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19-letter words containing a, n, c, e, p

  • creeping bent grass — a grass, Agrostis stolonifera, grown as a pasture grass in Europe and North America: roots readily from the stem
  • creeping featuritis — (jargon)   /kree'ping fee'-chr-i:`t*s/ A variant of creeping featurism, with its own spoonerism: "feeping creaturitis". Some people like to reserve this form for the disease as it actually manifests in software or hardware, as opposed to the lurking general tendency in designers' minds. -ism means "condition" or "pursuit of", whereas -itis usually means "inflammation of".
  • cult of personality — a cult promoting adulation of a living national leader or public figure, as one encouraged by Stalin to extend his power.
  • cup-and-saucer vine — a woody, Mexican vine, Cobaea scandens, of the phlox family, having bell-shaped, violet-colored or greenish-purple flowers with an inflated, leaflike calyx and long, curved stamens.
  • dangling participle — a participle intended to modify a noun but having the wrong grammatical relationship to it as for example having left in the sentence Having left Europe for good, Peter's future seemed bleak indeed
  • data encryption key — (DEK) Used for the encryption of message text and for the computation of message integrity checks (signatures). See cryptography.
  • data protection act — (legal)   (DPA) A UK law guaranteeing rights to individuals in relation to personal data that others hold on them. For example, under the DPA, you have the right to see what data a company holds on you.
  • de-compartmentalize — to divide into categories or compartments.
  • deflate compression — deflate
  • dental receptionist — a receptionist working in a dental surgery
  • department chairman — the chairman of a university department
  • depletion allowance — a tax allowance granted in certain industries, such as the oil and gas industries, to compensate for the depletion of the oil, gas, etc owned by the company
  • development company — a company that buys land and builds houses, offices, shops, or factories on it, or buys existing buildings and makes them more modern
  • differential backup — (operating system)   A kind of backup that copies all files that have changed since the last full backup. Each differential backup will include all files in previous differential backups since the full backup so to restore a version of a file, you only need to search the full backup and the relevant differential backup. Some systems support differential backup by associating an "Archive" flag with each file and setting this flag whenever the file is modified to indicate that it should be included in the next backup. A differential backup does not change this flag, whereas an incremental backup resets it.
  • diffraction pattern — the phenomenon exhibited by wave fronts that, passing the edge of an opaque body, are modulated, thereby causing a redistribution of energy within the front: it is detectable in light waves by the presence of a pattern of closely spaced dark and light bands (diffraction pattern) at the edge of a shadow.
  • directional coupler — (communications)   (tap) A passive device used in cable systems to divide and combine radio frequency signals. A directional coupler has at least three ports: line in, line out, and the tap. The signal passes between line in and line out ports with loss referred to as the insertion loss. A small portion of the signal power applied to the line in port passes to the tap port. A signal applied to the tap port is passed to the line in port less the tap attenuation value. The tap signals are isolated from the line out port to prevent reflections. A signal applied to the line out port passes to the line in port and is isolated from the tap port. Some devices provide more than one tap output line (multi-taps).
  • dispatch department — the department of an organization responsible for the dispatch of orders
  • displacement engine — any engine employing the rectilinear motion of one or more pistons in cylinders.
  • dobsonian telescope — a relatively inexpensive Newtonian telescope, suitable for visual but not photographic use, in which the tube assembly slips freely in the lower base.
  • duplicating machine — a duplicator, especially one for making identical copies of documents, letters, etc.
  • echoencephalography — a device that employs reflected ultrasonic waves to examine the position of brain structures.
  • electrode potential — the potential difference developed when an electrode of an element is placed in a solution containing ions of that element
  • electron micrograph — a photograph or image of a specimen taken using an electron microscope
  • electronic graphics — (on television) the production of graphic designs and text by electronic means
  • elementary particle — any of several entities, such as electrons, neutrons, or protons, that are less complex than atoms and are regarded as the constituents of all matter
  • european commission — the executive body of the European Union formed in 1967, which initiates action in the EU and mediates between member governments
  • evaporative cooling — a method of reducing temperature that uses evaporation
  • expeditionary force — An expeditionary force is a group of soldiers who are sent to fight in a foreign country.
  • expressionistically — In an expressionistic manner.
  • family practitioner — medical specialization in general practice, requiring training beyond that of general practice and leading to board certification.
  • feynman, richard p. — Richard P. Feynman
  • 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.
  • forensic psychiatry — the use of psychiatric knowledge and techniques in questions of law, as in determining legal insanity.
  • fractal compression — (algorithm)   A technique for encoding images using fractals.
  • freezer compartment — in a refrigerator, an enclosed area kept at a temperature low enough to store frozen foods or freeze non-frozen foods
  • 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 programming — (programming)   A programming technique which aims to make programs more adaptable by making them more general. Generic programs often embody non-traditional kinds of polymorphism; ordinary programs are obtained from them by suitably instantiating their parameters. In contrast with normal programs, the parameters of a generic programs are often quite rich in structure. For example they may be other programs, types or type constructors or even programming paradigms.
  • genetic programming — (programming)   (GP) A programming technique which extends the genetic algorithm to the domain of whole computer programs. In GP, populations of programs are genetically bred to solve problems. Genetic programming can solve problems of system identification, classification, control, robotics, optimisation, game playing, and pattern recognition. Starting with a primordial ooze of hundreds or thousands of randomly created programs composed of functions and terminals appropriate to the problem, the population is progressively evolved over a series of generations by applying the operations of Darwinian fitness proportionate reproduction and crossover (sexual recombination).
  • geocentric parallax — the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
  • gigabits per second — (unit)   (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
  • gregorian telescope — a telescope similar in design to the Cassegrainian telescope but less widely used.
  • grievance procedure — the established series of steps to be taken in dealing with a grievance raised with an employer by an employee
  • 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
  • have a bone to pick — to have grounds for a quarrel
  • hepatic portal vein — a vein connecting two capillary networks in the liver
  • heptachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) Either of twenty-four isomers of the polychlorinated biphenyl containing seven chlorine atoms.
  • hyper-nationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.
  • hyperbolic cosecant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of hyperbolic sine
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