16-letter words containing m, i, l, c
- lumberjack shirt — a thick checked shirt, as worn by lumberjacks
- luminosity class — a classification of stars of a given spectral type according to their luminosity, breaking them down into dwarfs, giants, and supergiants.
- lymphangiectasia — (medicine) dilation of the lymphatic vessels.
- lymphangiectasis — Alt form lymphangiectasia.
- lymphatic system — an extensive network of capillary vessels that transports the interstitial fluid of the body as lymph to the venous blood circulation
- lymphatic tissue — tissue, such as the lymph nodes, tonsils, spleen, and thymus, that produces lymphocytes
- lz77 compression — The first algorithm to use the Lempel-Ziv substitutional compression schemes, proposed in 1977. LZ77 compression keeps track of the last n bytes of data seen, and when a phrase is encountered that has already been seen, it outputs a pair of values corresponding to the position of the phrase in the previously-seen buffer of data, and the length of the phrase. In effect the compressor moves a fixed-size "window" over the data (generally referred to as a "sliding window"), with the position part of the (position, length) pair referring to the position of the phrase within the window. The most commonly used algorithms are derived from the LZSS scheme described by James Storer and Thomas Szymanski in 1982. In this the compressor maintains a window of size N bytes and a "lookahead buffer", the contents of which it tries to find a match for in the window: while (lookAheadBuffer not empty) { get a pointer (position, match) to the longest match in the window for the lookahead buffer; if (length > MINIMUM_MATCH_LENGTH) { output a (position, length) pair; shift the window length characters along; } else { output the first character in the lookahead buffer; shift the window 1 character along; } } Decompression is simple and fast: whenever a (POSITION, LENGTH) pair is encountered, go to that POSITION in the window and copy LENGTH bytes to the output. Sliding-window-based schemes can be simplified by numbering the input text characters mod N, in effect creating a circular buffer. The sliding window approach automatically creates the LRU effect which must be done explicitly in LZ78 schemes. Variants of this method apply additional compression to the output of the LZSS compressor, which include a simple variable-length code (LZB), dynamic Huffman coding (LZH), and Shannon-Fano coding (ZIP 1.x), all of which result in a certain degree of improvement over the basic scheme, especially when the data are rather random and the LZSS compressor has little effect. An algorithm was developed which combines the ideas behind LZ77 and LZ78 to produce a hybrid called LZFG. LZFG uses the standard sliding window, but stores the data in a modified trie data structure and produces as output the position of the text in the trie. Since LZFG only inserts complete *phrases* into the dictionary, it should run faster than other LZ77-based compressors. All popular archivers (arj, lha, zip, zoo) are variations on LZ77.
- lz78 compression — A substitutional compression scheme which works by entering phrases into a dictionary and then, when a reoccurrence of that particular phrase is found, outputting the dictionary index instead of the phrase. Several algorithms are based on this principle, differing mainly in the manner in which they manage the dictionary. The most well-known Lempel-Ziv scheme is Terry Welch's Lempel-Ziv Welch variant of LZ78.
- mach's principle — the proposition that there is no absolute space and that the inertia and acceleration of a body are determined by all of the matter of the universe.
- machiavellianism — of, like, or befitting Machiavelli.
- machine language — machine code
- machine learning — The ability of a machine to improve its performance based on previous results.
- machine moulding — the process of making moulds and cores for castings by mechanical means, usually by compacting the moulding sand by vibration instead of by ramming down
- machine readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- machine washable — suitable for washing in a washing machine
- machine-readable — of or relating to data encoded on an appropriate medium and in a form suitable for processing by computer.
- mackinaw blanket — a thick woolen blanket, often woven with bars of color, formerly used in the northern and western U.S. by Indians, loggers, etc.
- maclaurin series — a Taylor series in which the reference point is zero.
- macro-linguistic — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- macroclimatology — the study of the climatic conditions of a large area.
- macrolepidoptera — a collector's name for that part of the lepidoptera that comprises the butterflies and the larger moths (noctuids, geometrids, bombycids, springtails, etc): a term without taxonomic significance
- macrolinguistics — a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense and including cultural and behavioral features associated with language.
- magellanic cloud — either of two irregular galactic clusters in the southern heavens that are the nearest independent star system to the Milky Way.
- magical thinking — a conviction that thinking is equivalent to doing, occurring in dreams, the thought patterns of children, and some types of mental disorders, especially obsessive-compulsive disorder.
- magnetic anomaly — a departure from the normal magnetic field of the earth.
- magneto-electric — of or relating to the induction of electric current or electromotive force by means of permanent magnets.
- make a complaint — If a guest makes a complaint, they express their dissatisfaction with something.
- male-voice choir — a choir of male singers
- maleic anhydride — a colorless crystalline, unsaturated compound, C 4 H 2 O 3 , that is soluble in acetone and hydrolyzes in water: used in the production of polyester resins, pesticides, and fumaric and tartaric acids.
- maleic hydrazide — a crystalline compound, C 4 N 2 H 4 O 2 , used as a plant growth inhibitor and weed-killer.
- malicious damage — Malicious damage is damage caused on purpose to the property of another person.
- malpractice suit — a lawsuit brought against a professional accused of illegal or unethical practices or neglect of duty
- mammographically — Using a mammograph, by means of mammograph.
- marginal costing — a method of cost accounting and decision making used for internal reporting in which only marginal costs are charged to cost units and fixed costs are treated as a lump sum
- mari el republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga basin. Capital: Yoshkar-Ola. Pop: 728 000 (2002). Area: 23 200 sq km (8955 sq miles)
- marriage licence — an official document stating that a marriage will be allowed to take place
- marriage license — permit to marry
- marsh cinquefoil — a variety of cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, that grows in marshy areas
- masculine ending — a final inflection or suffix designating that a word belongs to the masculine gender.
- material culture — the aggregate of physical objects or artifacts used by a society.
- medical examiner — a physician or other person trained in medicine who is appointed by a city, county, or the like, to perform autopsies on the bodies of persons supposed to have died from unnatural causes and to investigate the cause and circumstances of such deaths.
- medieval cornish — the Cornish language of the Middle Ages, usually dated from the 14th century to 1600.
- megakaryoblastic — (cytology) Of or pertaining to a megakaryoblast.
- megalomaniacally — In a megalomaniacal manner.
- melodic interval — an intervening period of time: an interval of 50 years.
- melodramatically — In a melodramatic manner.
- memorial service — ceremony held in commemoration
- meningomyelocele — (medicine) A congenital defect of the central nervous system of infants in which membranes and the spinal cord protrude through an opening or defect in the vertebral column.
- mental defective — a person who suffers from a learning disability or from some form of mental illness
- mercantile paper — commercial paper.