17-letter words containing or
- learned borrowing — a word or other linguistic form borrowed from a classical language into a modern language.
- leg before wicket — a manner of dismissal on the grounds that a batsman has been struck on the leg by a bowled ball that otherwise would have hit the wicket
- letter of comfort — comfort letter.
- level compensator — an automatic gain control device used in the receivers of telegraphic circuits.
- lie in wait (for) — to wait so as to catch after planning an ambush or trap (for)
- life and/or death — If you say that something is a matter of life and death, you are emphasizing that it is extremely important, often because someone may die or suffer great harm if people do not act immediately.
- literary executor — a person entrusted with the publishable works and other papers of a deceased author.
- little fork river — a river in N Minnesota, flowing N to the Rainy River on the Canadian border. 132 miles (212 km) long.
- live free or die! — 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's automobile licence plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the fascist design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on commercial operating systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake licence plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New Hampshire colours of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
- lobster thermidor — a dish of cooked lobster meat placed back in the shell with a cream sauce, sprinkled with grated cheese and melted butter, and browned in the oven.
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- lower forty-eight — the forty-eight conterminous states of the United States
- machado y morales — Gerardo [he-rahr-th aw] /hɛˈrɑr ðɔ/ (Show IPA), 1871–1939, president of Cuba 1925–33.
- magnetizing force — that part of the magnetic induction that is determined at any point in space by the current density and displacement current at that point independently of the magnetic or other physical properties of the surrounding medium. Symbol: H.
- magnetoresistance — a change in the electrical resistance of a material upon exposure to a magnetic field.
- maintenance order — a court order stating that a divorced or legally separated man or woman must pay his or her former partner a regular sum in order to cover the costs of living
- majority decision — a decision supported by more than half the people involved
- majority-minority — relating to a population in which more than half represent social, ethnic, or racial minorities, and in which fewer members of the more socially, politically, or financially dominant group are represented: majority-minority public schools.
- make the worst of — to be pessimistic about
- man enough to/for — If you say that a man is man enough to do something, you mean that he has the necessary courage or ability to do it.
- managing director — manager who oversees a project
- manicure scissors — scissors for manicuring or trimming the nails
- mean proportional — (between two numbers a and b) a number x for which a/x = x/b : The number 3 is a mean proportional between 1 and 9.
- meech lake accord — the agreement reached in 1987 at Meech Lake, Quebec, at a Canadian federal-provincial conference that accepted Quebec's conditions for signing the Constitution Act of 1982. The Accord lapsed when the legislatures of two provinces, Newfoundland and Quebec, failed to ratify it by the deadline of June 23, 1990
- meiji restoration — revolution in Japanese life and government that occurred after the accession of Emperor Mutsuhito (1867), characterized by the downfall of the shogun and feudalism and the creation of a modern state
- meissen porcelain — Dresden china.
- memetic algorithm — (algorithm) A genetic algorithm or evolutionary algorithm which includes a non-genetic local search to improve genotypes. The term comes from the Richard Dawkin's term "meme". One big difference between memes and genes is that memes are processed and possibly improved by the people that hold them - something that cannot happen to genes. It is this advantage that the memetic algorithm has over simple genetic or evolutionary algorithms. These algorithms are useful in solving complex problems, such as the "Travelling Salesman Problem," which involves finding the shortest path through a large number of nodes, or in creating artificial life to test evolutionary theories. Memetic algorithms are one kind of metaheuristic. (07 July 1997)
- memory management — (memory management, storage) A collection of techniques for providing sufficient memory to one or more processes in a computer system, especially when the system does not have enough memory to satisfy all processes' requirements simultaneously. Techniques include swapping, paging and virtual memory. Memory management is usually performed mostly by a hardware memory management unit.
- memory protection — (memory management) A system to prevent one process corrupting the memory (or other resources) of any other, including the operating system. Memory protection usually relies on a combination of hardware (a memory management unit) and software to allocate memory to processes and handle exceptions. The effectiveness of memory protection varies from one operating system to another. In most versions of Unix it is almost impossible to corrupt another process' memory, except in some archaic implementations and Lunix (not Linux!). Under Microsoft Windows (version? hardware?) any 16 bit application(?) can circumvent the memory protection, often leading to one or more GPFs. Currently (April 1996) neither Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, nor Mac OS offer memory protection. Windows NT has it, and Mac OS System 8 will offer a form of memory protection.
- mercuric chloride — a white, crystalline, water-soluble, strongly acrid, highly poisonous solid, HgCl 2 , prepared by sublimation of chlorine with mercury, and used chiefly as an antiseptic.
- micromanipulators — Plural form of micromanipulator.
- microreproduction — a photographic image too small to be read by the unaided eye.
- microsoft network — The Microsoft Network
- mid-level network — (Or "regional network"). The kind of networks which make up the second level of the Internet hierarchy. They are the transit networks which connect the stub networks to the backbone networks.
- midmorning prayer — the third of the seven canonical hours; terce
- mikhail gorbachev — Mikhail S(ergeyevich) [mi-kahyl sur-gey-uh-vich,, mi-keyl;; Russian myi-khuh-yeel syir-gye-yi-vyich] /mɪˈkaɪl sɜrˈgeɪ ə vɪtʃ,, mɪˈkeɪl;; Russian myɪ xʌˈyil syɪrˈgyɛ yɪ vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), born 1931, Soviet political leader: general secretary of the Communist Party 1985–91; president of the Soviet Union 1988–91; Nobel Peace Prize 1990.
- mileage indicator — a device on a vehicle such as a car, plane, etc which indicates the number of miles travelled
- military governor — the military officer in command of a military government.
- milton work count — a system of hand valuation in which aces count 4, kings 3, queens 2, and jacks 1
- minamoto yoritomo — 1147–99, Japanese nobleman; the first shogun (1192–99) of the feudal era
- mineralocorticoid — Biochemistry. any of a group of corticosteroid hormones, synthesized by the adrenal cortex, that regulate the excretion or reabsorption of sodium and potassium by the kidneys, salivary glands, and sweat glands.
- minimal free form — the smallest unit of language that can make sense on its own
- misorganization's — the act or process of organizing.
- mitre corporation — (body) A US federally funded R&D center, spun off in 1958 from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (also an FFRDC). MITRE is a non-profit corporation chartered to do R&D in the public interest. MITRE were responsible for system engineering and implementation oversight of SAGE. MITRE does not stand for MIT Research and Engineering, though it could have.
- mode of transport — means of travel
- modest mussorgski — Modest Petrovich [moh-dest pi-troh-vich;; Russian muh-dyest pyi-traw-vyich] /moʊˈdɛst pɪˈtroʊ vɪtʃ;; Russian mʌˈdyɛst pyɪˈtrɔ vyɪtʃ/ (Show IPA), Moussorgsky, Modest Petrovich.
- molecular formula — a chemical formula that indicates the kinds of atoms and the number of each kind in a molecule of a compound.
- molecular orbital — Physics, Chemistry. a wave function describing the state of a single electron in an atom (atomic orbital) or in a molecule (molecular orbital) the electron in that state.
- mom and pop store — a small retail business, typically family-operated
- montessori method — a system for teaching young children, in which the fundamental aim is self-motivated education by the children themselves, as they are encouraged to move freely through individualized instruction and physical exercises, accompanied by special emphasis on the training of the senses and the early development of reading and writing skills.