6-letter words containing h, a, k
- hakham — a wise and learned person; sage.
- hakims — Plural form of hakim.
- hakmem — (publication) /hak'mem/ MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972). A legendary collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere. (The title of the memo really is "HAKMEM", which is a 6-letterism for "hacks memo".) Some of them are very useful techniques, powerful theorems, or interesting unsolved problems, but most fall into the category of mathematical and computer trivia. Here is a sampling of the entries (with authors), slightly paraphrased: Item 41 (Gene Salamin): There are exactly 23,000 prime numbers less than 2^18. Item 46 (Rich Schroeppel): The most *probable* suit distribution in bridge hands is 4-4-3-2, as compared to 4-3-3-3, which is the most *evenly* distributed. This is because the world likes to have unequal numbers: a thermodynamic effect saying things will not be in the state of lowest energy, but in the state of lowest disordered energy. Item 81 (Rich Schroeppel): Count the magic squares of order 5 (that is, all the 5-by-5 arrangements of the numbers from 1 to 25 such that all rows, columns, and diagonals add up to the same number). There are about 320 million, not counting those that differ only by rotation and reflection. Item 154 (Bill Gosper): The myth that any given programming language is machine independent is easily exploded by computing the sum of powers of 2. If the result loops with period = 1 with sign +, you are on a sign-magnitude machine. If the result loops with period = 1 at -1, you are on a twos-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, including the beginning, you are on a ones-complement machine. If the result loops with period greater than 1, not including the beginning, your machine isn't binary - the pattern should tell you the base. If you run out of memory, you are on a string or bignum system. If arithmetic overflow is a fatal error, some fascist pig with a read-only mind is trying to enforce machine independence. But the very ability to trap overflow is machine dependent. By this strategy, consider the universe, or, more precisely, algebra: Let X = the sum of many powers of 2 = ...111111 (base 2). Now add X to itself: X + X = ...111110. Thus, 2X = X - 1, so X = -1. Therefore algebra is run on a machine (the universe) that is two's-complement. Item 174 (Bill Gosper and Stuart Nelson): 21963283741 is the only number such that if you represent it on the PDP-10 as both an integer and a floating-point number, the bit patterns of the two representations are identical. Item 176 (Gosper): The "banana phenomenon" was encountered when processing a character string by taking the last 3 letters typed out, searching for a random occurrence of that sequence in the text, taking the letter following that occurrence, typing it out, and iterating. This ensures that every 4-letter string output occurs in the original. The program typed BANANANANANANANA.... We note an ambiguity in the phrase, "the Nth occurrence of." In one sense, there are five 00's in 0000000000; in another, there are nine. The editing program TECO finds five. Thus it finds only the first ANA in BANANA, and is thus obligated to type N next. By Murphy's Law, there is but one NAN, thus forcing A, and thus a loop. An option to find overlapped instances would be useful, although it would require backing up N - 1 characters before seeking the next N-character string. Note: This last item refers to a Dissociated Press implementation. See also banana problem. HAKMEM also contains some rather more complicated mathematical and technical items, but these examples show some of its fun flavour. HAKMEM is available from MIT Publications as a TIFF file.
- hanked — a skein, as of thread or yarn.
- hanker — to have a restless or incessant longing (often followed by after, for, or an infinitive).
- hankie — a handkerchief.
- hankou — a former city in E Hubei province, in E China: now part of Wuhan.
- hankow — a former city in E Hubei province, in E China: now part of Wuhan.
- harked — to listen attentively; hearken.
- harken — Literary. to give heed or attention to what is said; listen.
- hawick — a town in SE Scotland, in S central Scottish Borders: knitwear industry. Pop: 14 573 (2001)
- hawked — a noisy effort to clear the throat.
- hawker — a person who offers goods for sale by shouting his or her wares in the street or going from door to door; peddler.
- hawkes — John, 1925–1998, U.S. novelist and short-story writer.
- hawkey — Obsolete form of hockey.
- hawkie — a cow, esp a favourite one
- hawkit — (of animals) having a white streak or spots on the face
- hekate — a goddess of the earth and Hades, associated with sorcery, hounds, and crossroads.
- hijack — to steal (cargo) from a truck or other vehicle after forcing it to stop: to hijack a load of whiskey.
- hookah — a tobacco pipe of Near Eastern origin with a long, flexible tube by which the smoke is drawn through a jar of water and thus cooled.
- ithaki — Greek name of Ithaca (def 1).
- jhatka — the slaughter of animals for food according to Sikh law
- ka'bah — a small, cubical building in the courtyard of the Great Mosque at Mecca containing a sacred black stone: regarded by Muslims as the House of God and the objective of their pilgrimages.
- kaccha — (Sikhism) An undergarment worn by baptized Sikhs, one of the five Ks.
- kadesh — oasis in the desert, south of Palestine: Gen. 14:7, 16:14; Num. 32:8; Deut. 1:46, 2:14
- kahuna — (in Hawaii) a native medicine man or priest.
- kaishu — a variety of Chinese script developed in the 4th century a.d. and considered standard since that time.
- kalakh — an ancient Assyrian city on the Tigris River, founded 1274 b.c. and destroyed by the Medes 612 b.c.: its ruins are at Nimrud near Mosul in northern Iraq.
- kaliph — a spiritual leader of Islam, claiming succession from Muhammad.
- kamahi — a tall New Zealand hardwood tree, Weinmannia racemosa, with pinkish flowers
- kangha — the comb traditionally worn by Sikhs as a symbol of their religious and cultural loyalty: originally worn to keep the hair clean
- kantha — a type of Bengali embroidered quilt
- karahi — A deep circular vessel resembling a wok, traditionally of cast iron, used in Indian and Pakistani cuisine.
- kasbah — the older, native Arab quarter of a North African city, especially Algiers.
- kasher — kosher.
- kashim — a building used by Eskimos as a community gathering place or as a place where men congregate and socialize.
- kathak — a form of N Indian classical dancing that tells a story
- kaypoh — (Singapore) busybody.
- kazakh — a member of a nomadic Muslim people living mainly in Kazakhstan.
- keblah — kiblah.
- kechua — Quechua.
- keddah — (in India) an enclosure constructed to ensnare wild elephants.
- khabur — a river in W Asia, flowing S from SE Turkey through NE Syria to the Euphrates. 200 miles (320 km) long.
- khafre — (Chephren) flourished late 26th century b.c, Egyptian king of the fourth dynasty (son of Cheops): builder of second pyramid at El Giza.
- khagan — A khan of khans, a ruler of a khaganate; (a holder of) an imperial rank used among certain Turkic and Mongolian peoples, equal in status to an emperor.
- khakis — Khaki-coloured/colored cotton trousers/pants.
- khalid — (Khalid ibn Abdul-Aziz al Saud) 1913–82, king of Saudi Arabia 1975–82 (son of ibn-Saud and brother of Faisal).
- khalif — a spiritual leader of Islam, claiming succession from Muhammad.
- khalsa — a martial fraternity originated in 1699 and remaining as one of the closely knit communities of the Sikhs.
- khanas — Plural form of khana.