20-letter words containing al
- malpighian corpuscle — Also called kidney corpuscle, Malpighian body. the structure at the beginning of a vertebrate nephron, consisting of a glomerulus and its surrounding Bowman's capsule.
- malware as a service — (security, legal) A kind of cybercrime as a service in which the service provider operates or distributes malware on behalf of others for money.
- marginal probability — (in a multivariate distribution) the probability of one variable taking a specific value irrespective of the values of the others
- maria theresa thaler — a former silver coin of Austria, issued between 1740 and 1780 and used for trade with Ethiopia and other countries; Levant dollar.
- massachusetts ballot — a ballot on which the candidates, with their party designations, are listed alphabetically in columns under the office for which they were nominated.
- material equivalence — equivalence (def 4b).
- material implication — equivalence (def 4a).
- material-equivalence — the state or fact of being equivalent; equality in value, force, significance, etc.
- maternal deprivation — the lack of a mother in a child's life, considered a cause of psychological problems later in life
- maternal health care — care for the health of a pregnant woman provided by a hospital or health centre
- mechanical advantage — the ratio of output force to the input force applied to a mechanism.
- mechanical impedance — impedance (def 2).
- mechanical-impedance — Electricity. the total opposition to alternating current by an electric circuit, equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the resistance and reactance of the circuit and usually expressed in ohms. Symbol: Z.
- medical practitioner — doctor
- medical underwriting — Medical underwriting is the use of medical or health status information in the evaluation of an applicant for life or health insurance.
- medieval warm period — the time, c900–1400, during which warmer temperatures existed in many parts of the world. Abbreviation: MWP.
- menstrual extraction — an abortion procedure involving suction aspiration of the uterine contents early in gestation, before the first missed menstrual period: sometimes performed later.
- microcrystalline wax — Microcrystalline wax is a wax used as a stiffening agent and as a coating agent for tablets and capsules.
- mitral insufficiency — abnormal closure of the mitral valve resulting in regurgitation of blood into the atrium and leading to reduced heart function or heart failure.
- most general unifier — (logic) If U is the most general unifier of a set of expressions then any other unifier, V, can be expressed as V = UW, where W is another substitution. See also unification.
- multiple personality — a rare disorder in which an individual displays several functionally dissociated personalities, each of a complexity comparable to that of a normal individual.
- naturalistic fallacy — the supposed fallacy of inferring evaluative conclusions from purely factual premises
- net national product — the gross national product less allowance for depreciation of capital goods. Abbreviation: NNP.
- net realizable value — the net value of an asset if it were to be sold, taking into account the cost of making the sale and of bringing the asset into a saleable state
- neuromusculoskeletal — (medicine) Describing the interactions between nerves, muscles and the skeleton.
- neurophysiologically — In terms of, or with regard to, neurophysiology.
- neuropsychiatrically — In terms of neuropsychiatry.
- neuropsychologically — In terms of or by means of neuropsychology.
- neutral interconnect — Network infrastructure where network service providers can freely exchange traffic without policy restrictions. Examples are the GIX (Global Internet Exchange) at MAE-East (A Metropolitan Area Ethernet around Washington), and the Ebone (European Backbone). There is currently (November 1993) no UK Neutral Interconnect.
- new jerusalem church — a sect founded in 1787, based on Swedenborgianism
- new zealand fur seal — an Australasian seal, Arctocephalus forsteri
- non-optimal solution — (Or "sub-optimal solution") An astoundingly stupid way to do something. This term is generally used in deadpan sarcasm, as its impact is greatest when the person speaking looks completely serious. See also Bad Thing.
- non-sensationalistic — subject matter, language, or style producing or designed to produce startling or thrilling impressions or to excite and please vulgar taste.
- nonaccidental injury — damage, such as a bruise, burn, or fracture, deliberately inflicted on a child or an old person
- noncatalytic reactor — A noncatalytic reactor is a reactor in which no catalyst is used.
- noninstitutionalized — Not institutionalized.
- nonrepeating decimal — a decimal representation of any irrational number, having the property that no sequence of digits is repeated ad infinitum.
- normal magnification — the magnification produced by a telescope or microscope such that the diameter of the exit pupil of the instrument is equal to the diameter of the pupil of the eye.
- normal zeeman effect — the dividing of a spectral line or lines as a result of placing a radiation source in a magnetic field. The division consists of three equally spaced lines (normal Zeeman effect) in systems for which the spin quantum number is zero, or of three or more unequally spaced lines (anomalous Zeeman effect) in systems for which the spin quantum number is not zero.
- north celestial pole — the point of intersection of the earth's extended axis and the northern half of the celestial sphere, lying about 1° from Polaris
- nostalgie de la boue — a desire for or attraction to crudity, vulgarity, depravity, etc.
- occupational disease — Also called industrial disease. a disease caused by the conditions or hazards of a particular occupation.
- occupational pension — a pension scheme provided for the members of a particular occupation or by a specific employer or group of employers
- occupational therapy — a form of therapy in which patients are encouraged to engage in vocational tasks or expressive activities, as art or dance, usually in a social setting.
- ode to a nightingale — a poem (1819) by Keats.
- of value/of no value — If something is of value, it is useful or important. If it is of no value, it has no usefulness or importance.
- official secrets act — law: legislation protecting state secret
- one's spiritual home — Your spiritual home is the place where you feel that you belong, usually because your ideas or attitudes are the same as those of the people who live there.
- ontological argument — an a priori argument for the existence of God, asserting that as existence is a perfection, and as God is conceived of as the most perfect being, it follows that God must exist; originated by Anselm, later used by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz.
- operational calculus — a method for solving a differential equation by treating differential operators as ordinary algebraic quantities, thus obtaining a simpler problem.