23-letter words containing i, n, r, e
- dollar (cost) averaging — see average (sense 11)
- draw a line in the sand — to put a stop to or a limit on
- draw/make a distinction — If you draw a distinction or make a distinction, you say that two things are different.
- drawing exchange format — (DXF) A file format for graphical information, similar to IGES. Commonly used by CAD systems like AutoCAD.
- dressed up to the nines — If you say that someone is dressed up to the nines or dressed to the nines, you mean that they are wearing very smart or elegant clothes.
- drive sb round the bend — If you say that someone or something drives you round the bend, you mean that you dislike them and they annoy or upset you very much.
- drop into someone's lap — to cause to be someone's responsibility
- dual sensory impairment — the condition of being affected by sight and hearing loss
- earliest deadline first — (operating system, algorithm) (EDF) A strategy for CPU or disk access scheduling. With EDF, the task with the earliest deadline is always executed first.
- earthquake-proof design — Earthquake-proof design is design which will not be badly damaged by earthquakes or tsunamis.
- eastern lowland gorilla — the largest of the anthropoid apes, Gorilla gorilla, terrestrial and vegetarian, of western equatorial Africa and the Kivu highlands, comprising the subspecies G. g. gorilla (western lowland gorilla) G. g. graueri (eastern lowland gorilla) and G. g. beringei (mountain gorilla) now rare.
- eating your own dogfood — eating one's own dogfood
- ecclesiastical calendar — a calendar based on the lunisolar cycle, used by many Christian churches in determining the dates for the movable feasts.
- education correspondent — a journalist who reports news in the field of education or teaching
- electric field strength — the strength or intensity of an electric field at any point, usually measured in volts per metre
- electroencephalographic — Of or pertaining to electroencephalography or electroencephalographs.
- electron spin resonance — a technique for investigating paramagnetic substances by subjecting them to high-frequency radiation in a strong magnetic field. Changes in the spin of unpaired electrons cause radiation to be absorbed at certain frequencies
- electronic file cabinet — a device, controlled by software, for the storage and retrieval of information
- electronic mail address — (messaging) (Usually "e-mail address") The string used to specify the source or destination of an electronic mail message. E.g. "[email protected]". The RFC 822 standard is probably the most widely used on the Internet. X.400 was once used in Europe and Canada. UUCP-style (bang path) addresses or other kinds of source route became virtually extinct in the 1990s. In the example above, "john" is the local part which is the name of a mailbox on the destination computer. If the sender and recipient use the same computer, or the same LAN, for electronic mail then the local part is usually all that is required. If they use different computers, e.g. they work at different companies or use different Internet service providers, then the "host part", e.g. "sales.acme.com" must be appended after an "@". This usually takes the form of a fully qualified domain name or, within a large organisation, it may be just the hostname part, e.g. "sales". The destination computer named by the host part is usually a server of some kind rather than an individual's workstation or PC. The user's mail is stored on the server and read later via client mail software running on the user's computer. Large organisations, such as universities will often set up a global alias directory which maps a simple user name such as "jsmith" to an address which contains more information such as "[email protected]". This hides the detailed knowledge of where the message will be delivered from the sender, making it much easier to redirect mail if a user leaves or moves to a different department for example.
- electronic surveillance — use of electronic devices to spy, observe
- electrostatic generator — any device for producing a high voltage by building up a charge of static electricity
- electroweak interaction — a type of fundamental interaction combining both the electromagnetic interaction and the weak interaction
- eliminative materialism — (in philosophy of mind) the theory that people's common-sense understanding of the mind is false and that certain classes of mental states that most people believe in do not exist
- ellipsoid of revolution — a geometric surface produced by rotating an ellipse about one of its two axes and having circular plane surfaces perpendicular to the axis of revolution
- embarrassment of riches — If you say that someone has an embarrassment of riches, you mean that they have so many good things that these things are a problem.
