17-letter words containing a, m, e
- armature reaction — a change in the magnetic field of a dynamo caused by the magnetic field induced by the current flowing through the armature.
- arranged marriage — In an arranged marriage, the parents choose the person who their son or daughter will marry.
- asperger syndrome — a developmental disorder characterized by severely impaired social skills, repetitive behaviors, and often, a narrow set of interests, but not involving delayed development of linguistic and cognitive abilities: now considered one of the autism spectrum disorders.
- assemblies of god — the largest American Pentecostal denomination, formed in 1914 by the merger of various Pentecostal churches and marked by faith healing and speaking in tongues.
- assembly district — one of a fixed number of districts into which a state is divided, each district electing one member to the lower house of the state legislature.
- assembly language — a low-level programming language that allows a programmer complete control of the machine code to be generated
- assessable income — the portion of one's income that is subject to tax
- assessment centre — a set of selection procedures designed to recruit the best candidate or candidates to fill a job vacancy; it usually takes place over a day or two and is run by specialist staff
- assessment method — a way of assessing something or someone
- assistant manager — a person who assists a manager in their work
- astronomical year — year (def 4b).
- asymmetrical bars — a set of parallel bars, having one bar fixed at 230 cm (7 ft, 6 in) and the other at 150 cm (4 ft, 11 in), used by women gymnasts
- at someone's feet — as someone's disciple
- at someone's hand — from
- at their own game — If you beat someone at their own game, you use the same methods that they have used, but more successfully, so that you gain an advantage over them.
- attachment theory — a set of concepts that explain the emergence of an emotional bond between an infant and primary caregiver and the way in which this bond affects the child’s behavioral and emotional development into adulthood. See also attachment (def 3a).
- attainment target — a general defined level of ability that a pupil is expected to achieve in every subject at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- augmented reality — an artificial environment created through the combination of real-world and computer-generated data
- aurea mediocritas — the golden mean.
- automated testing — (testing) Software testing assisted with software tools that require no operator input, analysis, or evaluation.
- automatic vending — selling goods by vending machines
- autonomous system — (networking, routing) (AS) A collection of routers under a single administrative authority, using a common Interior Gateway Protocol for routing packets.
- average seek time — (storage) The mean time it takes to move the head of a disk drive from one track to another, averaged over the source and destination cylinders. Usually measured in milliseconds (ms). The average seek time gives a good measure of the speed of the drive in a multi-user environment where successive read/write request are largely uncorrelated. Ten ms is common for a hard disk and 200 ms for an eight-speed CD-ROM.
- aviation medicine — the branch of medicine concerned with the effects on man of flight in the earth's atmosphere
- avogadro's number — the constant, 6.022 × 10 23 , representing the number of atoms, molecules, or ions in one mole of a substance. Symbol: N. Compare gram-atom, gram molecule.
- baden-wurttemberg — a state of SW Germany. Capital: Stuttgart. Pop: 53 938 (2003 est). Area: 35 742 sq km (13 800 sq miles)
- baggage checkroom — a left luggage office; a place at, for example, a railway station where baggage can be left
- ballistic missile — a missile that has no wings or fins and that follows a ballistic trajectory when its propulsive power is discontinued
- baltimore clipper — a small, fast American sailing vessel of the early 19th century, having a sharp hull form and two masts with a pronounced rake and carrying a brig or schooner rig.
- banana phenomenon — banana problem
- barmecide (feast) — a pretended feast with no food
- basement membrane — a thin, extracellular membrane underlying epithelial tissue.
- be that as it may — You say 'Be that as it may' when you want to move onto another subject or go further with the discussion, without deciding whether what has just been said is right or wrong.
- be your own woman — If you say that a woman is her own woman, you approve of the fact that she makes her plans and decisions herself, and does not depend on other people.
- beardmore glacier — one of the largest glaciers, in central Antarctica. About 125 miles (200 km) long.
- beat the drum for — to attempt to arouse interest in
- bellflower family — the plant family Campanulaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, alternate leaves and solitary or clustered flowers with a bell-shaped, five-lobed, often blue or purple corolla, and including the harebell, Canterbury bells, and balloon flower.
- benjamin banneker — Benjamin, 1731–1806, U.S. mathematician, natural historian, and astronomer.
- benjamin franklin — Aretha [uh-ree-thuh] /əˈri θə/ (Show IPA), born 1942, U.S. singer.
- benjamin-constant — Henri Benjamin [ahn-ree ban-zha-man] /ɑ̃ˈri bɛ̃ ʒaˈmɛ̃/ (Show IPA), (Benjamin Constant) 1767–1830, French statesman and author, born in Switzerland.
- benoit mandelbrot — (person) /ben'wa man'dl-bro/ Benoit B. Mandelbrot. The IBM scientist who wrote several original books on fractals and gave his name to the set he was discovered, the Mandelbrot set and coined the term "fractal" in 1975 from the Latin fractus or "to break".
- bermuda buttercup — a bulbous plant, Oxalis pescaprae, native to southern Africa, having nodding, yellow flowers.
- beyond comparison — outstanding, without equal
- binet-simon scale — a test comprising questions and tasks, used to determine the mental age of subjects, usually children
- biological marker — a substance, physiological characteristic, gene, etc that indicates, or may indicate, the presence of disease, a physiological abnormality or a psychological condition
- biological mother — the mother who gave birth to a child
- biopharmaceutical — of or relating to drugs produced using biotechnology
- bitmapped display — bitmap display
- bitter almond oil — almond oil (def 2).
- bitter-almond-oil — Also called sweet almond oil, expressed almond oil. a colorless to pale yellow fatty oil expressed from the seeds of the sweet almond, used in preparing perfumes and confections.