17-letter words starting with m
- merchant shipping — shipping which is involved in commerce (rather than defence, etc)
- 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.
- mercuric sulphide — a compound of mercury, usually existing as a black solid (metacinnabarite) or a red solid (cinnabar or vermilion), which is used as a pigment. Formula: HgS
- mercury barometer — a barometer in which the weight of a column of mercury in a glass tube with a sealed top is balanced against that of the atmosphere pressing on an exposed cistern of mercury at the base of the mercury column, the height of the column varying with atmospheric pressure.
- mercury poisoning — illness caused by exposure to mercury
- mercy otis warren — Earl, 1891–1974, U.S. lawyer and political leader: chief justice of the U.S. 1953–69.
- mesembryanthemums — Plural form of mesembryanthemum.
- message switching — store and forward
- messier catalogue — a catalogue of 103 nonstellar objects, such as nebulae and galaxies, prepared in 1781–86. An object is referred to by its number in this catalogue, for example the Andromeda Galaxy is referred to as M31
- meta class system — (language) (MCS) A portable object-oriented extension of Common Lisp from GMD. It integrates the functionality of CLOS and TELOS.
- metabolic pathway — biochemistry: sequence of reactions within a cell or organism
- metacommunication — Communication that indicates how verbal information should be interpreted; stimuli surrounding the verbal communication that also have meaning, which may or may not be congruent with that of or support the verbal talk. It may support or contradict verbal communication; Communication which is implicit and not expressed in words.
- metallofullerenes — Plural form of metallofullerene.
- metalloproteinase — (enzyme) Any of several proteinases that have a metal atom (often zinc) at their active centre.
- metaperiodic acid — the crystalline compound HIO4, an oxyacid of iodine
- metatungstic acid — an oxyacid acid of tungsten. Formula: H2W4O13
- methemoglobinemia — (medicine) A form of toxic anemia characterized by the presence of methemoglobin in the blood.
- method invocation — (programming) In object-oriented programming, the way the program looks up the right code to run when a method with a given name is called ("invoked") on an object. The method is first looked for in the object's class, then that class's superclass and so on up the class hierarchy until a method with the given name is found (the name is "resolved"). Generally, method lookup cannot be performed at compile time because the object's class is not known until run time. This is the case for an object method whereas a class method is just an ordinary function (that is bundled with a given class) and can be resolved at compile time (or load time in the case of a dynamically loaded library).
- method of payment — cash, credit card, cheque, etc.
- methyl isocyanate — Chemistry. a highly toxic, flammable, colorless liquid, CH 3 NCO, used as an intermediate in the manufacture of pesticides: in 1984, the accidental release of a cloud of this gas in Bhopal, India, killed more than 1700 people and injured over 200,000.
- methyl salicylate — a colorless, water-soluble liquid, C 8 H 8 O 3 , produced synthetically or by maceration and subsequent distillation from birch or gaultheria: used chiefly in perfumery and flavoring, and in medicine as a counterirritant in external preparations.
- methylacetic acid — propionic acid.
- methylidyne group — the trivalent group ≡CH.
- methylnaphthalene — a compound, C 1 1 H 1 0 , whose alpha isomer, a colorless liquid, is used in determining cetane numbers.
- methyltheobromine — caffeine.
- methyltransferase — any of a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of methyl groups from one molecule to another.
- mexican hat dance — a dance performed by couples, consisting of eight measures during which the dancers kick out each foot alternately, followed by eight more measures during which they swing around with interlocking arms.
- mexican stand-off — A Mexican stand-off is a situation in which neither of the people or groups in a conflict or dispute can win and neither wants to give in first.
- michigan bankroll — a large roll of paper money in small denominations.
- microbiologically — With regard to microbiology.
- microconstituents — a microscopically small constituent of a metal or alloy.
- microdensitometer — a densitometer for measuring the density of minute areas of photographic negatives.
- microdermabrasion — A cosmetic treatment in which the face is sprayed with exfoliant crystals to remove dead epidermal cells.
- microdistillation — the distillation of minute quantities of material.
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- microevolutionary — Of or pertaining to microevolution.
- microfiche reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfiche
- microfilm plotter — a type of incremental plotter that has a film rather than a paper output
- microinstructions — Plural form of microinstruction.
- microinvertebrate — An invertebrate of microscopic size.
- micromanipulation — the technique of performing mechanical operations under high magnification through the use of specialized tools.
- micromanipulators — Plural form of micromanipulator.
- microminiaturized — Simple past tense and past participle of microminiaturize.
- micropaleontology — the branch of paleontology dealing with the study of microscopic fossils.
- microphanerophyte — any shrub or tree having a height of 2 to 8 metres
- microphotographic — Relating to microphotography.
- microreproduction — a photographic image too small to be read by the unaided eye.
- microsoft network — The Microsoft Network
- microsoft project — (product) A Microsoft Windows program offering various project management tools.
- microsoft windows — (operating system) Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. The 1996 market share of operating systems was: DOS/Windows 70% Windows 95 15% Windows NT 2% Other 13% Versions include 1985 Windows 1, 1987 Windows 2, 1987 Windows/386, 1990 Windows 3.0, 1992 Windows 3.1, 1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.1, 1993 Windows 3.11, 1993 Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 1993 Windows NT 3.1, 1994 Windows NT 3.5, 1995 Windows 95, 199? Windows NT 4, 1998 Windows 98, Windows NT 5, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.