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23-letter words containing a, l, r, m, c, o

  • four colour map theorem — (mathematics, application)   (Or "four colour theorem") The theorem stating that if the plane is divided into connected regions which are to be coloured so that no two adjacent regions have the same colour (as when colouring countries on a map of the world), it is never necessary to use more than four colours. The proof, due to Appel and Haken, attained notoriety by using a computer to check tens of thousands of cases and is thus not humanly checkable, even in principle. Some thought that this brought the philosophical status of the proof into doubt. There are now rumours of a simpler proof, not requiring the use of a computer. See also chromatic number
  • frictional unemployment — those people who are in the process of moving from one job to another and who therefore appear in the unemployment statistics collected at any given time
  • functional requirements — (specification)   What a system should be able to do, the functions it should perform. This term is used at both the user requirements analysis and software requirements specifications phases in the software life-cycle. An example of a non-functional requirement is an initialisation sequence incorporated into the software that is specific to a given customer.
  • fundamental interaction — any of the four basic interactions that occur in nature: the gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions
  • grant-maintained school — a school funded directly by central government
  • hook-and-ladder company — a company of firefighters equipped with a hook-and-ladder truck.
  • hypothetical imperative — (esp in the moral philosophy of Kant) any conditional rule of action, concerned with means and ends rather than with duty for its own sake
  • immunological tolerance — the absence of antibody production in response to the presence of antigens, usually as a result of previous exposure to the antigens
  • interchange file format — (file format)   (IFF, full name "EA IFF 1985") A generic file format published by Electronic Arts as an open standard. IFF is chunk-based and hierarchical so files can include other files. It is easily extensible and an all round Good Idea. An IFF file starts with one of the following "group IDs": 'FORM', 'LIST' or 'CAT '. This is followed by an unsigned 32-bit number of bytes in the remainder of the file. Then comes an ID that indicates which type of IFF file this is. The main image type is ILBM, audio is either AIFF or 8SVX, animations are ANIM etc. An IFF file will probably have a filename extension related to this file type stored in the file. The rest of the file is divided into chunks each of which also has a four-byte header and byte count.
  • intermediate technology — technology which combines sophisticated ideas with cheap and readily available materials, esp for use in developing countries
  • largemouth (black) bass — a black bass (Micropterus salmoides) found in warm, sluggish waters
  • law enforcement officer — an official employee who prevents and detects crime and who maintains and upholds the police, such as a police officer, sheriff, customs officer etc
  • lawrence livermore labs — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • lead replacement petrol — a less toxic fuel introduced in 2000 for cars requiring leaded petrol
  • lossy audio compression — (audio, compression)   Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bit of data but only reproduces a signal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC.
  • lower of cost or market — Lower of cost or market is a method of valuing assets where the asset is valued at either the historical cost or the fair market value, whichever is lower.
  • magneto-encephalography — a record of the magnetic field of the brain. Abbreviation: MEG.
  • magnetohydrodynamically — In a magnetohydrodynamic way.
  • magnetomechanical ratio — the ratio of the angular momentum of a rotating charged particle to its magnetic moment; the reciprocal of the gyromagnetic ratio.
  • make allowances for sth — If you make allowances for something, you take it into account in your decisions, plans, or actions.
  • micro assembly language — (language)   (MAL) A microprogramming language with high-level syntax, used in the reference below. See also Mic-1, Mac-1.
  • micropachycephalosaurus — A very small pachycephalosaurid, ornithischian dinosaur of the genus Micropachycephalosaurus.
  • mpeg-4 aac main profile — (compression, standard, algorithm)   A successor of MP3 allowing transparent coding at data rates of 70-75% of that of MP3. It is very different from MP3, only used MDCT, no subband coding. It is much more complex that MP3 and MPEG-2 AAC Low Profile.
  • nondisclosure agreement — a legal contract in which one or more parties agree to keep information, as a trade secret, confidential and protected for a specific amount of time. Abbreviation: NDA.
  • nonverbal communication — gesture and facial expression
  • parametric polymorphism — Polymorphism was first identified by Christopher Strachey in 1967 and developed by Hindley and Milner. For example we could specify that the argument of the "head" function was a list without specifying a type for the elements of the list. In Haskell we would write: head :: [a] -> a meaning head has type function from "list of a" to "a" where "a" is a type variable). This is known as parametric polymorphism. Polymorphic typing allows strong type checking as well as generic functions. ML in 1976 was the first language with polymorphic typing. See also generic type variable.
  • parliamentary democracy — a system of government in which people elect representatives to a parliament to make laws, for example Canada and the UK
  • performance-related pay — salary based on individual assessment
  • peroxymonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
  • pest control department — the local government department responsible for controlling such pests as rats and mice
  • pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
  • photoelectric magnitude — the magnitude of a star determined using a photometer plus a filter to select light or other radiation of the desired wavelength
  • physical memory address — physical address
  • play by electronic mail — (games)   A kind of game where the players use electronic mail to communicate. This may be done via a human moderator or an automatic mailing list exploder on some central machine or it may be fully distributed with each player just addressing his mail to all other players. This is a natural extension of "play by mail" games conducted via snail mail.
  • polymethyl methacrylate — polymerized methyl methacrylate.
  • private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
  • probabilistic automaton — nondeterministic automaton
  • professional misconduct — a violation of the rules or boundaries set by the governing body of a profession
  • puerto rican royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea borinquena, of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, having leaves about 10 feet (3 meters) long and egg-shaped, yellowish-brown fruit.
  • quantum electrodynamics — the quantum field theory that deals with the electromagnetic field and its interaction with electrons and positrons. Abbreviation: QED.
  • quantum flavourdynamics — a gauge theory of the electromagnetic and weak interactions
  • rate-of-climb indicator — a flight instrument that indicates the rate of climb or descent of an aircraft.
  • real simple syndication — (spelling)   Illiterate form of Really Simple Syndication.
  • relative molecular mass — the sum of all the relative atomic masses of the atoms in a molecule; the ratio of the average mass per molecule of a specified isotopic composition of a substance to one-twelfth the mass of an atom of carbon-12
  • rocky mountain beeplant — a rank-smelling plant, Cleome serrulata, of the caper family, native to the western U.S., having showy, dense clusters of pink or white flowers, frequented by bees.
  • secondary modern school — (formerly) a secondary school offering a more technical or practical and less academic education than a grammar school
  • sheltered accommodation — housing specially designed to provide a safe environment for the elderly, handicapped, or disabled, often with some shared facilities and a caretaker
  • sierra madre occidental — the system of mountains in the west of Mexico
  • silicone breast implant — silicone filled bags that are implanted into a woman in order to increase the size of her breasts
  • small-scale integration — SSI.
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