22-letter words containing d, i, s, u, a
- islamic fundamentalism — the belief or advocating of a conservative adherence to literal or traditional interpretations of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah
- jacquard, joseph-marie — Joseph-Marie Jacquard
- juan fernández islands — a group of three islands in the S Pacific Ocean, administered by Chile: volcanic and wooded. Area: about 180 sq km (70 sq miles)
- lady's not for burning — a verse play (1948) by Christopher Fry.
- land of the rising sun — Japan.
- landscape architecture — the art of arranging or modifying the features of a landscape, an urban area, etc., for aesthetic or practical reasons.
- liquid crystal display — (hardware) (LCD) An electro-optical device used to display digits, characters or images, commonly used in digital watches, calculators, and portable computers. The heart of the liquid crystal display is a piece of liquid crystal material placed between a pair of transparent electrodes. The liquid crystal changes the phase of the light passing through it and this phase change can be controlled by the voltage applied between the electrodes. If such a unit is placed between a pair of plane polariser plates then light can pass through it only if the correct voltage is applied. Liquid crystal displays are formed by integrating a number of such cells, or more usually, by using a single liquid crystal plate and a pattern of electrodes. The simplest kind of liquid crystal displays, those used in digital watches and calculators, contain a common electrode plane covering one side and a pattern of electrodes on the other. These electrodes can be individually controlled to produce the appropriate display. Computer displays, however, require far too many pixels (typically between 50,000 and several millions) to make this scheme, in particular its wiring, feasible. The electrodes are therefore replaced by a number of row electrodes on one side and column electrodes on the other. By applying voltage to one row and several columns the pixels at the intersections are set. The pixels being set one row after the other, in passive matrix displays the number of rows is limited by the ratio of the setting and fading times. In the setup described above (known as "twisted nematic") the number of rows is limited to about 20. Using an alternative "supertwisted nematic" setup VGA quality displays (480 rows) can be easily built. As of 1995 most notebook computers used this technique. Fading can be slowed by putting an active element, such as a transistor, on the top of each pixel. This "remembers" the setting of that pixel. These active matrix displays are of much better quality (as good as CRTs) but are much more expensive than the passive matrix displays. LCDs are slimmer, lighter and consume less power than the previous dominant display type, the cathode ray tube, hence their importance for portable computers.
- lord justice of appeal — an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal
- lunar excursion module — lunar module. Abbreviation: LEM.
- manufacturing industry — the industry of manufacturing goods from raw materials
- middle-distance runner — someone who runs races of a length between the sprints and the distance events, esp the 800 metres and the 1500 metres
- molecular distillation — a vacuum distillation in which the molecules of the distillate reach the condenser before colliding with one another.
- mountain standard time — one of the standard times used in North America, seven hours behind Greenwich Mean Time
- national semiconductor — (company) A semiconductor manufacturer, responsible for the SC/MP, National Semiconductor 16000 and National Semiconductor 32000 series of microprocessors.
- netherlands new guinea — a former name of Irian Jaya.
- nominal semidestructor — (abuse) Slang for "National Semiconductor", found among other places in the 4.3BSD networking sources. During the late 1970s to mid-1980s this company marketed a series of microprocessors including the National Semiconductor 16000 and National Semiconductor 32000. At one point early in the great microprocessor race, the specs on these chips made them look like serious competition for the rising Intel 80x86 and Motorola 680x0 series. Unfortunately, the actual parts were notoriously flaky and never implemented the full instruction set promised in their literature, apparently because the company couldn't get any of the mask steppings to work as designed. They eventually sank without trace, joining the Zilog Z8000 and a few even more obscure also-rans in the graveyard of forgotten microprocessors.
- of the first magnitude — of the greatest importance
- on a shoestring budget — with very little money to spend
- outside awareness port — (humour) (OAP) A humorous IBM term for a window (the glass kind) rather than the GUI kind.
- over-industrialization — the large-scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises, and other productive economic activity into an area, society, country, etc.
- peanut-butter sandwich — a sandwich with a filling of peanut-butter
- potassium ferricyanide — a bright-red, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous solid, K 3 Fe(CN) 6 , used chiefly in the manufacture of pigments, as Prussian blue, and of paper, especially blueprint paper.
- potassium ferrocyanide — a lemon-yellow, crystalline, water-soluble solid, K 4 Fe(CN) 6 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in casehardening alloys having an iron base and in dyeing wool and silk.
- potassium-argon dating — a method for estimating the age of a mineral or rock, based on measurement of the rate of decay of radioactive potassium into argon.
- programmed instruction — a progressively monitored, step-by-step teaching method, employing small units of information or learning material and frequent testing, whereby the student must complete or pass one stage before moving on to the next.
- propositional attitude — a relation between a person and a proposition, such as belief, desire, intention, etc
- public domain software — public domain
- pushing up the daisies — dead and buried
- quantum chromodynamics — a quantum field theory that describes quarks and gluons and their interactions, with the color of the quarks playing a role analogous to that of electric charge. Abbreviation: QCD. Also called chromodynamics. Compare color (def 18).
- reproductive isolation — the conditions, as physiological or behavioral differences or geographical barriers, that prevent potentially interbreeding populations from cross-fertilization.
- rheumatoid spondylitis — ankylosing spondylitis.
- round-table discussion — a discussion held at a meeting of parties or people on equal terms
- rural delivery service — mail delivery operated primarily to deliver and collect mail in rural communities with no other convenient postal facilities.
- rural district council — (in England and Wales from 1888 to 1974 and Northern Ireland from 1898 to 1973) a group of people elected to govern a rural division of a county
- sainte anne de beaupre — a village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence River: shrine and basilica.
- sainte-anne-de-beaupré — village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence: site of a Rom. Catholic shrine (established 1658): pop. 3,000
- santa cruz de tenerife — a seaport on NE Tenerife island, in the W Canary Islands.
- saturday night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
- saturday-night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
- save the children fund — a development agency which raises money for deprived children around the world
- scandinavian peninsula — large peninsula in N Europe, consisting of Norway & Sweden
- second vatican council — the twenty-first Roman Catholic ecumenical council (1962–65) convened by Pope John XXIII. Its 16 documents redefined the nature of the church, gave bishops greater influence in church affairs, and increased lay participation in liturgy.
- secondary articulation — coarticulation (def 2).
- secondary-articulation — concomitance of articulation, as in fro, ostensibly a succession of three discrete sounds but physically a single articulation (f-) blending into a coarticulation (-fr-), which blends into an articulation (-r-), which blends into a coarticulation (-ro-), which blends into an articulation (-o).
- shaken but not stirred — If you say that someone has been shaken but not stirred by an experience, you mean that they have been slightly disturbed or emotionally affected by it, but not deeply enough to change their behaviour or way of thinking.
- simultaneous broadcast — a programme, etc, broadcast simultaneously on radio and television
- small business edition — Microsoft Office Small Business Edition
- solid dose formulation — A solid dose formation is a hard tablet made by compressing medicine in a powder form.
- south sandwich islands — a group of volcanic islands, administered by England, in the South Atlantic Ocean: part of the Falkland Islands dependency. 120 sq. mi. (310 sq. km).
- south shetland islands — a group of uninhabited islands in the S Atlantic, north of the Antarctic Peninsula: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of British Antarctic Territory since 1962. (Claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 4662 sq km (1800 sq miles)