23-letter words containing a, s, t, r, o, n
- comparative linguistics — the study of the correspondences between languages that have a common origin.
- completely normal space — a normal topological space in which every subspace is normal.
- composite colour signal — a colour television signal in which luminance and two chrominance components are encoded into a single signal
- computer-based training — Computer-Aided Instruction
- concertgebouw orchestra — an Amsterdam orchestra, established in 1888, that has been independent of the Concertgebouw hall since World War II
- concrete data structure — (theory) (CDS) A model of programming language terms developed in the context of constructing fully abstract semantics for sequential languages. A CDS is a 4-tuple (C,V,E,|-) where C is a cell, V is a value, E is an event and |- is an "enabling relation". An event is a cell and a value. A cell C is "enabled" by a set of events S if S |- C. A state is a set of events which are consistent in that the values they give for any cell are all equal. Every cell in a state is enabled.
- conformational analysis — the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms or groups of atoms in a molecule and the way in which this influences chemical behaviour
- conservative evaluation — (programming) Under this parallel evaluation strategy, no evaluation is started unless it is known to be needed. The opposite of conservative evaluation is speculative evaluation.
- consolidated deliveries — deliveries of goods to different shops in a common location by a single carrier and in a single vehicle
- constant of gravitation — a law stating that any two masses attract each other with a force equal to a constant (constant of gravitation) multiplied by the product of the two masses and divided by the square of the distance between them.
- constant of integration — a constant that is added to the function obtained by evaluating the indefinite integral of a given function, indicating that all indefinite integrals of the given function differ by, at most, a constant.
- constitutional monarchy — a monarchy governed according to a constitution that limits and defines the powers of the sovereign
- constraint satisfaction — (application) The process of assigning values to variables while meeting certain requirements or "constraints". For example, in graph colouring, a node is a variable, the colour assigned to it is its value and a link between two nodes represents the constraint that those two nodes must not be assigned the same colour. In scheduling, constraints apply to such variables as the starting and ending times for tasks. The Simplex method is one well known technique for solving numerical constraints. The search difficulty of constraint satisfaction problems can be determined on average from knowledge of easily computed structural properties of the problems. In fact, hard instances of NP-complete problems are concentrated near an abrupt transition between under- and over-constrained problems. This transition is analogous to phase transitions in physical systems and offers a way to estimate the likely difficulty of a constraint problem before attempting to solve it with search.
- consultant psychiatrist — a psychiatrist who has attained the rank of consultant
- conversion to iteration — A transformation applied to functional programs to replace recursion with iteration. A tail-recursive function can be compiled to an iterative loop where the recursive call becomes a jump back to the start and the parameters are held in registers which are updated with new values each time around the loop. See Iteration, Tail recursion optimisation.
- corporate restructuring — a change in the business strategy of an organization resulting in diversification, closing parts of the business, etc, to increase its long-term profitability
- cost-of-living increase — a pay rise that is given because the cost of living has gone up
- court of first instance — a court in which legal proceedings are begun or first heard
- creative writing course — a course in which people are taught creative writing skills
- critique of pure reason — a philosophical work (1781) by Immanuel Kant.
- cryptococcal meningitis — a form of meningitis resulting from opportunistic infection by a cryptococcus fungus, occurring in persons who are immunodeficient.
- current-cost accounting — a method of accounting that values assets at their current replacement cost rather than their original cost
- cylindrical coordinates — three coordinates defining the location of a point in three-dimensional space in terms of its polar coordinates (r, θ) in one plane, usually the (x, y) plane, and its perpendicular distance, z, measured from this plane
- d'arsonval galvanometer — a galvanometer consisting of a large, fixed magnet and a light coil that swings in the magnetic field.
- dacryocystorhinostomies — Plural form of dacryocystorhinostomy.
- delayed stress reaction — a post-traumatic stress disorder occurring more than six months after the experience of a traumatic event.
