17-letter words containing a, l, p, u
- computer terminal — a keyboard and computer monitor connected to a computer
- computer-literate — If someone is computer-literate, they have enough skill and knowledge to be able to use a computer.
- conceptualisation — The act of conceptualising, or something conceptualised.
- conceptualization — to form into a concept; make a concept of.
- concurrent pascal — (language) An extension of a Pascal subset, Sequential Pascal, developed by Brinch Hansen in 1972-75. Concurrent Pascal was the first language to support monitors. It provided access to hardware devices through monitor calls and also supported processes and classes.
- consumer sampling — a research technique in which targeted consumers are polled or tested for their receptiveness to a product or service
- contemporaneously — living or occurring during the same period of time; contemporary.
- corporate culture — the distinctive ethos of an organization that influences the level of formality, loyalty, and general behaviour of its employees
- counter-complaint — an expression of discontent, regret, pain, censure, resentment, or grief; lament; faultfinding: his complaint about poor schools.
- courtship display — behaviour that is aimed at attracting a mate
- critical pressure — the pressure of a gas or the saturated vapour pressure of a substance in its critical state
- culpable homicide — manslaughter
- dagestan republic — a constituent republic of S Russia, on the Caspian Sea: annexed from Persia in 1813; rich mineral resources. Capital: Makhachkala. Pop: 2 584 200 (2002). Area: 50 278 sq km (19 416 sq miles)
- dibutyl phthalate — a colorless oily liquid, C 16 H 22 O 4 , insoluble in water, used as a solvent, insect repellent, and plasticizer.
- digital audiotape — a cassette containing magnetic tape used for high-fidelity digital recording or playback of audio. Abbreviation: DAT.
- displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- drive up the wall — to cause to become crazy or furious
- duality principle — the principle that a mathematical duality exists under certain conditions.
- empirical formula — a chemical formula indicating the proportion of each element present in a molecule
- entrepreneurially — In an entrepreneurial manner.
- equal opportunity — policies that bar discrimination
- equinoctial point — either of the two points at which the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic
- eupen and malmédy — a region of Belgium in Liège province: ceded by Germany in 1919. Pop: 29 372 (2004 est)
- feint-ruled paper — writing paper with light horizontal lines printed across at regular intervals
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- full linear group — the group of all nonsingular linear transformations mapping a finite-dimensional vector space into itself.
- gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
- grapefruit league — a series of training games played by major-league teams before the opening of the season (so named because they take place in the citrus-growing South, as in Florida).
- graphic equalizer — an equalizer in an audio system that is controlled by sliders that show graphically and correct the frequency response within the preset frequency range.
- guadalupe hidalgo — a city in the Federal District of Mexico: famous shrine; peace treaty 1848.
- gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
- gustavus adolphus — (Gustavus Adolphus) 1778–1837, king of Sweden 1792–1809 (son of Gustavus III).
- gustavus-adolphus — (Gustavus Adolphus) 1778–1837, king of Sweden 1792–1809 (son of Gustavus III).
- henry of portugal — ("the Navigator") 1394–1460, prince of Portugal: sponsor of geographic explorations.
- hippocampal gyrus — a convolution on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum, bordering the hippocampus.
- hospitality suite — a suite or room, as in a hotel or convention center, rented by a business firm, political candidate, or the like, to meet and entertain clients, potential customers, etc.
- hyperintellectual — appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
- hypochlorous acid — a weak, unstable acid, HOCl, existing only in solution and in the form of its salts, used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant.
- iberian peninsula — Also called Iberian Peninsula. a peninsula in SW Europe, comprising Spain and Portugal.
- ice-cream parlour — a place where people go to eat ice cream
- illegal procedure — a penalty assessed against the offensive team for a technical rules violation, as in assuming an illegal formation.
- insupportableness — The state of being insupportable; insufferableness.
- interrupt handler — (software) A routine which is executed when an interrupt occurs. Interrupt handlers typically deal with low-level events in the hardware of a computer system such as a character arriving at a serial port or a tick of a real-time clock. Special care is required when writing an interrupt handler to ensure that either the interrupt which triggered the handler's execution is masked out (inhibitted) until the handler exits, or the handler is re-entrant so that multiple concurrent invocations will not interfere with each other. If interrupts are masked then the handler must execute as quickly as possible so that important events are not missed. This is often arranged by splitting the processing associated with the event into "upper" and "lower" halves. The lower part is the interrupt handler which masks out further interrupts as required, checks that the appropriate event has occurred (this may be necessary if several events share the same interrupt), services the interrupt, e.g. by reading a character from a UART and writing it to a queue, and re-enabling interrupts. The upper half executes as part of a user process. It waits until the interrupt handler has run. Normally the operating system is responsible for reactivating a process which is waiting for some low-level event. It detects this by a shared flag or by inspecting a shared queue or by some other synchronisation mechanism. It is important that the upper and lower halves do not interfere if an interrupt occurs during the execution of upper half code. This is usually ensured by disabling interrupts during critical sections of code such as removing a character from a queue.
- jumping-off place — a place for use as a starting point: Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.
- jurisprudentially — In terms of jurisprudence.
- karelian republic — a constituent republic of NW Russia between the White Sea and Lakes Onega and Ladoga. Capital: Petrozavodsk. Pop: 716 700 (2002). Area: 172 400 sq km (66 560 sq miles)
- kastor and pollux — Castor and Pollux.
- keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.