18-letter words containing un
- on delicate ground — in a situation requiring tact
- optical soundtrack — the final soundtrack on a motion picture, which appears as a band of black and white serrations along a strip of film to the left of the composite print. Light is shined through the serrations and is converted to audible sound.
- orthotungstic acid — an oxyacid acid of tungsten. Formula: H2WO4
- out of the running — the act of a person, animal, or thing that runs.
- over-pronunciation — to pronounce (a word, syllable, etc.) in an exaggerated, affected, or excessively careful manner.
- pan american union — a former organization of American republics dedicated to furthering understanding and peace: replaced in 1970 by the secretariat of the Organization of American States.
- pass the hat round — to collect money, as for a cause
- phoenician juniper — a type of juniper that is found in the Mediterranean region
- piecewise function — a function whose definition changes depending on the value of the independent variable
- pitch-and-run shot — chip shot.
- possessive pronoun — See at possessive (def 4a).
- pound the pavement — a paved road, highway, etc.
- prepare the ground — make conditions ready
- prometheus unbound — a drama in verse (1820) by Shelley.
- protocol data unit — (PDU) A packet of data passed across a network. The term implies a specific layer of the OSI seven layer model and a specific protocol.
- provincial council — (formerly) a council administering any of the New Zealand provinces
- pull one's punches — to restrain the force of one's criticisms or actions
- punishment beating — a form of corporal punishment carried out by a paramilitary organization on a member of another sectarian organization, usually in Northern Ireland
- queen's university — A Canadian University. Source of GVL, NIAL, Pasqual, Q'NIAL and TXL.
- radiocommunication — communication by means of radio waves
- recursive function — a function defined in terms of the repeated application of a number of simpler functions to their own values, by specifying a base clause and a recursion formula
- redundancy payment — a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
- reference counting — (programming) A garbage collection technique where each memory cell contains a count of the number of other cells which point to it. If this count reaches zero the cell is freed and its pointers to other cells are followed to decrement their counts, and so on recursively. This technique cannot cope with circular data structures. Cells in such structures refer (indirectly) to themselves and so will never have a zero reference count. This means they would never be reclaimed, even when there are no references from outside the structure.
- remembrance sunday — the second Sunday in November, which is the Sunday closest to November 11, the anniversary of the armistice of 1918 that ended World War I, on which the dead of both World Wars are commemorated
- revolution counter — a device for counting or recording the number of revolutions made by a rotating shaft, as of a motor or engine.
- run in sb's family — If a characteristic runs in someone's family, it often occurs in members of that family, in different generations.
- run length limited — (storage) (RLL) The most popular scheme for encoding data on magnetic disks. RLL packs up to 50% more data on a disk than MFM. Groups of bits are mapped to specific patterns of flux. The density of flux transitions is limited by the spatial resolution of the disk and frequency response of the head and electronics. However, transitions must be close enough to allow reliable clock recovery. RLL implementations vary according to the minimum and maximum allowed numbers of transition cells between transitions. For example, the most common variant today, RLL 1,7, can have a transition in every other cell and must have at least one transition every seven cells. The exact mapping from bits to transitions is essentially arbitrary. Other schemes include GCR, FM, Modified Frequency Modulation (MFM). See also: PRML.
- run one's eye over — to glance at hurriedly
- runge-kutta method — a numerical method, involving successive approximations, used to solve differential equations.
- running commentary — non-stop description of sth
- running martingale — martingale (def 2).
- rural municipality — any lightly settled area in Canada lacking a local elected government and administered directly by a provincial government.
- san juan mountains — a mountain range in SW Colorado and N New Mexico: part of the Rocky Mountains. Highest peak: Uncompahgre Peak, 4363 m (14 314 ft)
- scottish deerhound — one of a Scottish breed of large, tall hunting dogs having a medium-length, wiry, gray or reddish-fawn coat, originally developed for hunting and bringing down deer, and known as the royal dog of Scotland.
- self-understanding — mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation: My understanding of the word does not agree with yours.
- shift one's ground — to change one's argument or defense
- shotgun microphone — a directional microphone with a narrow-angle range of sensitivity.
- shunting operation — an operation in which rail coaches are manoeuvred
- six-finger country — an isolated area considered as being inhabited by people who practise inbreeding
- ski-mountaineering — a combination of the sports of skiing and mountaineering, for example by climbing up a mountain then skiing down it
- soldier of fortune — a person who independently seeks pleasure, wealth, etc., through adventurous exploits.
- sound and the fury — a novel (1929) by William Faulkner.
- sound spectrograph — an electronic device for recording a sound spectogram.
- spackling compound — spackle
- spaghetti junction — an interchange, usually between motorways, in which there are a large number of underpasses and overpasses and intersecting roads used by a large volume of high-speed traffic
- stand one's ground — the solid surface of the earth; firm or dry land: to fall to the ground.
- state of the union — A State of the Union speech or address is a speech, given once a year, in which the president of the United States talks about the current political issues that affect the country as a whole and about his plans for the year ahead.
- store launch event — A store launch event is a special event, which publicizes the opening of a new store and at which discounts and free samples may be offered.
- student councillor — a student who is a member of a council or body representing the interests of students at a school, university or college
- sugarloaf mountain — a mountain in SE Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, at the entrance to Guanabara Bay. 1280 feet (390 meters).