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25-letter words containing e, l, a, s, t

  • polymerase chain reaction — a technique in which a known DNA sequence is synthesized at high temperatures by means of a polymerase, producing millions of copies for statistical analysis: used in DNA fingerprinting, in detecting minute quantities of cancer cells, etc.
  • portable network graphics — (file format)   /ping/ (PNG) An extensible file format for the lossless, portable, well-compressed storage of raster images. PNG provides a patent-free replacement for GIF and can also replace many common uses of TIFF. Indexed-colour, greyscale and truecolour images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel. Sample depths range from 1 to 16 bits. PNG is designed for on-line viewing applications, such as the World Wide Web, so it is fully streamable with a progressive display option. PNG is robust, providing both full file integrity checking and simple detection of common transmission errors. Also, PNG can store gamma correction and chromaticity data for improved colour matching on heterogeneous platforms.
  • positional representation — (mathematics)   The conventional way of writing numbers as a string of digits in which each digit, D, has value D * R^I, where R is the radix or (number) base and I is the digit's position counting leftward from zero at the least significant (right-hand) end. Each digit can be zero to R-1. Each position has a weight or significance R times greater than the position to its right and the right-most place has a weight of one. Decimal numbers are radix ten, binary numbers are radix two, octal radix eight and hexadecimal radix 16. Positional representation makes arithmetic operations on large numbers much easier than, say, roman numerals. It is fundamental to the binary representation used by digital computers.
  • principle of least action — the principle that motion between any two points in a conservative dynamical system is such that the action has a minimum value with respect to all paths between the points that correspond to the same energy
  • profit and loss statement — A profit and loss statement is a statement that is compiled at the end of a financial year showing that year's revenue and expense items and indicating gross and net profit or loss.
  • progressive federal party — a political party, formed in 1977 by a merger between the Progressive Party and members of the United Party, supporting qualified franchise for all South Africans irrespective of race, colour, or creed; merged with other parties in 1989 to form the Democratic Party
  • psychiatric social worker — (in Britain) a qualified person who works with mentally-ill people and their families, based in a psychiatric hospital, child guidance clinic, or social services department area team, and who may also be an approved social worker
  • public key infrastructure — (cryptography, communications)   (PKI) A system of public key encryption using digital certificates from Certificate Authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an electronic transaction. PKIs are currently evolving and there is no single PKI nor even a single agreed-upon standard for setting up a PKI. However, nearly everyone agrees that reliable PKIs are necessary before electronic commerce can become widespread.
  • public relations exercise — something which is done for the sake of attracting favourable publicity
  • raise (or lower) the bar — raise (or lower) the standard of judgment
  • rate monotonic scheduling — (algorithm)   A means of scheduling the time allocated to periodic hard-deadline real-time users of a resource. The users are assigned priorities such that a shorter fixed period between deadlines is associated with a higher priority. Rate monotonic scheduling provides a low-overhead, reasonably resource-efficient means of guaranteeing that all users will meet their deadlines provided that certain analytical equations are satisfied during the system design. It avoids the design complexity of time-line scheduling and the overhead of dynamic approaches such as earliest-deadline scheduling.
  • really simple syndication — Rich Site Summary
  • referentially transparent — referential transparency
  • regimental sergeant major — the senior Warrant Officer I in a British or Commonwealth regiment or battalion, responsible under the adjutant for all aspects of duty and discipline of the warrant officers, NCOs, and men
  • ruffle someone's feathers — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
  • saddle block (anesthesia) — a method of spinal anesthesia, often used during obstetric delivery, that produces anesthesia in that area of the body that would be in contact with a saddle during horseback riding
  • saint pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
  • saybolt universal seconds — a US measurement of viscosity similar in type to the British Redwood seconds
  • selective synchronization — a sound-recording process that facilitates overdubs by feeding the recorded track to the performer straight from the recording head
  • sequential parlog machine — (SPM) The virtual machine (and its machine code) for the Parlog logic programming language.
