24-letter words containing a, c, r, e, d
- industrial correspondent — a journalist who specializes in reporting the industrial news
- interlocking directorate — a corporate directorate that includes one or more members who serve simultaneously in the directorates of other corporations.
- international morse code — a form of Morse code used in international radiotelegraphy.
- internet access provider — (networking, company) (IAP) A company or other origanisation which provides access to the Internet to businesses and/or consumers. An IAP purchases an Internet link from another company that has a direct link to the Internet and resells portions of that bandwidth to the general public. For example, an IAP may purchase a T1 link (1.544Mb/s) and resell that bandwidth in chunks consisting of ISDN (64Kb/s, 128Kb/s) and analog modems (14.4Kb/s, 28.8Kb/s). The IAP's customer base is likely to include both businesses and individuals. Individual customers usually connect to the IAP via a modem and telephone line to a (preferably local) point of presence. An IAP may also be an Internet Service Provider.
- iterated function system — (graphics) (IFS) A class of fractals that yield natural-looking forms like ferns or snowflakes. Iterated Function Systems use a very easy transformation that is done recursively.
- la belle dame sans merci — a ballad (1819) by Keats.
- least common denominator — the smallest number that is a common denominator of a given set of fractions.
- leave much to be desired — be inadequate
- licensed practical nurse — a person who has graduated from an accredited school of nursing and has become licensed to provide basic nursing care under the supervision of a physician or registered nurse. Abbreviation: LPN.
- linear (induction) motor — an electric motor that produces thrust in a direct line, as distinguished from the rotary motion produced by a rotary engine, by the interaction of a moving magnetic field and the current induced by the field
- local loopback addresses — The special Internet address, 127.0.0.1, defined by the Internet Protocol. A host can use local the loopback address to send messages to itself.
- logical block addressing — (storage) (LBA) A hard disk sector addressing scheme used on all SCSI hard disks, and on ATA-2 conforming IDE hard disks. The addressing conversion is performed by the hard disk firmware. Prior to LBA, combined limitations of IBM PC BIOS and ATA restricted the useful capacity of IDE hard disks on IBM PCs and compatibles to 1024 cylinders * 63 sectors per track * 16 heads * 512 bytes per sector = 528 million bytes = 504 megabytes. Modern BIOSes select LBA mode automatically, and work around the 1024-cylinder BIOS limit by representing a hard disk to the OS as having e.g. half as many cylinders and twice as many heads. However, there is still an unbreakable BIOS disk size limit of 1024 cylinders * 63 sectors per track * 256 heads * 512 bytes per sector = 8 gigabytes, but modern OSes (including Windows 9x, Windows NT and Linux) are not affected by it, since they issue direct LBA-based calls, bypassing the BIOS hard disk services completely.
- long-spined sea scorpion — Cottus bubalis or Taurulus bubalis
- lunar (excursion) module — the component of the Apollo spacecraft used to carry astronauts to the moon's surface and return them to the command and service modules in lunar orbit
- make a production out of — to make an unnecessary fuss about
- make ducks and drakes of — to use recklessly; squander or waste
- mandy rice-davis applies — (chat) (MRDA) An acronym used to imply that someone is lying to protect their own interests. During the trial of Stephen Ward (who was charged with living off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Rice-Davies), the prosecuting counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied any involvement with her and Rice-Davies replied, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"
- manic-depressive illness — bipolar disorder.
- medium-scale integration — MSI.
- nalbuphine hydrochloride — an opiate drug used as a painkiller
- near field communication — a short-range wireless communication system that uses radio waves to enable a phone or other mobile device to interact with another device or card reader: Near Field Communication essentially lets your phone replace your credit cards. Abbreviation: NFC.
- network attached storage — (networking, storage) (NAS) Fixed disks, RAID arrays, and magnetic tape drives connected directly to a Storage Area Network (SAN) or other direct network connection. This is in contrast to a file server where the peripherals are connected to the network via a computer (the server).
- new england clam chowder — a thick chowder made from clams, potatoes, onions, sometimes salt pork, and milk or cream.
- object-oriented analysis — (programming) (OOA) The first phase of object-oriented design.
- object-oriented database — (database) (OODB) A system offering DBMS facilities in an object-oriented programming environment. Data is stored as objects and can be interpreted only using the methods specified by its class. The relationship between similar objects is preserved (inheritance) as are references between objects. Queries can be faster because joins are often not needed (as in a relational database). This is because an object can be retrieved directly without a search, by following its object id. The same programming language can be used for both data definition and data manipulation. The full power of the database programming language's type system can be used to model data structures and the relationship between the different data items. OODBs typically provide better support for versioning. An object can be viewed as the set of all its versions. Also, object versions can be treated as full fledged objects. OODBs also provide systematic support for triggers and constraints which are the basis of active databases. Most, if not all, object-oriented application programs that have database needs will benefit from using an OODB.
- object-oriented language — object-oriented programming
- open data-link interface — (networking, standard) (ODI) A Novell-developed network card API that provides media and protocol independence. It allows the sharing of a single card by multiple transport layer protocols and resolves conflicts.
- optical character reader — the process or technology of reading data in printed form by a device (optical character reader) that scans and identifies characters. Abbreviation: OCR.
- particulate fluidization — Particulate fluidization is a condition when particles in a fluidized bed are individually suspended.
- passive balance of trade — a negative balance of trade
- polychlorinated biphenyl — PCB.
- portable document format — (file format) (PDF) The native file format for Adobe Systems' Acrobat. PDF is the file format for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents. A PDF file can describe documents containing any combination of text, graphics, and images in a device-independent and resolution independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use of fonts, graphics, colour, and images.
- portable scheme debugger — (PSD) A package for source code debugging of R4RS-compliant Scheme under GNU Emacs by Kellom ?ki Pertti <[email protected]>. Version 1.1. Distributed under GNU GPL. It works with scm, Elk and Scheme->C.
- present company excepted — If you are making a general, unfavourable comment about a particular type of person, and you are with people of that type, you can say 'present company excepted' as a way of making your comment sound more polite.
- privileged communication — a communication that one cannot legally be compelled to divulge, as that to a lawyer from a client
- pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
- quadrature of the circle — the insoluble problem of constructing, by the methods of Euclidean geometry, a square equal in area to a given circle.
- quinacrine hydrochloride — Atabrine
- recommended retail price — the selling price of a product officially suggested by a manufacturer to a retailer
- recursive descent parser — (grammar) A "top-down" parser built from a set of mutually-recursive procedures or a non-recursive equivalent where each such procedure usually implements one of the productions of the grammar. Thus the structure of the resulting program closely mirrors that of the grammar it recognises.
- relative record data set — (database) (RRDS) One of the access methods used by IBM's VSAM.
- remote method invocation — (programming) (RMI) Part of the Java programming language library which enables a Java program running on one computer to access the objects and methods of another Java program running on a different computer.
- representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- reproductive imagination — the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.
- research and development — the part of a commercial company's activity concerned with applying the results of scientific research to develop new products and improve existing ones
- ricardian theory of rent — economic rent.
- richard the lion-hearted — ("Richard the Lion-Hearted"; "Richard Coeur de Lion") 1157–99, king of England 1189–99.
- ring down the curtain on — to give forth a clear resonant sound, as a bell when struck: The doorbell rang twice.
- robot exclusion standard — standard for robot exclusion
- rose-coloured spectacles — If you look at a person or situation through rose-coloured glasses or rose-tinted glasses, you see only their good points and therefore your view of them is unrealistic. In British English, you can also say that someone is looking through rose-coloured spectacles.