19-letter words containing a, l, o, c
- exophthalmic goiter — a disease of unknown cause characterized by enlargement of the thyroid gland, overproduction of the thyroid hormone, and abnormal protrusion of the eyeballs
- exophthalmic goitre — a form of hyperthyroidism characterized by enlargement of the thyroid gland, protrusion of the eyeballs, increased basal metabolic rate, and weight loss
- expressionistically — In an expressionistic manner.
- facultative apomict — a plant that can reproduce sexually or asexually.
- fallacy of division — the fallacy of inferring that a property of the whole is also a property of parts or members of the whole (opposed to fallacy of composition).
- false consciousness — a Marxist theory that people are unable to see things, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the hypothesized inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.
- family practitioner — medical specialization in general practice, requiring training beyond that of general practice and leading to board certification.
- fellow countrywoman — a fellow countrywoman is a female citizen of the same state as the person speaking, writing, or being referred to
- female circumcision — clitoridectomy.
- financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
- first-sale doctrine — a legal principle allowing the purchaser of a lawfully made copy of a copyright-protected work to sell or give away that copy without permission but not to reproduce it.
- five o'clock shadow — the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.
- five-o'clock shadow — the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.
- flag of convenience — the foreign flag under which merchant ships register in order to save on taxes or wages, or to avoid government regulations.
- flannelmouth sucker — a sucker, Catostomus latipinnis, of the Colorado River and its tributaries.
- fluophosphoric acid — fluorophosphoric acid.
- focal plane shutter — an opaque shield in a camera, lying in the focal plane of the lens, that, when tripped, admits light to expose the film or plate for a predetermined period, usually a fraction of a second
- focal-plane shutter — a camera shutter situated directly in front of the film.
- four-o'clock family — the plant family Nyctaginaceae, characterized by chiefly tropical herbaceous plants and shrubs having colored, petallike bracts beneath petalless flowers and winged or grooved dry fruit, and including the bougainvillea and four-o'clock.
- fractal compression — (algorithm) A technique for encoding images using fractals.
- fractional currency — coins or paper money of a smaller denomination than the basic monetary unit.
- functional analysis — the branch of mathematics that deals with the theory of vector spaces and linear functionals.
- functional calculus — the branch of symbolic logic that includes the sentential calculus and that deals with sentential functions and quantifiers and with logical relations between sentences containing quantifiers.
- functional currency — Functional currency is the main currency used by a business.
- functional database — (database, language) A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
- functional language — (language) A language that supports and encourages functional programming.
- functional medicine — individualized medical care that recognizes the interactions between genetic and environmental factors and between the body's interconnected systems.
- galactic coordinate — Usually, galactic coordinates. a member of a system of coordinates that define the position of a celestial body with reference to the Milky Way.
- gastrocolic omentum — the peritoneal fold attached to the stomach and the colon and hanging over the small intestine.
- gastroenterocolitis — (medicine) inflammation of the stomach, small intestines, and colon.
- gastroenterological — Of or pertaining to gastroenterology.
- general post office — (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. Abbreviation: G.P.O., GPO.
- generic array logic — (hardware, integrated circuit) (GAL) A newer kind of Programmable Array Logic based on EEPROM storage cells, been pioneered by Lattice. GALs can be erased and reprogrammed and usually replace a whole set of different PALs (hence the name).
- geneva nomenclature — an internationally accepted system for naming organic carbon compounds.
- geocentric parallax — the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
- gestational carrier — surrogate mother (def 3).
- glottalic airstream — a current of air in the pharynx produced by the action of the glottis.
- glottochronological — Of or pertaining to glottochronology.
- go off at half-cock — to fail as a result of inadequate preparation or premature starting
- goldbach conjecture — an unproved theorem that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers.
- grand duke nicholas — of Cusa [kyoo-zuh] /ˈkyu zə/ (Show IPA), 1401–1464, German cardinal, mathematician, and philosopher. German Nikolaus von Cusa.
- grandfather's clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother's clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- great wall of china — a system of fortified walls with a roadway along the top, constructed as a defense for China against the nomads of the regions that are now Mongolia and Manchuria: completed in the 3rd century b.c., but later repeatedly modified and rebuilt. 2000 miles (3220 km) long.
- gregorian telescope — a telescope similar in design to the Cassegrainian telescope but less widely used.
- gulf of carpentaria — a shallow inlet of the Arafura Sea, in N Australia between Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula
- gulf of tehuantepec — an inlet of the Pacific on the south coast of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in S Mexico
- handlebar moustache — a man's moustache having long, curved ends that resemble the handlebars of a bicycle.
- hatfield-mccoy feud — a blood feud between two mountain clans on the West Virginia–Kentucky border, the Hatfields of West Virginia and the McCoys of Kentucky, that grew out of their being on opposite sides during the Civil War and was especially violent during 1880–90.
- haul over the coals — a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as a fuel. Compare anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite.