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22-letter words containing a, g, i

  • digital radio mondiale — (communications)   (DRM) A form of monaural digital broadcast using carrier frequencies below 30 MHz. DRM uses MPEG-4 AAC Main Profile and SBR at data rates of 16-25 kbps.
  • digital standard mumps — (DSM) DEC's version of MUMPS.
  • digital versatile disc — (storage)   (DVD, formerly "Digital Video Disc") An optical storage medium with improved capacity and bandwidth compared with the Compact Disc. DVD, like CD, was initally marketed for entertainment and later for computer users. [When was it first available?] A DVD can hold a full-length film with up to 133 minutes of high quality video, in MPEG-2 format, and audio. The first DVD drives for computers were read-only drives ("DVD-ROM"). These can store 4.7 GBytes - over seven times the storage capacity of CD-ROM. DVD-ROM drives read existing CD-ROMs and music CDs and are compatible with installed sound and video boards. Additionally, the DVD-ROM drive can read DVD films and modern computers can decode them in software in real-time. The DVD video standard was announced in November 1995. Matshusita did much of the early development but Philips made the first DVD player, which appeared in Japan in November 1996. In May 2004, Sony released the first dual-layer drive, which increased the disc capacity to 8.5 GB. Double-sided, dual-layer discs will eventually increase the capacity to 17 GB. Write-once DVD-R ("recordable") drives record a 3.9GB DVD-R disc that can be read on a DVD-ROM drive. Pioneer released the first DVD-R drive on 1997-09-29. By March 1997, Hitachi had released a rewritable DVD-RAM drive (by false analogy with random-access memory). DVD-RAM drives read and write to a 2.6 GB DVD-RAM disc, read and write-once to a 3.9GB DVD-R disc, and read a 4.7 GB or 8.5 GB DVD-ROM. Later, DVD-RAM discs could be read on DVD-R and DVD-ROM drives.
  • digital video recorder — See DVR.
  • dilation and curettage — a surgical method for the removal of diseased tissue or an early embryo from the lining of the uterus by means of scraping.
  • directed acyclic graph — (DAG) A directed graph containing no cycles. This means that if there is a route from node A to node B then there is no way back.
  • directory system agent — (DSA) The software that provides the X.500 Directory Service for a portion of the directory information base. Generally, each DSA is responsible for the directory information for a single organisation or organisational unit.
  • dishonorable discharge — the discharge of a person from military service for an offense more serious than one for which a bad-conduct discharge is given.
  • distributed generation — A distributed generation system involves a person or company generating some of their power requirements in different ways, such as locally, or using renewable energy, in order to avoid taking it all from the grid.
  • dog's dinner/breakfast — You describe something as a dog's breakfast or dog's dinner in order to express your disapproval of it, for example because it is very untidy, badly organized, or badly done.
  • draft-quality printing — low-quality, high-speed output in printed form from a printer linked to a word processor
  • dread high bit disease — (character)   A condition endemic to PRIME (also known as "PR1ME") minicomputers that results in all the characters having their high bit (0x80, see meta bit) ON rather than OFF. This complicates transporting files to other systems and talking to true 8-bit devices. Folklore had it that PRIME adopted the convention in order to save 25 cents per serial line per machine; PRIME old-timers, on the other hand, claim they inherited the disease from Honeywell via customer NASA's compatibility requirements and struggled heroically to cure it. Whoever was responsible, this probably qualifies as one of the most cretinous design tradeoffs ever made. A few other machines have exhibited similar brain damage.
  • duplex high speed data — (DHSD) A term which describes a full-duplex channel that can carry 64 kilobits per second. This is the kind of service provided by an Inmarsat-B type portable earth station or a leased line (not ISDN).
  • echegaray y eizaguirre — José (xoˈse). 1832–1916, Spanish dramatist, statesman, and mathematician. His plays include Madman or Saint (1877); Nobel prize for literature 1904
  • educational psychology — a branch of psychology concerned with developing effective educational techniques and dealing with psychological problems in schools.
  • educational technology — the use of technology, such as computers, within education, to aid the learning process
  • electrical engineering — Electrical engineering is the designing, constructing, and maintenance of electrical devices.
  • electromagnetic moment — a measure of the magnetic strength of a magnet or current-carrying coil, expressed as the torque produced when the magnet or coil is set with its axis perpendicular to unit magnetic flux density. It is measured in ampere metres squared
  • electrophysiologically — In an electrophysiological way.
  • emergency road service — a form of motoring insurance that sends assistance to drivers when their vehicles break down on a journey; it is provided either by the national or regional automobile association or by a private insurance company
  • emotional intelligence — empathy and social skills
  • enchanter's nightshade — any of several onagraceous plants of the genus Circaea, esp C. lutetiana, having small white flowers and bristly fruits
  • engineering consultant — a consultant specializing in engineering
  • english cocker spaniel — any of a breed of small spaniel, similar to and the progenitor of the cocker spaniel
  • equal rights amendment — a proposed amendment to the US Constitution enshrining equality between the sexes
  • evolutionary algorithm — (EA) An algorithm which incorporates aspects of natural selection or survival of the fittest. An evolutionary algorithm maintains a population of structures (usually randomly generated initially), that evolves according to rules of selection, recombination, mutation and survival, referred to as genetic operators. A shared "environment" determines the fitness or performance of each individual in the population. The fittest individuals are more likely to be selected for reproduction (retention or duplication), while recombination and mutation modify those individuals, yielding potentially superior ones. EAs are one kind of evolutionary computation and differ from genetic algorithms. A GA generates each individual from some encoded form known as a "chromosome" and it is these which are combined or mutated to breed new individuals. EAs are useful for optimisation when other techniques such as gradient descent or direct, analytical discovery are not possible. Combinatoric and real-valued function optimisation in which the optimisation surface or fitness landscape is "rugged", possessing many locally optimal solutions, are well suited for evolutionary algorithms.
