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18-letter words containing i, t, a, p, e, n

  • creeping featurism — (jargon)   /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance.
  • crystal microphone — a microphone that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert sound energy into electrical energy
  • daisywheel printer — (printer)   A kind of impact printer where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy). The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter. One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different typefaces.
  • deanthropomorphism — the ridding of philosophy or religion of anthropomorphic beliefs and doctrines.
  • decompartmentalize — to remove excessive compartmentalization from (an organization)
  • deficiency payment — a payment made to a commodity producer that represents the difference between the market price and the guaranteed price
  • definitive plumage — the plumage of a bird that, once attained, does not change significantly in color or pattern for the rest of the bird's life.
  • dependent variable — a variable in a mathematical equation or statement whose value depends on that taken on by the independent variable
  • desalination plant — a factory where salt is removed from salt water in order to make the water suitable for drinking and irrigation
  • devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
  • diabetes insipidus — a disorder of the pituitary gland causing excessive thirst and excretion of large quantities of dilute urine
  • dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
  • dimethyltryptamine — a hallucinogenic drug, C 12 H 16 N 2 , with an action of short duration. Abbreviation: DMT.
  • diphtheria vaccine — a vaccine used to produce immunity against diphtheria
  • disability pension — a pension paid to people who are unable to continue to work because of a disability
  • discharge printing — a fabric-printing method in which the material is dyed and then certain areas are discharged so as to permit the original hue or its color replacement to act as a pattern against the colored ground.
  • dispatch documents — documents sent with a parcel, etc, detailing information such as contents, delivery address, etc
  • disproportionately — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
  • divine inspiration — insight provided by higher power
  • dna fingerprinting — the use of a DNA probe for the identification of an individual, as for the matching of genes from a forensic sample with those of a criminal suspect.
  • doctype decoration — (humour)   When a web author adds a doctype declaration but doesn't bother to write valid HTML.
  • domestic appliance — a machine used for household tasks, for example, a washing machine, refrigerator, etc.
  • dot matrix printer — (hardware, printer)   A kind of printer with a vertical column of up to 48 small closely packed needles or "pins" each of which can be individually forced forward to press an ink ribbon against the paper. The print head is repeatedly scanned across the page and different combinations of needles activated at each point. Dot matrix printers are noisy compared to non-impact printers.
  • dot-matrix printer — device: prints using matrix dots
  • drainpipe trousers — trousers with very narrow legs
  • east india company — the company chartered by the English government in 1600 to carry on trade in the East Indies: dissolved in 1874.
  • eastern hemisphere — the eastern part of the terrestrial globe, including Asia, Africa, Australia, and Europe.
  • electric potential — the work required to transfer a unit positive electric charge from an infinite distance to a given point against an electric field
  • elizabeth petrovna — 1709-62; empress of Russia (1741-62): daughter of Peter I
  • entrepreneurialism — The spirit or state of acting in an entrepreneurial manner.
  • epstein-barr virus — a virus belonging to the herpes family that causes infectious mononucleosis; it is also implicated in the development of Burkitt's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease
  • equinoctial spring — either of the two highest spring tides that occur at the equinoxes
  • escape sb's notice — If something escapes your notice, you fail to recognize it or realize it.
  • ethnopsychological — Relating to ethnopsychology.
  • european community — an economic and political association of European States that came into being in 1967, when the legislative and executive bodies of the European Economic Community merged with those of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community: subsumed into the European Union in 1993
  • evapotranspiration — The process by which water is transferred from the land to the atmosphere by evaporation from the soil and other surfaces and by transpiration from plants.
  • examination script — a script with answers written on it by an examination candidate taking a written examination
  • extermination camp — a camp where people are imprisoned and killed
  • false imprisonment — the unlawful restraint of a person from exercising the right to freedom of movement.
  • farewell-to-spring — a slender, showy plant, Clarkia amoena, of the evening primrose family, native to western North America, having satiny, cup-shaped, lilac-crimson or reddish-pink flowers and roundish fruit.
  • feeping creaturism — /fee'ping kree"ch*r-izm/ A deliberate spoonerism for creeping featurism, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks. This term isn"t really well defined, but it sounds so neat that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their customary noises.
  • fermat's principle — Optics. the law that the path taken by a ray of light in going from one point to another point will be the path that requires the least time.
  • flat-panel display — a type of thin, lightweight video display that uses liquid crystals or electroluminescence to reflect images.
  • fore-edge painting — a technique of painting a picture on the fore edge of a book, often in such a manner that only when the pages are slightly fanned the picture is revealed.
  • ftp software, inc. — (company)   Developers of the original PC/TCP Packet Driver specification. Address: 26 Princess St. Wakefield, MA 01880-3004. Telephone: +1 (617) 246 0900.
  • fulminating powder — powder that explodes by percussion.
  • funding operations — the conversion of government floating stock or short-term debt into holdings of long-term bonds
  • gainful employment — an occupation that pays an income
  • galilean telescope — a refracting telescope that forms an erect image, consisting of an objective of relatively long focal length that causes light rays to converge and an eyepiece of short focal length that causes them to diverge.
  • gene amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
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