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20-letter words containing r

  • aortic insufficiency — abnormal closure of the aortic valve resulting in regurgitation of blood to the left ventricle.
  • apollonius of rhodes — 3rd century bc, Greek epic poet and head of the Library of Alexandria. His principal work is the four-volume Argonautica
  • apothecaries' weight — a system of weights, formerly used in pharmacy, based on the Troy ounce, which contains 480 grains. 1 grain is equal to 0.065 gram
  • appalachian dulcimer — dulcimer (def 2).
  • apparent candlepower — a measure of the luminous intensity of an extended source of light in terms of the candlepower of a point source of light that has an equivalent luminous intensity when placed at the same distance as the extended source.
  • apparent temperature — heat index.
  • apple computer, inc. — (company)   Manufacturers of the Macintosh range of personal computers as well as the earlier Apple I, Apple II and Lisa. Founded on 1 April 1976 by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. Apples were among the first microcomputers. They originally used the 6502 processor and are still being made (August 1994), now using the 65816. The Apple II line, which includes the Apple I, is the longest existing line of microcomputers. Steve Jobs left Apple (involuntarily) and started NeXT and later returned when Apple bought NeXT in late 1997(?). Quarterly sales $2150M, profits $138M (Aug 1994). http://apple.com/.
  • application software — software designed for a specific need or purpose
  • applications program — a program that is written and designed for specific needs or purposes
  • aquila degli abruzzi — a city in central Italy, capital of Abruzzi region. Pop: 68 503 (2001)
  • arbitration tribunal — a tribunal set up to settle a dispute by arbitration
  • arches national park — a national park in E Utah: natural arch formations. 114 sq. mi. (295 sq. km).
  • archiepiscopal cross — patriarchal cross.
  • architectural bronze — a brass alloy of about 57 percent copper, 41 percent zinc, and 2 percent lead.
  • argument from design — the argument for the existence of God based on the assumption that order in the universe implies an orderer and cannot be a natural feature of the universe.
  • aristarchus of samos — 3rd century bc, Greek astronomer who anticipated Copernicus in advancing the theory that the earth revolves around the sun
  • armchair quarterback — a person who is not a quarterback (or general, etc.), but offers opinions and criticism on the performance or decisions of those who are
  • arrested development — physical development that is not complete
  • articulatory feature — a property of a speech sound based on its voicing or on its place or manner of articulation in the vocal tract, as voiceless, bilabial, or stop used in describing the sound (p).
  • artificial harmonics — harmonics of a note produced on a stringed instrument by lightly touching a stopped sounded string.
  • artificial pacemaker — an electronic device for use in certain cases of heart disease to assume the functions of the natural cardiac pacemaker
  • artificial satellite — a man-made device orbiting around the earth, moon, or another planet transmitting to earth scientific information or used for communication
  • artificial selection — a process in the breeding of animals and in the cultivation of plants by which the breeder chooses to perpetuate only those forms having certain desirable inheritable characteristics.
  • as right as a trivet — in perfect health
  • as straight as a die — perfectly honest
  • asexual reproduction — reproduction, as budding, fission, or spore formation, not involving the union of gametes.
  • asian tiger mosquito — a mosquito, Aedes albopictus, native to Asia, that transmits yellow fever and dengue and possibly West Nile virus. Compare yellow-fever mosquito.
  • assessment procedure — an established method of assessing students or workers
  • asset turnover ratio — An asset turnover ratio is a measure of the efficiency of a company, that is calculated by dividing sales for a period by average total assets.
  • association of stars — a sparsely populated group of between 10 and 1000 young stars of similar spectral type and common origin that are moving too fast to form a permanent, gravitationally bound system.
  • astatic galvanometer — a galvanometer that is unaffected by the earth's magnetic field and is used for measuring small currents.
  • asymmetrical warfare — warfare between a powerful military force and a weak guerilla force
  • at one's finger tips — the tip or end of a finger.
  • at someone's service — ready to serve or cooperate with someone
  • at the crack of dawn — If you say that someone does something at the crack of dawn, you are emphasizing that they do it very early in the morning.
  • at the drop of a hat — If you say that you are ready to do something at the drop of a hat, you mean that you are willing to do it immediately, without hesitating.
  • at the eleventh hour — at the last moment; just before it is too late
  • at two hours' notice — with notification only two hours in advance
  • atmospheric pressure — Atmospheric pressure is the pressure of the atmosphere on the Earth's surface.
  • attachment parenting — a style of child rearing aimed at developing a strong emotional bond between the child and primary caregiver. See also attachment (def 3a).
  • attacks as a service — (security, legal)   A kind of cybercrime as a service in which the service provider performs denial of service attacks on behalf of others for money.
  • attic salt (or wit) — graceful, piercing wit
  • augur ill (or well) — to be a bad (or good) omen
  • australian rye grass — a European grass, Lolium multiflorum, naturalized in North America, having flowering spikes and used as a winter turf.
  • automobile insurance — Automobile insurance is insurance coverage for cars.
  • auxiliary power unit — an additional engine fitted to an aircraft to operate when the main engines are not in use
  • axiomatic set theory — (theory)   One of several approaches to set theory, consisting of a formal language for talking about sets and a collection of axioms describing how they behave. There are many different axiomatisations for set theory. Each takes a slightly different approach to the problem of finding a theory that captures as much as possible of the intuitive idea of what a set is, while avoiding the paradoxes that result from accepting all of it, the most famous being Russell's paradox. The main source of trouble in naive set theory is the idea that you can specify a set by saying whether each object in the universe is in the "set" or not. Accordingly, the most important differences between different axiomatisations of set theory concern the restrictions they place on this idea (known as "comprehension"). NBG (von Neumann-Bernays-Goedel) set theory sort of allows comprehension for all formulae without restriction, but distinguishes between two kinds of set, so that the sets produced by applying comprehension are only second-class sets. NBG is exactly as powerful as ZF, in the sense that any statement that can be formalised in both theories is a theorem of ZF if and only if it is a theorem of ZFC. MK (Morse-Kelley) set theory is a strengthened version of NBG, with a simpler axiom system. It is strictly stronger than NBG, and it is possible that NBG might be consistent but MK inconsistent. ML ("Modern Logic") is to NF as NBG is to ZF. (Its name derives from the title of the book in which Quine introduced an early, defective, form of it). It is stronger than ZF (it can prove things that ZF can't), but if NF is consistent then ML is too.
  • baccalaureate sermon — a farewell sermon addressed to a graduating class in some U.S. colleges and schools.
  • back the wrong horse — to bet on a horse that loses the race
  • background radiation — low-intensity radiation from, for example, small amounts of radioisotopes in soil, air, building materials, etc
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