24-letter words containing g, r, a, p, i, e
- officers' training corps — part of the British Army which provides military leadership training to students at UK universities
- optical signal processor — optical computing
- orographic precipitation — precipitation caused by the lifting of moist air over a mountain barrier.
- parallel cousin marriage — marriage between the children of two brothers or two sisters.
- parliamentary government — government by a body of cabinet ministers who are chosen from and responsible to the legislature and act as advisers to a nominal chief of state.
- physiological atmosphere — ecosphere.
- plantation walking horse — one of a breed of saddle horses developed largely from Standardbred and Morgan stock.
- pre-emptive multitasking — (operating system, parallel) A type of multitasking where the scheduler can interrupt and suspend ("swap out") the currently running task in order to start or continue running ("swap in") another task. The tasks under pre-emptive multitasking can be written as though they were the only task and the scheduler decides when to swap them. The scheduler must ensure that when swapping tasks, sufficient state is saved and restored that tasks do not interfere. The length of time for which a process runs is known as its "time slice" and may depend on the task's priority or its use of resources such as memory and I/O. This contrasts with cooperative multitasking where each task must include calls to allow it to be descheduled periodically.
- preparatory to doing sth — If one action is done preparatory to another, it is done before the other action, usually as preparation for it.
- pretty amazing new stuff — (humour, communications) (PANS) What PSTN is evolving into.
- private-key cryptography — (cryptography) As opposed to public-key cryptography, a cryptographic method in which the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the message. Private-key algorithms include the obsolescent Data Encryption Standard (DES), triple-DES (3DES), the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), also known as Rijndael, Blowfish, Twofish RC2, RC4, RC5 and RC6. A problem with private-key cryptography is that the sender and the recipient of the message must agree on a common key via some alternative secure channel.
- privileged communication — a communication that one cannot legally be compelled to divulge, as that to a lawyer from a client
- professional programming — paranoid programming
- program information file — (file format) Under Windows, a file providing information on how a non-Windows application program should be run, including how much memory should be allocated to it and what graphics interface it requires.
- programmable array logic — (hardware) (PAL) A family of fuse-programmable logic integrated circuits originally developed by MMI. Registered or combinatorial output functions are modelled in a sum of products form. Each output is a sum (logical or) of a fixed number of products (logical and) of the input signals. This structure is well suited for automatic generation of programming patterns by logic compilers. PAL devices are programmed by blowing the fuses permanently using overvoltage. Today, more complex devices based on the same original architecture are available (CPLD's for Complex PLD's) that incorporate the equivalent of several original PAL chips. PAL chips are, however, still popular due to their high speed.
- progressive assimilation — assimilation in which a preceding sound has an effect on a following one, as in shortening captain to cap'm rather than cap'n.
- progressive conservative — a member of the Progressive Conservative party of Canada.
- pure functional language — purely functional language
- put the fear of god into — a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid. Synonyms: foreboding, apprehension, consternation, dismay, dread, terror, fright, panic, horror, trepidation, qualm. Antonyms: courage, security, calm, intrepidity.
- put their heads together — to consult together
- reproductive imagination — the faculty of imagining, or of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses.
- scalable vector graphics — (graphics, web) A W3C standard for vector graphics, based on XML.
- single european currency — the official currency, also known as the Euro, of some of the members of the European Union
- single premium insurance — Single premium insurance is insurance where all the premium is paid at once, in one payment.
- split image range finder — a range finder in which opposing halves of a split field move relative to each other and coincide when the object centered in the field is in focus.
- staggered pin grid array — (hardware) (SPGA) A style of integrated circuit socket or pin-out with a staggered grid of pins around the edge of the socket, positioned as several squares, one inside the other. SPGA is commonly used on motherboards for processors, e.g. Socket 5, Socket 7 and Socket 8. See also PGA.
- stereographic projection — a one-to-one correspondence between the points on a sphere and the extended complex plane where the north pole on the sphere corresponds to the point at infinity of the plane.
- to light the touch paper — if someone lights the touch paper or lights the blue touch paper, they do something which causes anger or excitement
- trip the light fantastic — a journey or voyage: to win a trip to Paris.
- what are you playing at? — If you ask what someone is playing at, you are angry because you think they are doing something stupid or wrong.