18-letter words containing g, r, o, s, m
- greenhouse warming — the increase in the mean temperature of the earth attributed to the greenhouse effect
- grist for the mill — If you say that something is grist for the mill, you mean that it is useful for a particular purpose or helps support someone's point of view.
- histomorphological — histology.
- human rights group — a group that campaigns for human rights
- hungry programmers — (body) A group of programmers producing free software.
- hypodermic syringe — a small glass piston or barrel syringe having a detachable, hollow needle for use in injecting solutions subcutaneously.
- james-lange theory — a theory that emotions are caused by bodily sensations; for example, we are sad because we weep
- jump through hoops — If someone makes you jump through hoops, they make you do lots of difficult or boring things in order to please them or achieve something.
- king james version — Authorized Version.
- lagrange's theorem — the theorem that the order of each subgroup of a finite group is a factor of the order of the group.
- logarithmic spiral — log r = aθ
- logarithmus dualis — (mathematics) (ld) Latin for logarithm base two. More commonly written as "log" with a subscript "2". Roughly the number of bits required to represent an integer.
- low-start mortgage — a mortgage in which interest only is repaid for a fixed period at the outset, to make it more affordable
- magic switch story — Some years ago, I was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no-one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labelled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words "magic" and "more magic". The switch was in the "more magic" position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the "more magic" position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the "more magic" position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on "more magic".
- magistrate's court — a court having limited jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters, as matters of contract not exceeding a particular amount of money.
- magistrates' court — law: handles minor crimes
- magnesium peroxide — a white, tasteless, water-insoluble powder, MgO 2 , used as an antiseptic and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
- magnetic resonance — the response by atoms, molecules, or nuclei subjected to a magnetic field to radio waves or other forms of energy: used in medicine for scanning
- magnetocrystalline — (physics) Describing the interaction between the magnetization and the crystal structure of a material.
- manufactured goods — products made by machine
- margaret of valois — ("Queen Margot") 1533–1615, 1st wife of Henry IV of France: queen of Navarre; patron of science and literature (daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici).
- mato grosso do sul — a state of W central Brazil: formed in 1979 from part of Mato Grosso state. Capital: Campo Grande. Pop: 2 140 624 (2002). Area: 350 548 sq km (135 318 sq miles)
- member of congress — law: elected representative
- menthol cigarettes — cigarettes that are flavoured with menthol
- micrometeorologist — a person who specializes in micrometeorology
- microsoft exchange — (messaging) Microsoft's messaging and enterprise collaboration server. Exchange's primary role is as an electronic mail message store but it can also store calendars, task lists, contact details, and other data.
- moccasin telegraph — the transmission of rumour or secret information; the grapevine
- molecular genetics — a subdivision of genetics concerned with the structure and function of genes at the molecular level.
- monographic series — a series of monographs issued in uniform style or format and related by subject or by issuing agency.
- moog (synthesizer) — an early musical synthesizer
- mortgage insurance — policy to compensate for property loan payments
- multi-user dungeon — Multi-User Dimension
- national guardsman — guardsman (def 2).
- neo-pythagoreanism — a philosophical system, established in Alexandria and Rome in the second century b.c., consisting mainly of revived Pythagorean doctrines with elements of Platonism and Stoicism.
- new storage system — (storage) (NSS) A major Multics implementation project during the 1970s. The initial Multics file system design had evolved from the one-huge-disk world of CTSS. When multiple disk units were used they were just assigned increasing ranges of disk addresses, so a segment could have pages scattered over all disks on the system. This provided good I/O parallelism but made crash recovery expensive. NSS redesigned the lower levels of the file system, introducing the concepts of logical volume and physical volume and a mapping from a Multics directory branch to a VTOC entry for each file. The new system had much better recovery performance in exchange for a small space and performance cost.
- nightmare scenario — If you describe a situation or event as a nightmare scenario, you mean that it is the worst possible thing that could happen.
- operations manager — business director
- osteogenic sarcoma — osteosarcoma
- phantasmagorically — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- photomorphogenesis — plant development that is controlled by light.
- pilgrim's progress — an allegory (1678) by John Bunyan.
- postmaster general — the executive head of the postal system of a country.
- pragmatic sanction — any one of various imperial decrees with the effect of fundamental law.
- programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- programmer's cheer — (humour) "Shift to the left! Shift to the right! Pop up, push down! Byte! Byte! Byte!" [Origin?]
- programming skills — the skills required to write a program so that data may be processed by a computer
- psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
- psychopharmacology — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the psychological effects of drugs.
- registered company — a company which has officially registered its business
- retrograde amnesia — a memory disorder characterized by an inability to remember events or experiences that occurred before a significant point in time.