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18-letter words containing h, a, g, i, s, o

  • laying on of hands — Theology. a rite in which the cleric's hands are placed on the head of a person being confirmed, ordained, or the like.
  • lithostratigraphic — Of or pertaining to lithostratigraphy.
  • 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.
  • logical shift left — logical shift
  • 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".
  • menthol cigarettes — cigarettes that are flavoured with menthol
  • 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
  • monographic series — a series of monographs issued in uniform style or format and related by subject or by issuing agency.
  • negative cash flow — the situation when income is less than payments
  • 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.
  • neurophysiological — the branch of physiology dealing with the functions of the nervous system.
  • neuropsychological — Of or pertaining to neuropsychology, the relation or combination of brain and mind.
  • 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.
  • not a pretty sight — If you say that someone or something is not a pretty sight, you mean that it is not pleasant to look at.
  • offset lithography — offset (def 6).
  • on the danger list — critically ill in hospital
  • orthotungstic acid — an oxyacid acid of tungsten. Formula: H2WO4
  • oscillographically — By means of oscillography.
  • parathyroid glands — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
  • phantasmagorically — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
  • photochemical smog — air pollution containing ozone and other reactive chemical compounds formed by the action of sunlight on nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, especially those in automobile exhaust.
  • physical geography — the branch of geography concerned with natural features and phenomena of the earth's surface, as landforms, drainage features, climates, soils, and vegetation.
  • pigmy hippopotamus — a related but smaller animal, Choeropsis liberiensis
  • plains grasshopper — a large, destructive short-horned grasshopper, Brachystola magna, of the western U.S., marked by pinkish hind wings.
  • positively charged — having a positive charge
  • prerelease showing — a showing of a film before it goes on general release
  • proprietary rights — rights of ownership
  • psychopathological — the science or study of mental disorders.
  • psychosociological — psychological and sociological
  • publishing company — a firm which publishes books
  • purchasing officer — the member of staff in an organization who is responsible for buying goods or products
  • pygmy hippopotamus — a small hippopotamus, Choeropsis liberiensis, of forests and swamps in western Africa.
  • right-to-work laws — a state law making it illegal to refuse employment to a person for the sole reason that he or she is not a union member.
  • say/kiss goodnight — If you say goodnight to someone or kiss them goodnight, you say something such as 'Goodnight' to them or kiss them before one of you goes home or goes to sleep.
  • school-leaving age — the minimum age that children are legally allowed to leave school - in Britain and the United States, this is 16
  • shape-note singing — a traditional style of a capella singing using shape-note notation.
  • shipping container — a large, strong container, usually of metal, used to store goods in during shipment
  • shugart associates — (company)   The disk drive company, founded by Alan F. Shugart, which developed SCSI. Alan left Shugart Associates in 1974 [did he quit or was he fired?]. Shugart Associates was bought, and eventually shut down by Xerox.
  • shunting operation — an operation in which rail coaches are manoeuvred
  • sign of the zodiac — one of the twelve constellations along the path of the ecliptic.
  • sociopsychological — of, relating to, or characterized by interrelated social and psychological factors.
  • sociotechnological — of, relating to, or signifying the combination or interaction of social and technological factors.
  • soft touch sealing — Soft touch sealing is a copolymer seal for a tank, with characteristics designed for softness, used instead of a metal seal to help avoid fire when sparks are generated.
  • solemn (high) mass — a highly ceremonial Mass with parts of the text sung by the celebrant, with a deacon and subdeacon assisting at the ceremonies, and with choir singing and organ music
  • solid-fuel heating — heating that uses solid fuel, such as coal or coke
  • something to spare — a surplus of something
  • spaghetti junction — an interchange, usually between motorways, in which there are a large number of underpasses and overpasses and intersecting roads used by a large volume of high-speed traffic
  • spectroheliography — the process of obtaining an image of the sun in light of a particular wavelength, such as calcium or hydrogen, showing the distribution of the element over the surface and in the solar atmosphere, using a spectroheliograph
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