24-letter words containing a, i, r, s, c

public relations officer — a person who is responsible for communications with the public
pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
quick-assembly furniture — furniture such as shelves and cupboards which you buy as a number of separate pieces and assemble yourself
recharge one's batteries — If you recharge a battery, you put an electrical charge back into the battery by connecting it to a machine that draws power from another source of electricity.
reciprocal translocation — an exchange of segments between two nonhomologous chromosomes.
reconnaissance satellite — a military satellite designed to carry out photographic surveillance, gather electronic intelligence, detect nuclear explosions, or provide early warning of strategic-missile launchings.
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.
referential transparency — (programming) An expression E is referentially transparent if any subexpression and its value (the result of evaluating it) can be interchanged without changing the value of E. This is not the case if the value of an expression depends on global state which can change value. The most common example of changing global state is assignment to a global variable. For example, if y is a global variable in: f(x) { return x+y; } g(z) { a = f(1); y = y + z; return a + f(1); } function g has the "side-effect" that it alters the value of y. Since f's result depends on y, the two calls to f(1) will return different results even though the argument is the same. Thus f is not referentially transparent. Changing the order of evaluation of the statements in g will change its result. We could make f above referentially transparent by passing in y as an argument: f(x, y) = x+y Similarly, g would need to take y as an argument and return its new value as part of the result: g(z, y) { a = f(1, y); y' = y+z; return (a + f(1, y'), y'); } Referentially transparent programs are more amenable to formal methods and easier to reason about because the meaning of an expression depends only on the meaning of its subexpressions and not on the order of evaluation or side-effects of other expressions. We can stretch the concept of referential transparency to include input and output if we consider the whole program to be a function from its input to its output. The program as a whole is referentially transparent because it will always produce the same output when given the same input. This is stretching the concept because the program's input may include what the user types, the content of certain files or even the time of day. If we do not consider global state like the contents of files as input, then writing to a file and reading what was written behaves just like assignment to a global variable. However, if we must consider the state of the universe as an input rather than global state then any deterministic system would be referentially transparent! See also extensional equality, observational equivalence.
relative record data set — (database) (RRDS) One of the access methods used by IBM's VSAM.
renewable term insurance — Renewable term insurance is term life insurance that may be renewed for another period without the policyholder needing to provide further evidence of their insurability.
representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
republic of south africa — Republic of, a country in S Africa; member of the Commonwealth of Nations until 1961. 472,000 sq. mi. (1,222,480 sq. km). Capitals: Pretoria and Cape Town.
resale price maintenance — the practice by which a manufacturer establishes a fixed or minimum price for the resale of a brand product by retailers or other distributors
responsibility allowance — payment made to somebody who has special responsibilities
robot exclusion standard — standard for robot exclusion
rocky mountain whitefish — mountain whitefish.
san francisco de macoris — a city in the N Dominican Republic.
scalable vector graphics — (graphics, web) A W3C standard for vector graphics, based on XML.
schizoaffective disorder — a psychotic disorder in which symptoms of schizophrenia and affective disorder occur simultaneously.
scottish country dancing — a type of Scottish folk dancing, including reels, jigs, and strathspeys, in which couples are arranged in sets and perform a series of movements, esp facing one another in a line
senegambia confederation — an economic and political union (1982–89) between Senegal and The Gambia
serial interface adaptor — (SIA) The Ethernet driver chip used on a Filtabyte Ethernet card.
shadow foreign secretary — the member of the main opposition party in Parliament who would hold the office of Foreign Secretary if their party were in power
sic transit gloria mundi — thus passes the glory of the world
single european currency — the official currency, also known as the Euro, of some of the members of the European Union
single premium insurance — Single premium insurance is insurance where all the premium is paid at once, in one payment.
skeleton in the cupboard — a scandalous fact or event in the past that is kept secret
socialist workers' party — one of the biggest extreme left wing parties in Britain
south equatorial current — an ocean current, flowing westward, found near the equator in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans.
special development area — an area earmarked for special development by the government
stereographic projection — a one-to-one correspondence between the points on a sphere and the extended complex plane where the north pole on the sphere corresponds to the point at infinity of the plane.
stratificational grammar — a grammar based upon the theory that language is made up of successive strata that are interconnected by established rules.
stratified charge engine — an internal-combustion engine in which a small charge of a rich fuel mixture is ignited first and used to improve combustion of a larger charge of a lean fuel mixture.
structural functionalism — functionalism (def 3).
subordinate con-junction — a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause, as when in They were glad when I finished.
supportive psychotherapy — a type of psychotherapy that seeks to reduce psychological conflict and strengthen a patient's defenses through the use of various techniques, as reassurance, suggestion, counseling, and reeducation.
synchronous graphics ram — Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory
telephony user interface — (communications) (TUI) Either a software interface to telephony (e.g. a phone-capable PC) or a DTMF-based interface to software (e.g. voicemail).
telescope user interface — (hardware, interface) (TUI) A remote control interface for a telescope.
the official secrets act — an act of Parliament that covers the protection of information relating to state security
the second international — an international association of socialist parties and trade unions that began in Paris in 1889 and collapsed during World War I. The right-wing elements reassembled at Berne in 1919
the wars of the diadochi — a series of conflicts between 321 and 281 bc, fought by six Macedonian generals who, after the death of Alexander the Great, desired control of his empire
three-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having three spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
to pick someone's brains — If you pick someone's brains, you ask them to help you with a problem because they know more about the subject than you.
to play your cards right — If you say that someone will achieve success if they play their cards right, you mean that they will achieve success if they act skilfully and use the advantages that they have.
to rise to the challenge — If someone rises to the challenge, they act in response to a difficult situation which is new to them and are successful.
trading standards office — an office of the local authority department that deals with trading standards
transcendental aesthetic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of space and time as the a priori forms of perception.
transcendental dialectic — (in transcendental logic) the study of the fallacious attribution of objective reality to the perceptions by the mind of external objects. Compare dialectic (def 8).
tri-nations championship — (from 1996–2011) the annual tournament in which the national sides representing Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa compete; in 2012 Argentina entered and the competition became the Rugby Championship

Was this page helpful?

Yes No

Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page

Tell us why?