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24-letter words containing a, l, e, s, n

  • congestive heart failure — heart failure characterized by weakness, breathlessness, and abnormal congestion in the circulatory system, esp. in the lungs or lower legs
  • consonantal alliteration — the use of the same consonant at the beginning of each word or each stressed syllable in a line of verse, as in around the rock the ragged rascal ran
  • constant linear velocity — (storage)   (CLV) A way of controlling the rotation of the disks in a disk drive in which the linear velocity of the disk surface relative to the read/write heads is kept constant. In order to achieve constant linear velocity, the disk must rotate faster (at a higher angular velocity) when reading or writing tracks closer to the centre. Having a constant linear read/write speed along the track means that the electrical signal to and from the heads has a constant data rate (bits per second), thus simplifying the timing of the drive electronics somewhat. However, rotating at less than the maximum possible rate sacrifices some potential performance compared to the alternative, constant angular velocity. Also, varying the rate causes more vibration and consumes more energy.
  • constantinopolitan creed — a formal statement of the chief tenets of Christian belief, adopted by the first Nicene Council.
  • consultant paediatrician — a paediatrician who has attained the rank of consultant
  • cooperative multitasking — (parallel, operating system)   A form of multitasking where it is the responsibility of the currently running task to give up the processor to allow other tasks to run. This contrasts with pre-emptive multitasking where the task scheduler periodically suspends the running task and restarts another. Cooperative multitasking requires the programmer to place calls at suitable points in his code to allow his task to be descheduled which is not always easy if there is no obvious top-level main loop or some routines run for a long time. If a task does not allow itself to be descheduled all other tasks on the system will appear to "freeze" and will not respond to user action. The advantage of cooperative multitasking is that the programmer knows where the program will be descheduled and can make sure that this will not cause unwanted interaction with other processes. Under pre-emptive multitasking, the scheduler must ensure that sufficient state for each process is saved and restored that they will not interfere. Thus cooperative multitasking can have lower overheads than pre-emptive multitasking because of the greater control it offers over when a task may be descheduled. Cooperative multitasking is used in RISC OS, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh System 7.
  • cost-of-living allowance — an additional payment which takes account of the cost of living
  • council of nationalities — the legislature of the former Soviet Union and its successor states, consisting of an upper house (Soviet of the Union or Council of the Union) whose delegates are elected on the basis of population, and a lower house (Soviet of Nationalities or Council of Nationalities) whose delegates are elected to represent the various nationalities.
  • data structures language — (language)   A dialect of MAD with extensions for lists and graphics, on Philco 212.
  • decentralized processing — the use of word processing or data processing units in stand-alone or localized situations
  • definite relative clause — a relative clause with a definite relative pronoun as subordinating word, as that they said in We heard the things that they said.
  • delayed control-transfer — (architecture)   A technique used on the SPARC processor to reduce the effect of pipeline breaks by executing the instruction after a branch instruction (the "delay instruction" in the "delay slot"). If there is no useful instruction which can be placed in the delay slot then the "annul bit" on the control transfer instruction can be set, preventing execution of the delay instruction (unless the control transfer is conditional and is taken). Annulled branches are indicated in SPARC assembler language by appending ",A" to the operation code. For example, LOOP: ... CMP %L0,10 BLE,A LOOP ADD %L2, %L3, #L4 If the delay instruction is also a control transfer instruction then it gets more complicated. Both control transfer instructions are executed (but not the following instruction) and, assuming they are both taken, control is transferred briefly to the destination of the first and then immediately to the destination of the second.
  • destructive distillation — the decomposition of a complex substance, such as wood or coal, by heating it in the absence of air and collecting the volatile products
  • developmental disability — a disability, as mental retardation or cerebral palsy, that begins at an early age and continues indefinitely, leading to substantial handicap.
  • developmental psychology — a branch of psychology that studies changes in human behavior from early life to death.
  • differential association — a theory that criminal and deviant behavior is learned through close and frequent association with criminal or deviant behavior patterns, norms, and values.
  • digital switched network — (communications)   (DSN) The completely digital version of the PSTN.
  • diphenylaminechlorarsine — adamsite.
  • disestablishmentarianism — a person who favors the separation of church and state, especially the withdrawal of special rights, status, and support granted an established church by a state; an advocate of disestablishing a state church.
  • display screen equipment — Visual Display Unit
  • domain-specific language — (language)   A machine-processable language whose terms are derived from a domain model and that is used for the definition of components or software architectures supporting that domain. A domain-specific language is often used as input to an application generator.
  • domestic relations court — in some states, a court with jurisdiction over matters involving relations within the family or household, as between husband and wife or parent and child
  • domestic-relations court — court of domestic relations.
  • double-crested cormorant — a North American cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, having tufts of black and white feathers on the sides of the head.
  • ecole normale superieure — (body)   (ENS) A higher education and research institution in Paris, France.
  • educational psychologist — a person trained in educational psychology
  • electromagnetic spectrum — the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves (wavelength 105 metres) to the shortest gamma radiation (wavelength 10–13 metre)
  • electronic point of sale — a computerized system for recording sales in retail shops, using a laser scanner at the cash till to read bar codes on the packages of the items sold
  • emotional roller coaster — a situation or experience that alternates between making you feel excited, exhilarated, or happy and making you feel sad, disappointed, or desperate
  • endotracheal anaesthesia — a method of administering gaseous anaesthetics to animals through a tube inserted into the trachea
  • english springer spaniel — breed of dog
  • environmental assessment — a formal assessment of the impact a project will have on the environment
  • exponential distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution used esp when making statements about the length of life of certain materials or waiting times between randomly occurring events. Its density function is p(x) = λe–λx for positive λ and nonnegative x, and it is a special case of the gamma distribution
  • face as long as a fiddle — a dismal or gloomy facial expression
  • failure-directed testing — (programming)   (Or "heuristics testing") Software testing based on the knowledge of the types of errors made in the past that are likely for the system under test.
  • family income supplement — a benefit formerly paid to low-income families
  • federal power commission — FPC.
  • federal trade commission — FTC.
  • ferdinand lewis alcindor — (Ferdinand) Lew(is, Jr.) original name of Abdul-Jabbar.
  • fight like kilkenny cats — to fight until both parties are destroyed
  • floating-point specratio — SPECfp92
  • flue gas desulfurization — Flue gas desulfurization is the removal of pollutants containing sulfur from flue gas.
  • follow someone's example — If you follow someone's example, you behave in the same way as they did in the past, or in a similar way, especially because you admire them.
  • footloose and fancy-free — If you describe someone as footloose and fancy-free, you mean that they are not married or in a similar relationship, and you therefore consider them to have very few responsibilities or commitments.
  • functional specification — (programming, project)   A description of what a system (e.g. a piece of software) does or should do (but not how it should do it). The functional specification is one of the inputs to the design process. See IEEE/ANSI Std. 610.12-1990.
  • general purpose language — (GPL) An ALGOL 60 variant with user-definable types and operators.
  • geographical determinism — the theory that human activity is determined by geographical conditions
  • glycogen storage disease — any of several inherited disorders of glycogen metabolism that result in excess accumulation of glycogen in various organs of the body.
  • graphical user interface — a software interface designed to standardize and simplify the use of computer programs, as by using a mouse to manipulate text and images on a display screen featuring icons, windows, and menus.
  • grin like a cheshire cat — a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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