24-letter words containing a, y, r, e, s
- in words of one syllable — simply; bluntly
- information superhighway — internet
- instructional technology — (education) Design, development, use, management and evaluation of process and resources for learning. Instructional technology aims to promote the application of validated, practical procedures in the design and delivery of instruction. It is often defined either in terms of media and other technology used (e.g. audiovisual media and equipment and computers), or in terms of a systematic process which encompasses instructional design, development, delivery and evaluation.
- internal auditory meatus — the canal extending through the petrous portion of the temporal bone, through which the glossopharyngeal nerve, the facial nerve, and the auditory nerve and artery pass.
- involuntary manslaughter — the unlawful but unintentional killing of a human being
- irritable bowel syndrome — any combination of common disturbances of the bowel, as diarrhea or constipation, occurring with abdominal pain, sometimes accompanied by psychological stress. Abbreviation: IBS.
- iterated function system — (graphics) (IFS) A class of fractals that yield natural-looking forms like ferns or snowflakes. Iterated Function Systems use a very easy transformation that is done recursively.
- kennelly-heaviside layer — E layer.
- lady washington geranium — show geranium.
- laryngotracheobronchitis — A respiratory disease, a form of croup.
- mandy rice-davis applies — (chat) (MRDA) An acronym used to imply that someone is lying to protect their own interests. During the trial of Stephen Ward (who was charged with living off the immoral earnings of Christine Keeler and Rice-Davies), the prosecuting counsel pointed out that Lord Astor denied any involvement with her and Rice-Davies replied, "Well, he would, wouldn't he?"
- minister plenipotentiary — plenipotentiary.
- motorway service station — an establishment off a motorway where drivers can refuel their vehicles, buy food, drink, etc
- mutual insurance company — an insurance company owned by the policyholders and not by shareholders
- narcissistic personality — a personality disorder characterized by extreme self-centeredness and self-absorption, fantasies involving unrealistic goals, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and disturbed interpersonal relationships.
- network operating system — (operating system) (NOS) The operating system on Control Data Corporation's Cyber Computer.
- neutrosophic probability — (logic) An extended form of probability based on Neutrosophy, in which a statement is held to be t true, i indeterminate, and f false, where t, i, f are real values from the ranges T, I, F, with no restriction on T, I, F or the sum n=t+i+f.
- object-oriented analysis — (programming) (OOA) The first phase of object-oriented design.
- open system architecture — (operating system) (OSA) A competitor to IBM's SNA.
- people's liberation army — See under Huk (def 1).
- physiological atmosphere — ecosphere.
- polymer matrix composite — A polymer matrix composite is a material consisting of a composite made stronger by adding fibers or particles to it.
- preparatory to doing sth — If one action is done preparatory to another, it is done before the other action, usually as preparation for it.
- present company excepted — If you are making a general, unfavourable comment about a particular type of person, and you are with people of that type, you can say 'present company excepted' as a way of making your comment sound more polite.
- pretty amazing new stuff — (humour, communications) (PANS) What PSTN is evolving into.
- psychopathic personality — an antisocial personality characterized by the failure to develop any sense of moral responsibility and the capability of performing violent or antisocial acts
- pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
- quick-assembly furniture — furniture such as shelves and cupboards which you buy as a number of separate pieces and assemble yourself
- rapid eye movement sleep — REM sleep.
- referential transparency — (programming) An expression E is referentially transparent if any subexpression and its value (the result of evaluating it) can be interchanged without changing the value of E. This is not the case if the value of an expression depends on global state which can change value. The most common example of changing global state is assignment to a global variable. For example, if y is a global variable in: f(x) { return x+y; } g(z) { a = f(1); y = y + z; return a + f(1); } function g has the "side-effect" that it alters the value of y. Since f's result depends on y, the two calls to f(1) will return different results even though the argument is the same. Thus f is not referentially transparent. Changing the order of evaluation of the statements in g will change its result. We could make f above referentially transparent by passing in y as an argument: f(x, y) = x+y Similarly, g would need to take y as an argument and return its new value as part of the result: g(z, y) { a = f(1, y); y' = y+z; return (a + f(1, y'), y'); } Referentially transparent programs are more amenable to formal methods and easier to reason about because the meaning of an expression depends only on the meaning of its subexpressions and not on the order of evaluation or side-effects of other expressions. We can stretch the concept of referential transparency to include input and output if we consider the whole program to be a function from its input to its output. The program as a whole is referentially transparent because it will always produce the same output when given the same input. This is stretching the concept because the program's input may include what the user types, the content of certain files or even the time of day. If we do not consider global state like the contents of files as input, then writing to a file and reading what was written behaves just like assignment to a global variable. However, if we must consider the state of the universe as an input rather than global state then any deterministic system would be referentially transparent! See also extensional equality, observational equivalence.
- repetitive strain injury — overuse strain injury
- representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- responsibility allowance — payment made to somebody who has special responsibilities
- reverse annuity mortgage — a type of home mortgage under which an elderly homeowner is allowed a long-term loan in the form of monthly payments against his or her paid-off equity as collateral, repayable when the home is eventually sold. Abbreviation: RAM.
- rocky mountain whitefish — mountain whitefish.
- san joaquin valley fever — coccidioidomycosis.
- secondary school teacher — a person who teaches at a secondary school
- shadow foreign secretary — the member of the main opposition party in Parliament who would hold the office of Foreign Secretary if their party were in power
- single european currency — the official currency, also known as the Euro, of some of the members of the European Union
- socialist workers' party — one of the biggest extreme left wing parties in Britain
- staggered pin grid array — (hardware) (SPGA) A style of integrated circuit socket or pin-out with a staggered grid of pins around the edge of the socket, positioned as several squares, one inside the other. SPGA is commonly used on motherboards for processors, e.g. Socket 5, Socket 7 and Socket 8. See also PGA.
- supportive psychotherapy — a type of psychotherapy that seeks to reduce psychological conflict and strengthen a patient's defenses through the use of various techniques, as reassurance, suggestion, counseling, and reeducation.
- system management server — (operating system) (SMS) Software used by Microsoft Windows NT system administrators to manage personal computers on any size network. SMS can distribute software to desktops from one central location, detect every machine on the network, track software and hardware configurations, send key information back to a central database, and perform other tasks.
- telephony user interface — (communications) (TUI) Either a software interface to telephony (e.g. a phone-capable PC) or a DTMF-based interface to software (e.g. voicemail).
- tetraethyl pyrophosphate — a colorless to amber, hygroscopic, poisonous liquid, (C 2 H 5) 4 P 2 O 7 , used as an insecticide and as a rodenticide.
- the realm of possibility — If you say that something is not beyond the realms of possibility, you mean that it is possible.
- the way things are going — You can use the way things are going to indicate that you expect something to happen because of the way the present situation is developing.
- to carry sth to extremes — to overdo something
- to cramp someone's style — If someone or something cramps your style, their presence or existence restricts your behaviour in some way.
- to have seen better days — If you say that something has seen better days, you mean that it is old and in poor condition.