0%

17-letter words containing h, i

  • backward chaining — (algorithm)   An algorithm for proving a goal by recursively breaking it down into sub-goals and trying to prove these until facts are reached. Facts are goals with no sub-goals which are therefore always true. Backward training is the program execution mechanism used by most logic programming language like Prolog. Opposite: forward chaining.
  • bacteriorhodopsin — a purple protein containing retinal and found in the plasma membrane of certain bacteria (genus Halobacterium): it directly supplies electrochemical energy from sunlight
  • bahia de cochinos — Spanish name of Bay of Pigs.
  • baile atha cliath — Dublin
  • baile-atha-cliath — Gaelic Baile Àtha Cliath. a seaport in and the capital of the Republic of Ireland, in the E part, on the Irish Sea.
  • bartholin's gland — either of two small glands near the vaginal opening: during sexual excitement they secrete a mucous lubricating substance
  • basal anaesthesia — preliminary and incomplete anaesthesia induced to prepare a surgical patient for total anaesthesia with another agent
  • baseboard heating — a heating system by pipes, through which steam or hot water circulates, near the base of the walls of rooms
  • bathroom fittings — plumbing fixtures or accessories suitable for use in a bathroom
  • be over the limit — If someone is over the limit, they have drunk more alcohol than they are legally allowed to when driving a vehicle.
  • be that as it may — You say 'Be that as it may' when you want to move onto another subject or go further with the discussion, without deciding whether what has just been said is right or wrong.
  • behaviour therapy — any of various means of treating psychological disorders, such as desensitization, aversion therapy, and instrumental conditioning, that depend on the patient systematically learning new modes of behaviour
  • behind one's back — without one's knowledge; secretly or deceitfully
  • behind the scenes — happening or conducted out of view of the general public: The behind-the-scenes preparations made the convention a huge success.
  • behind-the-scenes — If something is done behind the scenes, it is done secretly rather than publicly.
  • bell-hanger's bit — a bit for drilling small holes through studs or the like.
  • belted kingfisher — a grayish-blue, North American kingfisher, Ceryle alcyon, having a white breast marked with a grayish-blue band.
  • bergisch gladbach — city in W Germany, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia: pop. 105,000
  • bergisch-gladbach — an industrial city in W Germany, near Cologne.
  • best first search — (algorithm)   A graph search algorithm which optimises breadth first search by ordering all current paths according to some heuristic. The heuristic attempts to predict how close the end of a path is to a solution. Paths which are judged to be closer to a solution are extended first. See also beam search, hill climbing.
  • bighorn mountains — range of the Rocky Mountains in N Wyo. and S Mont.: highest peak, 13,165 ft (4,013 m)
  • biological father — the man whose semen fertilized the ovum from which a child was born
  • biological mother — the mother who gave birth to a child
  • biological rhythm — biorhythm.
  • biological shield — a protective shield impervious to radiation, esp the thick concrete wall surrounding the core of a nuclear reactor
  • biopharmaceutical — of or relating to drugs produced using biotechnology
  • bird's-eye chilli — a small red hot-tasting chilli
  • birth certificate — Your birth certificate is an official document which gives details of your birth, such as the date and place of your birth, and the names of your parents.
  • birth of a nation — an American film (1915), directed by D. W. Griffith.
  • blasphemous libel — In Britain, previously, the crime committed if a person insults, offends, or vilifies the deity, Christ, or the Christian religion
  • blue-headed vireo — solitary vireo.
  • blue-sky thinking — Blue-sky thinking is the activity of trying to find completely new ideas.
  • board-and-shingle — a small dwelling with wooden walls and a shingle roof
  • boat-billed heron — a nocturnal, tropical American wading bird (Cochlearius cochlearius) with a large, broad bill: it is the only member of a family (Cochleariidae) of wading birds
  • boatswain's chair — a seat consisting of a short flat board slung from ropes, used to support a person working on the side of a vessel or in its rigging
  • bohemian brethren — a Protestant Christian sect formed in the 15th century from various Hussite groups, which rejected oaths and military service and advocated a pure and disciplined spiritual life. It was reorganized in 1722 as the Moravian Church
  • boiler horsepower — a unit of measurement of the ability of a boiler to evaporate water, usually given as the ability to evaporate 34½ pounds (15.6 kg) of water an hour, into dry saturated steam from and at 212°F (100°C).
  • boothia peninsula — a peninsula of N Canada: the northernmost part of the mainland of North America, lying west of the Gulf of Boothia, an arm of the Arctic Ocean
  • brain haemorrhage — bleeding into the brain
  • branch prediction — (processor, algorithm)   A technique used in some processors with instruction prefetch to guess whether a conditional branch will be taken or not and prefetch code from the appropriate location. When a branch instruction is executed, its address and that of the next instruction executed (the chosen destination of the branch) are stored in the Branch Target Buffer. This information is used to predict which way the instruction will branch the next time it is executed so that instruction prefetch can continue. When the prediction is correct (and it is over 90% of the time), executing a branch does not cause a pipeline break. Some later CPUs simply prefetch both paths instead of trying to predict which way the branch will go. An extension of the idea of branch prediction is speculative execution.
  • brazilian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
  • breach of promise — (formerly) failure to carry out one's promise to marry
  • breathe life into — revive, rejuvenate
  • brezhnev doctrine — the doctrine expounded by Leonid Brezhnev in November 1968 affirming the right of the Soviet Union to intervene in the affairs of Communist countries to strengthen Communism.
  • brightening agent — a compound applied to a textile to increase its brightness by the conversion of ultraviolet radiation to visible (blue) light, used in detergents
  • brighton and hove — a city and unitary authority in S England, in East Sussex. Pop: 251 500 (2003 est). Area: 72 sq km (28 sq miles)
  • bring up the rear — to be at the back in a procession, race, etc
  • british cameroons — a former British trust territory of West Africa
  • british columbian — of or relating to British Columbia or its inhabitants
  • british israelite — a member of a religious movement claiming that the British people are descended from the lost tribes of Israel
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?