16-letter words containing f, a, l, t
- over-familiarity — thorough knowledge or mastery of a thing, subject, etc.
- parallel fortran — (language) (Pfortran) Extensions to Fortran by Ridgway Scott <[email protected]> of Houston University. Pfortran provides a shared memory SIMD model on message passing computers. It was under development in 1994.
- partial fraction — one of the fractions into which a given fraction can be resolved, the sum of such simpler fractions being equal to the given fraction: Partial fractions of 5/(x2−x) are 5/(x−1) and −5/x.
- partial function — A function which is not defined for all arguments of its input type. E.g. f(x) = 1/x if x /= 0. The opposite of a total function. In denotational semantics, a partial function f : D -> C may be represented as a total function ft : D' -> lift(C) where D' is a superset of D and ft x = f x if x in D ft x = bottom otherwise where lift(C) = C U bottom. Bottom (LaTeX \perp) denotes "undefined".
- parts of lindsey — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
- pass-band filter — band-pass filter
- pathetic fallacy — the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.
- perforated ulcer — an ulcer that bursts through the stomach wall and leaks food and gastric juices into the abdominal cavity
- permafrost table — the variable surface constituting the upper limit of permafrost. Compare frostline (def 2).
- personal effects — belongings
- physical fitness — good physical condition
- placement office — an office in a university that offers students careers advice and help to find employment
- plaster of paris — calcined gypsum in white, powdery form, used as a base for gypsum plasters, as an additive of lime plasters, and as a material for making fine and ornamental casts: characterized by its ability to set rapidly when mixed with water.
- platform-balance — a scale with a platform for holding the items to be weighed.
- play off against — If you play people off against each other, you make them compete or argue, so that you gain some advantage.
- point of sailing — the bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.
- powerpc platform — (architecture, standard) (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
- practical effect — Usually, practical effects. a special effect that is created live on the set of a film, using real-world objects.
- principal rafter — a diagonal member of a roof principal, usually forming part of a truss and supporting the purlins on which the common rafters rest.
- quarter-finalist — A quarter-finalist is a person or team that is competing in a quarter-final.
- quinquefoliolate — (botany) Having five leaflets.
- ramen profitable — If a startup business is ramen profitable, it is barely profitable, just enough to allow the founder to live on the cheapest diet.
- rape of the lock — a mock-epic poem (1712) by Alexander Pope.
- rational fortran — (language) (RATFOR) Brian Kernighan's Fortran preprocessor that allows programming with C-like control flow. RATFOR is mainly of historical significance. A translator from Ratfor to Fortran IV was posted to comp.sources.Unix volume 13.
- rattlesnake fern — any of several American grape ferns, especially Botrychium virginianium, having clusters of sporangia resembling the rattles of a rattlesnake.
- rattlesnake flag — any of a number of U.S. flags that bear a picture of a rattlesnake and the motto “Don't Tread on Me,” especially those used during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution.
- reclassification — categorization in a different way
- reflection plane — a plane through a crystal that divides the crystal into two halves that are mirror images of each other.
- refracting angle — an angle formed by a ray which is refracted and which is perpendicular to the refracting surface
- releasing factor — a substance usually of hypothalamic origin that triggers the release of a particular hormone from an endocrine gland.
- root normal form — (RNF) Head Normal Form in graph rewriting.
- rule of the road — any of the regulations concerning the safe handling of vessels under way with respect to one another, imposed by a government on ships in its own waters or upon its own ships on the high seas.
- scotch blackface — one of a Scottish breed of mountain sheep having a black face and growing long, coarse wool.
- seat of learning — People sometimes refer to a university or a similar institution as a seat of learning.
- self-abandonment — absence or lack of personal restraint.
- self-advancement — an act of moving forward.
- self-advertising — the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc., especially by paid announcements in newspapers and magazines, over radio or television, on billboards, etc.: to get more customers by advertising.
- self-affirmation — the act or an instance of affirming; state of being affirmed.
- self-approbation — approval; commendation.
- self-containment — the state of being self-contained.
- self-cultivation — the act or art of cultivating.
- self-degradation — the act of degrading.
- self-denigrating — to speak damagingly of; criticize in a derogatory manner; sully; defame: to denigrate someone's character.
- self-denigration — to speak damagingly of; criticize in a derogatory manner; sully; defame: to denigrate someone's character.
- self-deprecating — belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest.
- self-deprecation — belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest.
- self-deprecatory — belittling or undervaluing oneself; excessively modest.
- self-deprivation — the act of depriving.
- self-designation — a name taken for oneself or one's own people
- self-dramatizing — exaggerating one's own qualities, role, situation, etc., for dramatic effect or as an attention-getting device; presenting oneself dramatically.