  • single document interface — (programming)   (SDI) A limitation applying to an application program that only shows a single windows giving a view of one document at a time. The opposite is Multiple Document Interface (MDI).
  • single wingback formation — an offensive formation in which the wingback lines up outside of and about one yard behind an end, the quarterback lines up lateral to the wingback but about midway between the same end and the center, the fullback is three or four yards behind the middle of the line, and the tailback lines up one yard behind the fullback on the other side of the line from the wingback and quarterback.
  • slip/fall through the net — You use slip through the net or fall through the net to describe a situation where people are not properly cared for by the system that is intended to help them.
  • somerset levels and moors — a sparsely populated wetland and coastal plain area extending across parts of the north and centre of the historic county of Somerset, from Ilchester and Langport in the south to Clevedon in the north and Glastonbury in the east. Area: 650 sq km (251 sq miles)
  • soroptimist international — an organization of clubs for professional and executive businesswomen
  • sparc international, inc. — (body)   An organisation established to promote the Scalable Processor ARChitecture (SPARC). Their main service is conformance testing. They also produce the "SPARC flash" newsletter and publish lists of SPARC compliant machines tested by SPARC International to be binary compatible with other compliant machines. SPARC(R) is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
  • spark annotation language — (language)   (SAL) ICL, Ltd. Used in the verification of SPARK programs against Z specifications.
  • special educational needs — learning disability
  • spectral band replication — (audio, compression)   (SBR) Guessing the nontransmitted higher frequency range of a compressed audio file by some helper bits (transmiited with the stream) and the transmitted base band. SBR allows a restoration (not reconstruction) of the upper frequency range without lots of bits. It was developed by Coding Technology, and is useful for medium and high quality coding at low and medium data rates. It is used by Digital Radio Mondiale and MP3 Pro.
  • stand in a person's light — to stand so as to obscure a person's vision
  • standard ml of new jersey — (SML/NJ) An implementation of SML by Andrew Appel at Princeton <[email protected]> and Dave MacQueen at AT&T. Version 0.93. Versions for Unix, Mac. ftp://cs.yale.edu/pub/ml, ftp://research.att.com/dist/ml. Mailing list: [email protected]
  • statistically independent — (of events or values) having the probability of their joint occurrence equal to the product of their individual probabilities.
  • structured query language — SQL
  • subscriber trunk dialling — a service by which telephone subscribers can obtain trunk calls by dialling direct without the aid of an operator
  • sulphate-resisting cement — a type of Portland cement that resists normal concentrations of sulphates: used in concrete for flues and underwater work
  • take the queen's shilling — to enlist in the army
  • take up the cudgels (for) — to come to the defense (of)
  • tetragonal trisoctahedron — Geometry. a trisoctahedron the faces of which are quadrilaterals; trapezohedron.
  • thank one's (lucky) stars — to be thankful for what appears to be good luck
  • the ball is in sb's court — If you say that the ball is in someone's court, you mean that it is his or her responsibility to take the next action or decision in a situation.
  • the ball is in your court — you are obliged to make the next move
  • the calm before the storm — You can use the calm before the storm to refer to a quiet period in which there is little or no activity, before a period in which there is a lot of trouble or intense activity.
  • the empire state building — a very high skyscraper in New York City
  • the industrial revolution — the transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries of first Britain and then other W European countries and the US into industrial nations
  • the leaning tower of pisa — the bell tower of Pisa Cathedral
  • the mother of parliaments — the British Parliament: the model and creator of many other Parliaments
  • the scholastic profession — the profession of teaching
  • there are no flies on him — he is no fool
  • thermoluminescence dating — a method of dating archaeological specimens, chiefly pottery, by measuring the radiation given off by ceramic materials as they are heated.
  • through the looking-glass — a story for children (1871) by Lewis Carroll: the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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