24-letter words containing e, i, d, t, c, a
- object-oriented database — (database) (OODB) A system offering DBMS facilities in an object-oriented programming environment. Data is stored as objects and can be interpreted only using the methods specified by its class. The relationship between similar objects is preserved (inheritance) as are references between objects. Queries can be faster because joins are often not needed (as in a relational database). This is because an object can be retrieved directly without a search, by following its object id. The same programming language can be used for both data definition and data manipulation. The full power of the database programming language's type system can be used to model data structures and the relationship between the different data items. OODBs typically provide better support for versioning. An object can be viewed as the set of all its versions. Also, object versions can be treated as full fledged objects. OODBs also provide systematic support for triggers and constraints which are the basis of active databases. Most, if not all, object-oriented application programs that have database needs will benefit from using an OODB.
- object-oriented language — object-oriented programming
- open data-link interface — (networking, standard) (ODI) A Novell-developed network card API that provides media and protocol independence. It allows the sharing of a single card by multiple transport layer protocols and resolves conflicts.
- optical character reader — the process or technology of reading data in printed form by a device (optical character reader) that scans and identifies characters. Abbreviation: OCR.
- particulate fluidization — Particulate fluidization is a condition when particles in a fluidized bed are individually suspended.
- passive balance of trade — a negative balance of trade
- polychlorinated biphenyl — PCB.
- privileged communication — a communication that one cannot legally be compelled to divulge, as that to a lawyer from a client
- pyrotraumatic dermatitis — hot spot.
- quadrature of the circle — the insoluble problem of constructing, by the methods of Euclidean geometry, a square equal in area to a given circle.
- recommended retail price — the selling price of a product officially suggested by a manufacturer to a retailer
- recursive descent parser — (grammar) A "top-down" parser built from a set of mutually-recursive procedures or a non-recursive equivalent where each such procedure usually implements one of the productions of the grammar. Thus the structure of the resulting program closely mirrors that of the grammar it recognises.
- relative record data set — (database) (RRDS) One of the access methods used by IBM's VSAM.
- remote method invocation — (programming) (RMI) Part of the Java programming language library which enables a Java program running on one computer to access the objects and methods of another Java program running on a different computer.
- representative democracy — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- reproductive imagination — the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.
- ricardian theory of rent — economic rent.
- richard the lion-hearted — ("Richard the Lion-Hearted"; "Richard Coeur de Lion") 1157–99, king of England 1189–99.
- ring down the curtain on — to give forth a clear resonant sound, as a bell when struck: The doorbell rang twice.
- robot exclusion standard — standard for robot exclusion
- schizoaffective disorder — a psychotic disorder in which symptoms of schizophrenia and affective disorder occur simultaneously.
- scholastic aptitude test — a standard assessment test for entry into college in the United States
- senegambia confederation — an economic and political union (1982–89) between Senegal and The Gambia
- serial interface adaptor — (SIA) The Ethernet driver chip used on a Filtabyte Ethernet card.
- 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
- skeleton in the cupboard — a scandalous fact or event in the past that is kept secret
- special development area — an area earmarked for special development by the government
- statistical independence — the condition or state of events or values of being statistically independent.
- stratified charge engine — an internal-combustion engine in which a small charge of a rich fuel mixture is ignited first and used to improve combustion of a larger charge of a lean fuel mixture.
- subordinate con-junction — a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause, as when in They were glad when I finished.
- text encoding initiative — (text, project, standard) (TEI) A project working to establish a standard for interchanging electronic text for scholarly research. The TEI has adopted SGML and implemented the TEI standard as an SGML Document Type Definition. The TEI was incorporated as a not-for-profit consortium in December 2000, with host sites in Bergen, Oxford, Virginia, and Providence RI, USA. See also Corpus Processing.
- the least i could/can do — You use expressions like 'that's the least that I can do' to mean that you are very willing to do it, or to acknowledge someone's thanks.
- the second international — an international association of socialist parties and trade unions that began in Paris in 1889 and collapsed during World War I. The right-wing elements reassembled at Berne in 1919
- the wars of the diadochi — a series of conflicts between 321 and 281 bc, fought by six Macedonian generals who, after the death of Alexander the Great, desired control of his empire
- three-spined stickleback — a small teleost fish, Gasterosteus aculeatus, of the family Gasterosteidae, of rivers and coastal regions, having three spines along the back and occurring in cold and temperate northern regions
- to be in black and white — of an image, only using shades of black, white, and grey
- trading standards office — an office of the local authority department that deals with trading standards
- transcendental aesthetic — (in Kantian epistemology) the study of space and time as the a priori forms of perception.
- transcendental dialectic — (in transcendental logic) the study of the fallacious attribution of objective reality to the perceptions by the mind of external objects. Compare dialectic (def 8).
- tricarboxylic acid cycle — Krebs cycle.
- tricyclic antidepressant — pertaining to or embodying three cycles.
- ultralarge crude carrier — Nautical. ULCC.
- united states of america — United States. Abbreviation: U.S.A., USA.
- video cassette recording — a recording made using a tape recorder for vision and sound signals using magnetic tape in closed plastic cassettes: used for recording and playing back television programmes and films
- voluntary aid detachment — (in World War I) an organization of British women volunteers who assisted in military hospitals and ambulance duties
- ways and means committee — a standing committee of the US House of Representatives that supervises all financial legislation
- which way the wind blows — air in natural motion, as that moving horizontally at any velocity along the earth's surface: A gentle wind blew through the valley. High winds were forecast.
- wired equivalent privacy — (networking, standard) (WEP) IEEE 802.11:1999. A cryptographic privacy algorithm, based on the RC4 encryption engine, used to provide confidentiality for 802.11 wireless networks. WEP is intended to provide roughly the same level of confidentiality for wireless data as a wired LAN (Ethernet), which is NOT protected by encryption. WEP is often wrongly expanded as "Wireless Encryption Protocol". WEP is a protocol that provides encryption used on wireless networks but that's not what it stands for.
- within spitting distance — If one place is within spitting distance of another, they are very close to each other.
- within striking distance — If you are within striking distance of something, or if something is within striking distance, it is quite near, so it could be reached or achieved quite easily.