- encapsulated postscript — (EPS) An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is used for PostScript graphics files that are to be incorporated into other documents. An EPS file includes pragmas (special PostScript comments) giving information such as the bounding box, page number and fonts used. On some computers, EPS files include a low resolution version of the PostScript image. On the Macintosh this is in PICT format, while on the IBM PC it is in TIFF or Microsoft Windows metafile format.
- encephalitis lethargica — a form of encephalitis, or sleeping sickness, epidemic in the period from 1915 to 1926
- endorsement advertising — the practice of saying that you approve of a company or product by appearing in advertisements for it
- entrance qualifications — academic requirements
- error correcting memory — (storage) (ECM) RAM using some kind of error detection and correction (EDAC) scheme. The two types of memory errors in RAM (especially DRAM) are "soft" errors due to radiation-induced bit switching, and "hard" errors due to the unexpected deterioration of a memory chip. Soft errors do not indicate lasting damage to the memory board, but they do corrupt programs or data. Hard errors demand physical repairs. Single bit memory failures are the most common. A hard single bit failure, such as that caused by a completely dead chip can be corrected by EDAC if each chip supplies only one bit of each word. EDAC memory is the most common level of protection for minicomputers and mainframes whereas the cheaper parity protection is more common in microcomputers.
- european monetary union — the agreement between members of the European Union to establish a common currency. The current participating members are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain
- eurovision song contest — an annual singing competition broadcast on live television and participated in by European countries who are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Each country submits one song and the other countries cast votes on the song to determine the winner.
- every trick in the book — If someone tries every trick in the book, they try every possible thing that they can think of in order to achieve something.
- exchange rate mechanism — European financial system
- experimental psychology — the scientific study of the individual behaviour of man and other animals, esp of perception, learning, memory, motor skills, and thinking
- extended graphics array — (hardware) (XGA) An IBM display standard introduced in 1990. XGA supports a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels with a palette of 256 colours, or 640 x 480 with high colour (16 bits per pixel). XGA-2 added 1024 x 768 support for high colour and higher refresh rates, improved performance, and supports 1360 x 1024 in 16 colours. XGA is probably not the same as 8514-A. See also VESA's EVGA released at a similar time.
- extended reach drilling — Extended reach drilling is drilling a well horizontally to at least twice its vertical depth.
- extraordinary rendition — the process by which a country seizes a person assumed to be involved in terrorist activity and then transports him or her for interrogation to a country where due process of law is unlikely to be respected
- extrasensory perception — Extrasensory perception means knowing without using your ordinary senses such as sight and hearing. Some people believe this is possible. The abbreviation ESP is also used.
- extrinsic semiconductor — a semiconductor into which a doping agent has been introduced, giving it different electrical properties than the intrinsic semiconductor
- fear-driven development — (jargon, humour) When project management adds more pressure (fires someone or something). A play on test-driven development.
- fendalton shopping cart — a four-wheel drive recreational vehicle
- ferric ammonium oxalate — a green, crystalline, water-soluble, synthetically produced powder, (NH 4) 3 Fe(C 2 O 4) 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the manufacture of blueprint paper.
- fetal tissue transplant — a surgical procedure in which tissue from an aborted fetus is grafted into a patient to replace or improve defective tissue, especially to treat Parkinson's disease or other neurological disorders.
- fiddle while rome burns — If you say that someone is fiddling while Rome burns, you mean that they are not dealing with a difficult or dangerous situation but instead are doing useless things or pretending that nothing is wrong.
- field effect transistor — a transistor in which the output current is varied by varying the value of an electric field within a region of the device. Abbreviation: FET.
- field-effect transistor — a transistor in which the output current is varied by varying the value of an electric field within a region of the device. Abbreviation: FET.
- fifth marquis lansdowne — Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of.
- finite impulse response — (electronics, DSP) (FIR) A type of digital signal filter, in which every sample of output is the weighted sum of past and current samples of input, using only some finite number of past samples.
- firing on all cylinders — working or performing at full capability