13-letter words containing h, i, a
- lightfastness — The quality of being lightfast.
- lightheadedly — In a lightheaded manner.
- lighthouseman — a lighthouse keeper
- like anything — of the same form, appearance, kind, character, amount, etc.: I cannot remember a like instance.
- list enhanced — (operating system, tool) An MS-DOS file browsing utility written by Vern Buerg in 1983. A former mainframe systems programmer, Buerg wrote DOS utilities when he began using an IBM PC and missed the file-scanning ability he had on mainframes. The software became an instant success, and his list utility was in use on an estimated 5 million PCs.
- literacy hour — (in England and Wales) a daily reading and writing lesson that was introduced into the national primary school curriculum in 1998 to raise standards of literacy
- lithification — the process or processes by which unconsolidated materials are converted into coherent solid rock, as by compaction or cementation.
- lithographing — Present participle of lithograph.
- lizard orchid — a European orchid, Himantoglossum hircinum, rare in Britain, having a spike of grey-green flowers smelling of goats
- load shedding — the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.
- load the dice — anything put in or on something for conveyance or transportation; freight; cargo: The truck carried a load of watermelons.
- load-shedding — the deliberate shutdown of electric power in a part or parts of a power-distribution system, generally to prevent the failure of the entire system when the demand strains the capacity of the system.
- loan-sharking — the practice of lending money at exorbitant or illegal interest rates
- logarithmancy — Divination using logarithms.
- logical shift — (programming) (Either shift left logical or shift right logical) Machine-level operations available on nearly all processors which move each bit in a word one or more bit positions in the given direction. A left shift moves the bits to more significant positions (like multiplying by two), a right shift moves them to less significant positions (like dividing by two). The comparison with multiplication and division breaks down in certain circumstances - a logical shift may discard bits that are shifted off either end of the word and does not preserve the sign of the word (positive or negative). Logical shift is approriate when treating the word as a bit string or a sequence of bit fields, whereas arithmetic shift is appropriate when treating it as a binary number. The word to be shifted is usually stored in a register, or possibly in memory.
- logical truth — the property of being logically tautologous
- losing hazard — an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable: The job was full of hazards.
- low-bandwidth — [communication theory] Used to indicate a talk that, although not content-free, was not terribly informative. "That was a low-bandwidth talk, but what can you expect for an audience of suits!" Compare zero-content, bandwidth, math-out.
- lucifer match — friction match.
- lymphadenitis — inflammation of a lymphatic gland.
- lymphangiomas — Plural form of lymphangioma.
- lymphatolysis — destruction of lymphatic vessels or of lymphoid tissue.
- lymphoblastic — (US, cytology, immunology) Of or pertaining to a lymphoblast.
- lymphographic — of or relating to lymphography
- lymphomatosis — lymphoma spread throughout the body.
- maccheroncini — thin pasta tubes made from wheat flour
- machiavellian — of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
- machiavellism — of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
- machicolation — an opening in the floor between the corbels of a projecting gallery or parapet, as on a wall or in the vault of a passage, through which missiles, molten lead, etc., might be cast upon an enemy beneath.
- machilipatnam — a city in E Andhra Pradesh state, in S India, on the Bay of Bengal: first British trading settlement 1611.
- machinability — The condition of being machinable.
- machine cycle — (processor) The four steps which the CPU carries out for each machine language instruction: fetch, decode, execute, and store. These steps are performed by the control unit, and may be fixed in the logic of the CPU or may be programmed as microcode which is itself usually fixed (in ROM) but may be (partially) modifiable (stored in RAM). The fetch cycle places the current program counter contents (the address of the next instruction to execute) on the address bus and reads in the word at that location into the instruction register (IR). In RISC CPUs instructions are usually a single word but in other architectures an instruction may be several words long, necessitating several fetches. The decode cycle uses the contents of the IR to determine which gates should be opened between the CPU's various functional units and busses and what operation the ALU(s) should perform (e.g. add, bitwise and). Each gate allows data to flow from one unit to another (e.g. from register 0 to ALU input 1) or enables data from one output onto a certain bus. In the simplest case ("horizontal encoding") each bit of the instruction register controls a single gate or several bits may control the ALU operation. This is rarely used because it requires long instruction words (such an architecture is sometimes called a very long instruction word architecture). Commonly, groups of bits from the IR are fed through decoders to control higher level aspects of the CPU's operation, e.g. source and destination registers, addressing mode and ALU operation. This is known as vertical encoding. One way RISC processors gain their advantage in speed is by having simple instruction decoding which can be performed quickly. The execute cycle occurs when the decoding logic has settled and entails the passing of values between the various function units and busses and the operation of the ALU. A simple instruction will require only a single execute cycle whereas a complex instruction (e.g. subroutine call or one using memory indirect addressing) may require three or four. Instructions in a RISC typically (but not invariably) take only a single cycle. The store cycle is when the result of the instruction is written to its destination, either a register or a memory location. This is really part of the execute cycle because some instructions may write to multiple destinations as part of their execution.
- machine error — an error caused by a fault or defect in a machine rather than by human error
- machine screw — a threaded fastener, either used with a nut or driven into a tapped hole, usually having a diameter of about 1/4 inch (6.4 mm) or less and a slotted head for tightening by a screwdriver.
- machine-steel — low-carbon steel that can be easily machined.
- machinegunned — Simple past tense and past participle of machinegun.
- macrocephalic — Cephalometry. being or having a head with a large cranial capacity.
- macrolecithal — megalecithal.
- magnetic head — head (def 33).
- mahabalipuram — a village in NE Tamil Nadu, in SE India: Hindu temples; early Dravidian architecture.
- maid of honor — an unmarried woman who is the chief attendant of a bride. Compare matron of honor.
- maiden speech — the first speech made in a legislature by a newly elected member.
- make light of — of little weight; not heavy: a light load.
- make mischief — cause trouble
- make off with — take away
- malthusianism — of or relating to the theories of T. R. Malthus, which state that population tends to increase faster, at a geometrical ratio, than the means of subsistence, which increases at an arithmetical ratio, and that this will result in an inadequate supply of the goods supporting life unless war, famine, or disease reduces the population or the increase of population is checked.
- mannheim gold — a brass alloy used to imitate gold; red brass.
- mansion house — the residence of the Lord Mayor of London
- mantis shrimp — any stomatopod crustacean having a pair of appendages modified for grasping prey and resembling those of a mantis.
- mao inhibitor — any of various substances, as isocarboxazid and phenelzine, that block enzymatic breakdown of certain monoamine neurotransmitters: used to treat severe depression. Abbreviation: MAOI.