 system calls, 3 C library routines, 4 devices and networks, 5 file formats, 6 games and demos, 7 miscellaneous, 8 system administration. Each section has an introduction which can be obtained with, e.g., "man 2 intro". Manual pages are stored as nroff source files. Formatted versions are also usually cached. Man pages for most versions of Unix are available on-line in HTML. - uranium trioxide — a radioactive orange powder, UO 3 , used in the manufacture of some ceramics.
- vauxhall gardens — a public garden at Vauxhall, laid out in 1661; a fashionable meeting place and site of lavish entertainments. Closed in 1859