22-letter words containing i, p, r, o, c, l
- functional programming — (programming) (FP) A program in a functional language consists of a set of (possibly recursive) function definitions and an expression whose value is output as the program's result. Functional languages are one kind of declarative language. They are mostly based on the typed lambda-calculus with constants. There are no side-effects to expression evaluation so an expression, e.g. a function applied to certain arguments, will always evaluate to the same value (if its evaluation terminates). Furthermore, an expression can always be replaced by its value without changing the overall result (referential transparency). The order of evaluation of subexpressions is determined by the language's evaluation strategy. In a strict (call-by-value) language this will specify that arguments are evaluated before applying a function whereas in a non-strict (call-by-name) language arguments are passed unevaluated. Programs written in a functional language are generally compact and elegant, but have tended, until recently, to run slowly and require a lot of memory. Examples of purely functional languages are Clean, FP, Haskell, Hope, Joy, LML, Miranda, and SML. Many other languages such as Lisp have a subset which is purely functional but also contain non-functional constructs. See also lazy evaluation, reduction.
- galvanic skin response — a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin caused by an emotional reaction to a stimulus.
- gravitational collapse — the final stage of stellar evolution in which a star collapses to a final state, as a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, when the star's nuclear reactions no longer generate enough pressure to balance the attractive force of gravity.
- gross national product — the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced in a country during one year. Abbreviation: GNP.
- horizontal application — An application program common to different business processes, e.g. office automation. Compare vertical application.
- horn-rimmed spectacles — spectacles with rims made of material resembling horn
- hybrid multiprocessing — (parallel) (HMP) The kind of multitasking which OS/2 supports. HMP provides some elements of symmetric multiprocessing, using add-on IBM software called MP/2. OS/2 SMP was planned for release in late 1993.
- ice-cream parlor chair — a side chair made of heavy wire with a round wooden seat, especially for use at a table.
- incremental repetition — repetition, with variation, of a refrain or other part of a poem, especially a ballad.
- intermetallic compound — a compound of two or more metals.
- lempel-ziv compression — Substitutional compression schemes proposed by Jakob Ziv and Abraham Lempel in 1977 and 1978. There are two main schemes, LZ77 and LZ78. Lempel-Ziv Welch compression is a variant of LZ78.
- liberal democrat party — The Liberal Democrat Party is the third largest political party in Britain and the main centre party. It believes in improving the constitution and the voting system and in providing good welfare services.
- lord justice of appeal — an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal
- magnetic pole strength — Electricity. a measure of the force exerted by one face of a magnet on a face of another magnet when both magnets are represented by equal and opposite poles. Symbol: m.
- mcculloch-pitts neuron — (artificial intelligence) The basic building block of artificial neural networks. It receives one or more inputs and produces one or more identical outputs, each of which is a simple non-linear function of the sum of the inputs to the neuron. The non-linear function is typically a threshhold or step function which is usually smoothed (i.e. a sigmoid) to facilitate learning.
- modified american plan — (in hotels) a system of paying a single fixed rate that covers room, breakfast, and one other meal, usually dinner. Abbreviation: MAP.
- mpeg-2 aac low profile — (compression, standard, algorithm, file format) A successor of MP3 allowing transparent coding at data rates of 75-80% of that of MP3. It is very different from MP3, only used MDCT, no subband coding.
- nonspecular reflection — the diffuse reflection of sound or light waves
- object-oriented pascal — Object Pascal
- occupational therapist — professional who assists with rehabilitation
- parliamentary election — an election to select the members of a national parliament
- paroxysmal tachycardia — tachycardia that begins and subsides suddenly.
- phosphorus trichloride — a clear, colorless, fuming liquid, PCl 3 , used chiefly in organic synthesis as a chlorinating agent.
- planck's radiation law — the law that energy associated with electromagnetic radiation, as light, is composed of discrete quanta of energy, each quantum equal to Planck's constant times the corresponding frequency of the radiation: the fundamental law of quantum mechanics.
- play one's cards right — a usually rectangular piece of stiff paper, thin pasteboard, or plastic for various uses, as to write information on or printed as a means of identifying the holder: a 3″ × 5″ file card; a membership card.
- polymyalgia rheumatica — a chronic inflammatory disease, common among older persons, characterized by recurrent episodes of muscle pain and stiffness, sometimes leading to cardiovascular complications or blindness.
- poor richard's almanac — an almanac (1732–58) written and published by Benjamin Franklin.
- price variation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to vary the selling price under certain conditions
- prince of wales island — the largest island in the Alexander Archipelago, in SE Alaska. 1500 sq. mi. (3990 sq. km).
- principal ideal domain — a commutative integral domain with multiplicative identity in which every ideal is principal.
- privileged instruction — A machine code instruction that may only be executed when the processor is running in supervisor mode. Privileged instructions include operations such as I/O and memory management.
- progressive participle — present participle.
- pronunciation spelling — a spelling intended to match a certain pronunciation more closely than the traditional spelling does, as gonna for going to , kinda for kind of (meaning “rather”), git for get , or lite for light.
- propositional calculus — propositional logic
- propositional function — sentential function.
- prothonotary apostolic — a member of the first college of prelates of the Roman Curia.
- psychological thriller — book, movie: suspense story
- public domain software — public domain
- public housing project — a group of homes for poorer families which is funded and controlled by the local government
- pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
- rapid deployment force — a U.S. military organization consisting of one Marine division and four Army divisions, established in 1979 to respond quickly to any distant threat to national interests.
- recreational therapist — someone who specializes in therapy by means of recreational activities engaged in by the patient
- reliable data protocol — (protocol) (RDP) A protocol designed to provide a reliable data transport service for packet-based applications such as remote loading and debugging. RDP is intended to be simple to implement but still be efficient in environments where there may be long transmission delays and loss or non-sequential delivery of message segments. RDP is defined in RFC 908.
- replacement cost basis — Replacement cost basis is a method of valuing insured property in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
- reproductive isolation — the conditions, as physiological or behavioral differences or geographical barriers, that prevent potentially interbreeding populations from cross-fertilization.
- respond to a complaint — If you respond to a complaint, you answer a customer who expressed their dissatisfaction with something.
- sarcoplasmic reticulum — a system of membrane-bound tubules that surrounds muscle fibrils, releasing calcium ions during contraction and absorbing them during relaxation.
- school crossing patrol — the official name for lollipop man or lady
- silicon graphics, inc. — (company) (SGI) Manufacturer of workstations and software for graphics and image processing. SGI was founded by Dr. James H. Clark, who left some time before May 1994 to head Mosaic Communications Corporation. Quarterly sales $433M, profits $44M (Aug 1994).
- simple harmonic motion — vibratory motion in a system in which the restoring force is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium. Abbreviation: S.H.M., s.h.m.