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22-letter words containing e, n, c, y, l

  • metasyntactic variable — (grammar)   Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
  • motorcycle combination — a motorcycle with a sidecar attached
  • myalgic encephalopathy — a condition characterized by painful muscles, extreme fatigue, and general debility, sometimes occurring as a sequel to viral illness
  • nickel-cadmium battery — a storage battery, with an alkaline electrolyte, having nickel oxide as the positive element and cadmium as the negative.
  • nodal switching system — (NSS) Main routing nodes in the NSFnet backbone.
  • non-euclidean geometry — geometry based upon one or more postulates that differ from those of Euclid, especially from the postulate that only one line may be drawn through a given point parallel to a given line.
  • northern redbelly dace — any of the small, brightly colored North American freshwater cyprinids, especially Phoxinus oreas (northern redbelly dace) and P. erythrogaster (southern redbelly dace)
  • overstay one's welcome — to stay (at a party, on a visit, etc), longer than pleases the host or hostess
  • parliamentary election — an election to select the members of a national parliament
  • play one's cards right — 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.
  • public limited company — A public limited company is the same as a public company. The abbreviation plc is used after such companies' names.
  • pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
  • rapid deployment force — a U.S. military organization consisting of one Marine division and four Army divisions, established in 1979 to respond quickly to any distant threat to national interests.
  • remote reference layer — (protocol)   (RRL) Part of Java's Remote Method Invocation protocol. RRL exists in both the RMI client and server. It is used by the stub or skeleton protocol layer and uses the transport layer. RRL is reponsible for transport-independent functioning of RMI, such as connection management or unicast/multicast object invocation.
  • request for technology — (RFT) The process established by the OSF to get proposals for new standards.
  • revolutionary calendar — the calendar of the French First Republic, adopted in 1793 and abandoned in 1805, consisting of 12 months, each of 30 days, and 5 intercalary days added at the end of the year (6 every fourth year). The months, beginning at the autumnal equinox, are Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivôse, Pluviôse, Ventôse, Germinal, Floréal, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor, and Fructidor.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • sick building syndrome — an illness caused by exposure to pollutants or germs inside an airtight building.
  • social security number — A Social Security number is a nine digit number that is given to U.S. citizens and to people living in the U.S. You need it to get a job, collect Social Security benefits and receive some government services.
  • southern redbelly dace — any of the small, brightly colored North American freshwater cyprinids, especially Phoxinus oreas (northern redbelly dace) and P. erythrogaster (southern redbelly dace)
  • speckle interferometry — a photographic technique for clarifying the telescopic images of a star by taking short exposures of the electronic images of the star's speckle pattern and extrapolating properties of the starlight to create a more accurate composite image.
  • spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
  • spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
  • spinal accessory nerve — accessory nerve.
  • take/tickle sb's fancy — If something takes your fancy or tickles your fancy, you like it a lot when you see it or think of it.
  • the continental system — Napoleon's plan in 1806 to blockade Britain by excluding her ships from ports on the mainland of Europe
  • the mythical man-month — (publication)   Fred Brooks's excellent 1975 book on software engineering. See also Brooks's Law.
  • the pennsylvania dutch — a group of German-speaking people in E Pennsylvania, descended from 18th-century settlers from SW Germany and Switzerland
  • thiamine-hydrochloride — a white, crystalline, water-soluble compound of the vitamin-B complex, containing a thiazole and a pyrimidine group, C 12 H 17 ClN 4 OS, essential for normal functioning of the nervous system, a deficiency of which results chiefly in beriberi and other nerve disorders: occurring in many natural sources, as green peas, liver, and especially the seed coats of cereal grains, the commercial product of which is chiefly synthesized in the form of its chloride (thiamine chloride or thiamine hydrochloride) for therapeutic administration, or in nitrate form (thiamine mononitrate) for enriching flour mixes.
  • unemployment insurance — a government program that provides a limited number of payments to eligible workers who are involuntarily unemployed.
  • valvular insufficiency — abnormal closure of a heart valve resulting in failure to prevent regurgitation of blood.
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