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19-letter words containing y, i

  • binary large object — (database)   (BLOB) A large block of data stored in a database, such as an image or sound file. A BLOB has no structure which can be interpreted by the database management system but is known only by its size and location.
  • binocular disparity — the small differences in the positions of the parts of the images falling on each eye that results when each eye views the scene from a slightly different position; these differences make stereoscopic vision possible
  • bird's-eye primrose — a Eurasian primrose, Primula farinosa, having clusters of purplish flowers with yellow centres
  • bismuth oxychloride — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble powder, BiOCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of pigments, face powders, and artificial pearls.
  • bit-paired keyboard — (hardware)   (Obsolete, or "bit-shift keyboard") A non-standard keyboard layout that seems to have originated with the Teletype ASR-33 and remained common for several years on early computer equipment. The ASR-33 was a mechanical device (see EOU), so the only way to generate the character codes from keystrokes was by some physical linkage. The design of the ASR-33 assigned each character key a basic pattern that could be modified by flipping bits if the SHIFT or the CTRL key was pressed. In order to avoid making the thing more of a Rube Goldberg kluge than it already was, the design had to group characters that shared the same basic bit pattern on one key. Looking at the ASCII chart, we find: high low bits bits 0000 0001 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111 1000 1001 010 ! " # $ % & ' ( ) 011 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 This is why the characters !"#$%&'() appear where they do on a Teletype (thankfully, they didn't use shift-0 for space). This was *not* the weirdest variant of the QWERTY layout widely seen, by the way; that prize should probably go to one of several (differing) arrangements on IBM's even clunkier 026 and 029 card punches. When electronic terminals became popular, in the early 1970s, there was no agreement in the industry over how the keyboards should be laid out. Some vendors opted to emulate the Teletype keyboard, while others used the flexibility of electronic circuitry to make their product look like an office typewriter. These alternatives became known as "bit-paired" and "typewriter-paired" keyboards. To a hacker, the bit-paired keyboard seemed far more logical - and because most hackers in those days had never learned to touch-type, there was little pressure from the pioneering users to adapt keyboards to the typewriter standard. The doom of the bit-paired keyboard was the large-scale introduction of the computer terminal into the normal office environment, where out-and-out technophobes were expected to use the equipment. The "typewriter-paired" standard became universal, "bit-paired" hardware was quickly junked or relegated to dusty corners, and both terms passed into disuse.
  • blackbelly rosefish — a reddish scorpionfish, Helicolenus dactylopterus, inhabiting the deep waters of the western Atlantic Ocean.
  • blind carbon (copy) — a carbon copy of a letter sent to someone other than the addressee, with no indication on the original letter that such a copy has been sent
  • bloodstock industry — the breeding and training of racehorses
  • blowing your buffer — (jargon)   Losing your train of thought. A reference to buffer overflow.
  • boundary commission — (in Britain) a body established by statute to undertake periodic reviews of the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies and to recommend changes to take account of population shifts
  • bright young things — young, fun-loving, fashionable upper-class people, esp of the 1920s
  • brimstone butterfly — a common yellow butterfly, Gonepteryx rhamni, of N temperate regions of the Old World: family Pieridae
  • bug tracking system — (programming)   (BTS) A system for receiving and filing bugs reported against a software project, and tracking those bugs until they are fixed. Most major software projects have their own BTS, the source code of which is often available for use by other projects. Well known BTSs include GNATS, Bugzilla, and Debbugs.
  • buy a pig in a poke — to buy, get, or agree to something without sight or knowledge of it in advance
  • cable-stayed bridge — a type of suspension bridge in which the supporting cables are connected directly to the bridge deck without the use of suspenders
  • calcium oxychloride — a white powder that decomposes on contact with water and has the characteristic odor of gaseous chlorine: regarded, when dry, as a mixed calcium hypochlorite-chloride, used as a commercial bleach for wood pulp, textiles, oils, and soaps, and in laundering as a decolorizer and disinfectant.
  • canterbury pilgrims — the pilgrims whose stories are told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
  • capacity attendance — a situation when a venue for an event is as full as it can be
  • cape york peninsula — large peninsula in NE Australia, part of Queensland, between the Gulf of Carpentaria & the Coral Sea
  • captain of industry — You can refer to the owners or senior managers of industrial companies as captains of industry.
  • catalytic converter — A catalytic converter is a device which is fitted to a car's exhaust to reduce the pollution coming from it.
  • catalytic reforming — Catalytic reforming is a process that converts petroleum refinery naphthas to high-octane blending components.
  • cauchy's inequality — Schwarz inequality (def 1).
  • celestial hierarchy — hierarchy (def 6).
  • champagne lifestyle — a lifestyle involving the enjoyment of luxuries and expensive pleasures
  • champigny-sur-marne — a suburb of Paris, on the River Marne. Pop: 75 556 (2006)
  • chassis dynamometer — A chassis dynamometer is a piece of test equipment fitted with rollers for the wheels of a vehicle, that is capable of providing drive input and measuring output such as power and torque at the wheels.
  • chemical dependency — addiction to drugs or alcohol.
  • chief petty officer — the senior naval rank for personnel without commissioned or warrant rank
  • chinese sacred lily — a Chinese amaryllidaceous plant, Narcissus tazetta orientalis, widely grown as a house plant for its fragrant yellow and white flowers
  • cholecystolithiasis — The presence of a gallstone specifically in the gall bladder.
  • choledocholithotomy — The removal of the gallstone from the bile duct in a case of choledocholithiasis.
  • chrestien de troyes — c1140–c90, French poet.
  • christian democracy — the beliefs, principles, practices, or programme of a Christian Democratic party
  • chromatographically — With regard to, or by by using chromatography.
  • chromoblastomycosis — Long-term fungal infection of the skin and subcutaneous tissue.
  • cinematographically — a motion-picture projector.
  • circulating library — a small library circulated in turn to a group of schools or other institutions
  • cisco systems, inc. — (company)   Ethernet hardware manufacturers. Address: 170 West Tasman Drive, San Jose, CA 95134-1706, USA. Telephone: +1 408 526 4000, +1 800 553 6387. Fax: +1 408 526 4100.
  • city of seven hills — Rome2
  • city of westminster — a borough of Greater London, on the River Thames: contains the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and Buckingham Palace. Pop: 222 000 (2003 est). Area: 22 sq km (8 sq miles)
  • clinical psychology — the branch of psychology that studies and treats mental illness and mental retardation
  • cobaltous hydroxide — a rose-red, amorphous, water-insoluble powder, Co 2 O 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the preparation of cobalt salts and in the manufacture of paint and varnish driers.
  • collect on delivery — payment in cash when a purchase or shipment is delivered
  • collective security — a system of maintaining world peace and security by concerted action on the part of the nations of the world
  • combination therapy — a therapy that combines two or more drugs, or two or more treatments
  • commercially-minded — knowledgeable about business; interested in making money
  • commitment ceremony — a ceremony and celebration that affirms the love and commitment between two people who cannot legally marry, typically a same-sex or transgender couple.
  • common iliac artery — iliac artery (def 1).
  • common-iliac-artery — Also called common iliac artery. either of two large arteries that conduct blood to the pelvis and the legs.
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