16-letter words containing i, s, m
- multiple alleles — any one of a series of three or more alternative or allelic forms of a gene, only two of which can exist in any normal, diploid individual.
- multiple factors — polygene.
- multiple fission — fission into more than two new organisms.
- multiple listing — the listing of a home for sale with a number of real-estate brokers who participate in a shared listing service.
- multiuser system — a computer system in which multiple terminals connect to a host computer that handles processing tasks.
- munching squares — A display hack dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962, reportedly discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a trivial computation (repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for successive values of T - see HAKMEM items 146--148) to produce an impressive display of moving and growing squares that devour the screen. The initial value of T is treated as a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce amazing effects. Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP Machine, have been christened "munching triangles" (try AND for XOR and toggling points instead of plotting them), "munching w's", and "munching mazes". More generally, suppose a graphics program produces an impressive and ever-changing display of some basic form, foo, on a display terminal, and does it using a relatively simple program; then the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as "munching foos". [This is a good example of the use of the word foo as a metasyntactic variable.]
- murasaki shikibu — Lady, 978?–1031? Japanese poet and novelist.
- musical director — A musical director is the same as a music director.
- musique concrete — tape-recorded musical and natural sounds, often electronically distorted, arranged in planned combinations, sequences, and rhythmic patterns to create an artistic work.
- muskegon heights — a city in W Michigan, on Lake Michigan.
- mutation testing — (testing) A method to determine test set thoroughness by measuring the extent to which a test set can discriminate the program from slight variants of the program.
- mutatis mutandis — the necessary changes having been made.
- mutual exclusion — (parallel, operating system) (Or "mutex", plural: "mutexes") A collection of techniques for sharing resources so that different uses do not conflict and cause unwanted interactions. One of the most commonly used techniques for mutual exclusion is the semaphore.
- mutual insurance — insurance in which those insured become members of a company who reciprocally engage, by payment of certain amounts into a common fund, to indemnify one another against loss.
- mutual recursion — recursion
- myelosuppression — (medicine) A reduction of bone marrow activity that leads to a lower concentration of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.
- narrowmindedness — Alternative spelling of narrow-mindedness.
- nash equilibrium — (in game theory) a stable state of a system involving the interaction of two or more players in which no player can gain by a unilateral change of strategy if the strategies of the other players remain unchanged
- national costume — traditional dress
- native americans — a person born in the United States.
- necessitarianism — the doctrine that all events, including acts of the will, are determined by antecedent causes; determinism.
- neo-conservatism — (in the US) a right-wing tendency that originated amongst supporters of the political left and has become characterized by its support of hawkish foreign policies
- neoimpressionism — the theory and practice of a group of post-impressionists of about the middle 1880s, characterized chiefly by a systematic juxtaposition of dots or points of pure color according to a concept of the optical mixture of hues.
- neptunium series — a radioactive series that starts with plutonium-241 and ends with bismuth-209. Neptunium-237 is the longest-lived member of the series. The series does not occur in nature
- neurotransmitter — any of several chemical substances, as epinephrine or acetylcholine, that transmit nerve impulses across a synapse to a postsynaptic element, as another nerve, muscle, or gland.
- new frontiersman — an advocate or follower of the New Frontier, especially one in public service.
- nick someone for — to defraud someone to the extent of
- nitrogen mustard — any of the class of poisonous, blistering compounds, as C 5 H 1 1 Cl 2 N, analogous in composition to mustard gas but containing nitrogen instead of sulfur: used in the treatment of cancer and similar diseases; mechlorethamine.
- nominal sentence — a sentence consisting of a subject and complement without a linking verb, as Very interesting, those books.
- non-assimilation — the act or process of assimilating, or of absorbing information, experiences, etc.: the need for quick assimilation of the facts.
- non-commissioned — A non-commissioned officer in the armed forces is someone with a rank such as corporal or sergeant who used to have a lower rank, rather than an officer of higher rank who has been given a commission.
- non-compressible — to press together; force into less space.
- non-compromising — an endangering, especially of reputation; exposure to danger, suspicion, etc.: a compromise of one's integrity.
- non-consummation — the act of consummating; completion.
- non-instrumental — serving or acting as an instrument or means; useful; helpful.
- non-metaphysical — pertaining to or of the nature of metaphysics.
- non-monotheistic — pertaining to, characterized by, or adhering to monotheism, the doctrine that there is only one God: a monotheistic religion.
- noncompassionate — Not compassionate.
- nondeterministic — the doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws.
- nontransmissible — Not transmissible.
- nontransmittable — Not transmittable.
- norodom sihanouk — Prince Norodom [nawr-uh-dom,, -duh m] /ˈnɔr əˌdɒm,, -dəm/ (Show IPA), 1922–2004, Cambodian statesman: premier 1952–60; chief of state 1960–70 and 1975–76.
- north vietnamese — relating to North Vietnam or its people
- northamptonshire — a county in central England. 914 sq. mi. (2365 sq. km).
- not miss a trick — to be very alert
- nuclear emulsion — a photographic emulsion in the form of a thick block, used to record the tracks of elementary particles.
- observer mission — a mission to an area of conflict in order to observe proceedings
- ohm, georg simon — Georg Simon Ohm
- ohmic resistance — resistance (def 3a).
- operating system — (operating system) (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running. The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present and various system programs which use facilities provided by the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client-server relationship. Some would include a graphical user interface and window system as part of the OS, others would not. The operating system loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boot time or when installing the operating system would generally not be considered part of the operating system, though this distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operating system such as RISC OS. The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around the machines on which it runs. Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS, Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil, COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2, GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS, MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system, Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68, Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX, RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix, VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.