- deterministic automaton — (theory) A finite-state automaton in which the overall course of the computation is completely determined by the program, the starting state, and the initial inputs. The class of problems solvable by such automata is the class P (see polynomial-time algorithm).
- diamondback rattlesnake — either of two large, highly venomous rattlesnakes of the genus Crotalus, having diamond-shaped markings on the back.
- differential psychology — the branch of psychology dealing with the study of characteristic differences or variations of groups or individuals, especially through the use of analytic techniques and statistical methods.
- discontinuous variation — variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes. Compare continuous variation.
- discrimination learning — a learning process in which an organism learns to react differently to different stimuli
- disintegration constant — decay constant.
- disjunctive normal form — (DNF) A logical formula consisting of a disjunction of conjunctions where no conjunction contains a disjunction. E.g. the DNF of (A or B) and C is (A and C) or (B and C).
- dissociate oneself from — to deny or repudiate any connection with
- dissociative extraction — Dissociative extraction is when a component is divided between two liquids, which involves breakdown of the component.
- do someone's heart good — to make someone happy; please someone
- dollar (cost) averaging — see average (sense 11)
- draw/make a distinction — If you draw a distinction or make a distinction, you say that two things are different.
- drop into someone's lap — to cause to be someone's responsibility
- dual sensory impairment — the condition of being affected by sight and hearing loss
- earthquake-proof design — Earthquake-proof design is design which will not be badly damaged by earthquakes or tsunamis.
- eastern lowland gorilla — the largest of the anthropoid apes, Gorilla gorilla, terrestrial and vegetarian, of western equatorial Africa and the Kivu highlands, comprising the subspecies G. g. gorilla (western lowland gorilla) G. g. graueri (eastern lowland gorilla) and G. g. beringei (mountain gorilla) now rare.
- eastern orthodox church — Orthodox Church (def 1).
- education correspondent — a journalist who reports news in the field of education or teaching
- electron spin resonance — a technique for investigating paramagnetic substances by subjecting them to high-frequency radiation in a strong magnetic field. Changes in the spin of unpaired electrons cause radiation to be absorbed at certain frequencies
- electronic mail address — (messaging) (Usually "e-mail address") The string used to specify the source or destination of an electronic mail message. E.g. "[email protected]". The RFC 822 standard is probably the most widely used on the Internet. X.400 was once used in Europe and Canada. UUCP-style (bang path) addresses or other kinds of source route became virtually extinct in the 1990s. In the example above, "john" is the local part which is the name of a mailbox on the destination computer. If the sender and recipient use the same computer, or the same LAN, for electronic mail then the local part is usually all that is required. If they use different computers, e.g. they work at different companies or use different Internet service providers, then the "host part", e.g. "sales.acme.com" must be appended after an "@". This usually takes the form of a fully qualified domain name or, within a large organisation, it may be just the hostname part, e.g. "sales". The destination computer named by the host part is usually a server of some kind rather than an individual's workstation or PC. The user's mail is stored on the server and read later via client mail software running on the user's computer. Large organisations, such as universities will often set up a global alias directory which maps a simple user name such as "jsmith" to an address which contains more information such as "[email protected]". This hides the detailed knowledge of where the message will be delivered from the sender, making it much easier to redirect mail if a user leaves or moves to a different department for example.
- electronic surveillance — use of electronic devices to spy, observe
- electrostatic generator — any device for producing a high voltage by building up a charge of static electricity
- embarrassment of riches — If you say that someone has an embarrassment of riches, you mean that they have so many good things that these things are a problem.
- encapsulated postscript — (EPS) An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is used for PostScript graphics files that are to be incorporated into other documents. An EPS file includes pragmas (special PostScript comments) giving information such as the bounding box, page number and fonts used. On some computers, EPS files include a low resolution version of the PostScript image. On the Macintosh this is in PICT format, while on the IBM PC it is in TIFF or Microsoft Windows metafile format.