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| 22nd Amendment |
an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that ensures that no person can be elected to more than two four-year terms as President of the United States. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, was passed in reaction to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's four terms in office. |
| 3-D |
of, concerning, or portraying something in, or as if in, three dimensions. [2 definitions] |
| a2 |
one, as a quantity. [1/3 definitions] |
| a-2 |
used as an intensifier. [1/3 definitions] |
| abacus |
a device used to make arithmetic calculations, consisting of a frame with parallel rods or grooves that hold movable counters such as beads. |
| abeyance |
in law, a condition of temporarily undetermined ownership, as of property or an estate. [1/2 definitions] |
| abjure |
to repudiate or renounce solemnly, as under oath; forswear. |
| ablate |
to wear away or otherwise remove (a surface), as by heat or erosion. [1/2 definitions] |
| ablaut |
a pattern of changes in sounds, usually vowels, that indicate variations in tense, number, person, or the like, as in "sink," "sank," and "sunk". |
| ablution |
a washing or cleansing of oneself, esp. as part of a religious observance or ritual. [1/2 definitions] |
| abnegation |
the act of relinquishing or abandoning, as a right, role, or good. |
| abomasum |
the fourth stomach chamber of cud-chewing mammals such as cows, in which food is digested. |
| above |
the person or persons mentioned earlier, as in a list or enumeration. [1/9 definitions] |
| abracadabra |
a nonsense word thought to produce a magical effect such as the warding off of disaster or disease. [1/2 definitions] |
| abrasion |
a spot or patch that has been scraped, as on the skin. [1/2 definitions] |
| Abscam |
in the United States, an FBI investigation in 1978-80, as a result of which several members of Congress were indicted for taking bribes from FBI agents posing as Arab businessmen. |
| abscissa |
the distance of a point from the vertical axis of a graph as measured parallel to the horizontal axis. (Cf. ordinate.) |
| absenteeism |
habitual or repeated absence from a place where regular attendance is required, such as work or school. |
| absolute |
in grammar, syntactically independent, or nearly so, as "the weather being chilly" in the sentence "The weather being chilly, we stayed home." [1/7 definitions] |
| absolute pitch |
the exact pitch of a single musical tone as determined by its rate of vibrations as measured on a standard scale. [1/2 definitions] |
| absolutist |
one who regards certain ideas as being unconditionally true. [1/3 definitions] |
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