  • examining the entrails — The process of grovelling through a core dump or hex image in an attempt to discover the bug that brought a program or system down. The reference is to divination from the entrails of a sacrified animal. Compare runes, incantation, black art, desk check.
  • extended affix grammar — (language, grammar)   (EAG) A formalism for describing both the context free syntax and the context sensitive syntax of languages. EAGs belong to the family of two-level grammars. They are very closely related to two-level van Wijngaarden grammars. EAG can be used as a specification formalism, specifying in relations rather than functions, or as a relational programming language like PROLOG.
  • extension language kit — (language)   (Elk) A Scheme interpreter by Oliver Laumann <[email protected]> and Carsten Bormann <[email protected]> of the Technical University of Berlin. Elk was designed to be used as a general extension language. New types and primitive procedures can easily be added. It has first-class environments, dynamic-wind, fluid-let, macros, autoloading and a dump. It provides interfaces to Xlib, Xt and various widget sets; dynamic loading of extensions and object files; almost all artificial limitations removed; generational/incremental garbage collector; Unix system call extensions; Records (structures) and bit strings. Version: 2.2 is mostly R3RS compatible and runs on Unix, Ultrix, VAX, Sun-3, Sun-4, 68000, i386, MIPS, IBM PC RT, RS/6000, HP700, SGI, Sony, MS-DOS (gcc+DJGPP or go32).
  • fall prey to something — To fall prey to something bad means to be taken over or affected by it.
  • family planning clinic — a clinic that provides family planning services
  • financial underwriting — Financial underwriting is the process of assessing whether the proposed sum insured and product are reasonable when considering the possible financial loss to the client.
  • fitzgerald contraction — the hypothesis that a moving body exhibits a contraction in the direction of motion when its velocity is close to the speed of light.
  • flexible-rate mortgage — adjustable-rate mortgage.
  • floating exchange rate — a system in which the value of a currency fluctuates against other currencies in accordance with market forces
  • full english breakfast — morning meal of eggs, bacon, etc.
  • functional programming — (programming)   (FP) A program in a functional language consists of a set of (possibly recursive) function definitions and an expression whose value is output as the program's result. Functional languages are one kind of declarative language. They are mostly based on the typed lambda-calculus with constants. There are no side-effects to expression evaluation so an expression, e.g. a function applied to certain arguments, will always evaluate to the same value (if its evaluation terminates). Furthermore, an expression can always be replaced by its value without changing the overall result (referential transparency). The order of evaluation of subexpressions is determined by the language's evaluation strategy. In a strict (call-by-value) language this will specify that arguments are evaluated before applying a function whereas in a non-strict (call-by-name) language arguments are passed unevaluated. Programs written in a functional language are generally compact and elegant, but have tended, until recently, to run slowly and require a lot of memory. Examples of purely functional languages are Clean, FP, Haskell, Hope, Joy, LML, Miranda, and SML. Many other languages such as Lisp have a subset which is purely functional but also contain non-functional constructs. See also lazy evaluation, reduction.
  • gallamine triethiodide — a neuromuscular blocking drug, C 30 H 60 I 3 N 3 O 3 , similar to curare, used as a skeletal muscle relaxant in conjunction with surgical anesthesia.
  • galvanic skin response — a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin caused by an emotional reaction to a stimulus.
  • galvanomagnetic effect — any of several phenomena that occur when an electric current is passed through a conductor or semiconductor situated in a magnetic field, as the Hall effect.
  • garmisch-partenkirchen — a city in S Germany, in the Bavarian Alps.
  • gastrointestinal tract — organs of digestion
  • general public licence — (spelling)   It's spelled "General Public License". (In the UK, "licence" is a noun and "license" is a verb (like "advice"/"advise") but in the US both are spelled "license").
  • general public license — (legal)   (GPL, note US spelling) The licence applied to most software from the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project and other authors who choose to use it. The licences for most software are designed to prevent users from sharing or changing it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users. The GPL is designed to make sure that anyone can distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they receive source code or can get it if they want; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things. The GPL forbids anyone to deny others these rights or to ask them to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for those who distribute copies of the software or modify it. See also General Public Virus.
  • generalized coordinate — Usually, generalized coordinates. one of a minimum set of coordinates needed to specify the state or position of a given system.
  • genitourinary medicine — the branch of medical science concerned with the study and treatment of diseases of the genital and urinary organs, esp sexually transmitted diseases
  • geographic determinism — a doctrine that regards geographical conditions as the determining or molding agency of group life.
  • get (or have) wind of — to get (or have) information or a hint concerning; hear (or know) of
  • get a word in edgeways — to succeed in interrupting a conversation in which someone else is talking incessantly
  • get a word in edgewise — with the edge forward; in the direction of the edge.
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