18-letter words containing m, e, n, a, r, c
- counterprogramming — the practice of scheduling a program opposite another program, esp. a popular one, that appeals to a different kind of audience, as in placing a romantic film directed at women opposite a sports program mainly watched by men
- counterreformation — a reform movement to oppose a previous one
- 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
- cumberland plateau — division of the W Appalachians, extending from S W.Va. to N Ala.
- cumulative scoring — a method of scoring in which the score of a partnership is taken as the sum of their scores on all hands played.
- cunninghame graham — R(obert) B(ontine). 1852–1936, Scottish traveller, writer, and politician, noted for his essays and short stories: first president (1928) of the Scottish Nationalist Party
- customer relations — Customer relations are the relationships that a business has with its customers and the way in which it treats them.
- datacenter manager — (job) A person who plans and directs all computer and peripheral operations, data entry, data control scheduling and quality control.
- decompartmentalize — to remove excessive compartmentalization from (an organization)
- dependency grammar — a type of generative grammar in which grammatical structure is determined by the relationship between a governor and its dependents
- destruct mechanism — a mechanism that causes the destruction of a rocket or missile when activated
- diaminofluorescein — (organic compound) A fluorescein into which two amino groups have been substituted.
- diamondback turtle — any edible North American terrapin of the genus Malaclemys, esp M. terrapin, occurring in brackish and tidal waters and having diamond-shaped markings on the shell: family Emydidae
- direct examination — the first interrogation of a witness by the side that has called that witness.
- disenfranchisement — to disfranchise.
- dominican republic — a republic in the West Indies, occupying the E part of the island of Hispaniola. 19,129 sq. mi. (49,545 sq. km). Capital: Santo Domingo.
- dramatic monologue — a poetic form in which a single character, addressing a silent auditor at a critical moment, reveals himself or herself and the dramatic situation.
- ecma international — (body) (Formerly European Computer Manufacturers Association) An industry association founded in 1961 and dedicated to the standardisation of information and communication systems. ECMA edits standards and technical reports. All ECMA publications are available free of charge. The best known ECMA standard is ECMA 262, defining the scripting language ECMAScript.
- economic geography — a branch of geography that deals with the relation of physical and economic conditions to the production and utilization of raw materials and their manufacture into finished products.
- economic indicator — business statistic
- electrodynamometer — An instrument that measures electric current by indicating the strength of repulsion or attraction between the magnetic fields of two sets of coils, one fixed and one movable.
- electronic mailbox — a device used to store electronic mail
- electroretinograms — Plural form of electroretinogram.
- elementary teacher — a teacher in an elementary school
- embryonic membrane — any of several living membranes enclosing or closely associated with the developing vertebrate embryo, as the allantois, amnion, yolk sac, etc.
- emotional literacy — the ability to deal with one's emotions and recognize their causes
- enforcement action — action by a body or organization, esp a financial one, to make sure that its rules are being followed
- environment agency — an official agency providing information on environmental issues, esp rivers, flooding and pollution
- 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
- examination script — a script with answers written on it by an examination candidate taking a written examination
- exchange programme — an arrangement in which people from different countries visit each other's country, perhaps to strengthen links between them or to improve foreign language skills
- executive chairman — the most senior internal position within a company, combining the duties of chairman and chief executive
- extermination camp — a camp where people are imprisoned and killed
- farm the long acre — to graze cows on the verge of a road
- 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.
- fifth monarchy men — (during the Commonwealth in the 17th century) a militant sect of Puritans who identified the fifth monarchy with the millennial reign of Christ and who believed they should help to inaugurate that reign by force.
- fixed-term tenancy — a tenancy arrangement for a particular and fixed period
- formal equivalence — the relation that holds between two open sentences when their universal closures are materially equivalent
- fourth commandment — “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy”: fourth of the Ten Commandments.
- frame of reference — a structure of concepts, values, customs, views, etc., by means of which an individual or group perceives or evaluates data, communicates ideas, and regulates behavior.
- genetic algorithms — genetic algorithm
- gensym corporation — (company) A company that supplies software and services for intelligent operations management. Common applications include quality management, process optimisation, dynamic scheduling, network management, energy and environmental management, and process modelling and simulation. Their products include G2.
- gentleman-commoner — (formerly) a member of a class of commoners enjoying special privileges at Oxford University.
- german east africa — a former German territory in E Africa, the area now comprised of continental Tanzania and the independent republics of Rwanda and Burundi.
- golden bantam corn — a horticultural variety of sweet corn having yellow kernels.
- grammatical gender — gender based on arbitrary assignment, without regard to the referent of a noun, as in French le livre (masculine), “the book,” and German das Mädchen (neuter), “the girl.”.
- gravity escapement — an escapement, used especially in large outdoor clocks, in which the impulse is given to the pendulum by means of a weight falling through a certain distance.
- greater manchester — a metropolitan county in central England, with the city of Manchester as its center. 498 sq. mi. (1290 sq. km).