28-letter words containing c, o, d, l, e
- national academy of sciences — a private organization, created by an act of Congress (1863), that furthers science and advises the U.S. government on scientific and technical issues. Abbreviation: N.A.S., NAS.
- national semiconductor 32000 — (processor) (NS32000)
The first of a series of microprocessors from National Semiconductor. The 320xx processors have an interface which allows coprocessors such as FPUs and MMUs to be attached in a chain. The 320xx was the predecessor of the Swordfish processor. - newly industrialized country — a country that has recently become, or is now in the process of becoming, industrialized
- numerical weather prediction — a method of predicting weather through the use of high-speed computers, specifically by the time integration of the fundamental equations of hydrodynamics in a mathematically modeled atmosphere.
- object linking and embedding — (operating system) (OLE) A distributed object system and protocol from Microsoft, also used on the Acorn Archimedes. OLE allows an editor to "farm out" part of a document to another editor and then reimport it. For example, a desk-top publishing system might send some text to a word processor or a picture to a bitmap editor using OLE.
- object-oriented polymorphism — (programming) The kind of polymorphism found in object-oriented programming languages where a variable can refer to an object whose class is not known exactly until run time. A method can use a variable of a given class - call other methods on it, pass it as an argument, etc. - without needing to know to which subclass it refers, as long as its actual class is compatible with those uses.
- organic light-emitting diode — a cell that emits light when voltage is applied: used as a display device replacing LCD technology in handheld devices such as mobile phones because it is brighter, thinner, faster,and cheaper
- ousterhout's false dichotomy — Ousterhout's dichotomy
- paper feed control character — (PFCC) An obscure mechanism used in Fortran run-time systems whereby the first character of a line of output to a line-printer caused various actions after the line was printed:
- paradox application language — (PAL) The programming language for Paradox, Borland's relational database.
- peaches-and-cream complexion — a pale complexion with rosy cheeks
- probability density function — a function of a continuous variable whose integral over a region gives the probability that a random variable falls within the region.
- put one's cards on the table — a usually rectangular piece of stiff paper, thin pasteboard, or plastic for various uses, as to write information on or printed as a means of identifying the holder: a 3″ × 5″ file card; a membership card.
- relative index of refraction — a number indicating the speed of light in a given medium as either the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to that in the given medium (absolute index of refraction) or the ratio of the speed of light in a specified medium to that in the given medium (relative index of refraction) Symbol: n.
- religious society of friends — a sect founded by George Fox in England about 1650, opposed to oath-taking and war.
- richardson's ground squirrel — a ground squirrel of the NW USA and Canada, Citellus richardsoni
- second axiom of countability — the property satisfied by a topological space in which the neighborhood system of each point has a base consisting of a countable number of neighborhoods (first axiom of countability) or the property satisfied by a topological space that has a base for its topology consisting of a countable number of subsets of the space (second axiom of countability)
- second law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
- second-order lambda-calculus — (language) (SOL) A typed lambda-calculus.
- service advertising protocol — (networking) (SAP) A Novell NetWare protocol. SAP follows the spirit of the Xerox Clearinghouse protocol, it permits file, print, and gateway servers to advertise their services and addresses.
- silicon-controlled rectifier — a semiconductor rectifier whose forward current between two electrodes, the anode and cathode, is initiated by means of a signal applied to a third electrode, the gate. The current subsequently becomes independent of the signal. It is a type of thyristor
- smooth endoplasmic reticulum — a network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
- strictly decreasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is less than the image of the smaller point.
- television interface adaptor — (hardware, graphics) (TIA) The graphics chip in the Atari 2600, also used as a sound chip for some arcade game.
- text reckoning and compiling — (language) (TRAC) An interactive macro generator language for string manipulation by Calvin N. Mooers and Peter Deutsch of Sun Microsystems. TAC derived ideas from Macro SAP. There are versions for PDP-1, PDP-8, PDP-10 and PDP-11. See also MINT, SAM76. E-mail: Preston Briggs <[email protected]>.
- the medical research council — a government body that uses public funds to finance research in medicine
- through rose-colored glasses — with optimism, esp. undue optimism
- united states postal service — an independent federal agency created in 1971 to replace the Post Office Department as the division of the federal government responsible for postal services. Abbreviation: USPS.
- wake up and smell the coffee — to face up to reality, especially in an unpleasant situation
- wouldn't be seen/caught dead — If you say that you wouldn't be seen dead or be caught dead in particular clothes, places, or situations, you are expressing strong dislike or disapproval of them.
- zeroth law of thermodynamics — the principle that any two systems in thermal equilibrium with a third system are in thermal equilibrium with each other. Compare law of thermodynamics (def 2).