18-letter words containing m, i, s, g, o
- greenhouse warming — the increase in the mean temperature of the earth attributed to the greenhouse effect
- grist for the mill — If you say that something is grist for the mill, you mean that it is useful for a particular purpose or helps support someone's point of view.
- histomorphological — histology.
- human rights group — a group that campaigns for human rights
- hypodermic syringe — a small glass piston or barrel syringe having a detachable, hollow needle for use in injecting solutions subcutaneously.
- immunohistological — the microscopic study of tissues with the aid of antibodies that bind to tissue components and reveal their presence.
- king james version — Authorized Version.
- king-of-the-salmon — a ribbonfish, Trachypterus altivelis, of northern parts of the Pacific Ocean.
- logarithmic spiral — log r = aθ
- logarithmus dualis — (mathematics) (ld) Latin for logarithm base two. More commonly written as "log" with a subscript "2". Roughly the number of bits required to represent an integer.
- logical positivism — a philosophical movement that stresses the function of philosophy as a method of criticizing and analyzing science and that rejects all transcendental metaphysics, statements of fact being held to be meaningful only if they have verifiable consequences in experience and in statements of logic, mathematics, or philosophy itself, and with such statements of fact deriving their validity from the rules of language.
- magic switch story — Some years ago, I was snooping around in the cabinets that housed the MIT AI Lab's PDP-10, and noticed a little switch glued to the frame of one cabinet. It was obviously a homebrew job, added by one of the lab's hardware hackers (no-one knows who). You don't touch an unknown switch on a computer without knowing what it does, because you might crash the computer. The switch was labelled in a most unhelpful way. It had two positions, and scrawled in pencil on the metal switch body were the words "magic" and "more magic". The switch was in the "more magic" position. I called another hacker over to look at it. He had never seen the switch before either. Closer examination revealed that the switch had only one wire running to it! The other end of the wire did disappear into the maze of wires inside the computer, but it's a basic fact of electricity that a switch can't do anything unless there are two wires connected to it. This switch had a wire connected on one side and no wire on its other side. It was clear that this switch was someone's idea of a silly joke. Convinced by our reasoning that the switch was inoperative, we flipped it. The computer instantly crashed. Imagine our utter astonishment. We wrote it off as coincidence, but nevertheless restored the switch to the "more magic" position before reviving the computer. A year later, I told this story to yet another hacker, David Moon as I recall. He clearly doubted my sanity, or suspected me of a supernatural belief in the power of this switch, or perhaps thought I was fooling him with a bogus saga. To prove it to him, I showed him the very switch, still glued to the cabinet frame with only one wire connected to it, still in the "more magic" position. We scrutinized the switch and its lone connection, and found that the other end of the wire, though connected to the computer wiring, was connected to a ground pin. That clearly made the switch doubly useless: not only was it electrically nonoperative, but it was connected to a place that couldn't affect anything anyway. So we flipped the switch. The computer promptly crashed. This time we ran for Richard Greenblatt, a long-time MIT hacker, who was close at hand. He had never noticed the switch before, either. He inspected it, concluded it was useless, got some diagonal cutters and diked it out. We then revived the computer and it has run fine ever since. We still don't know how the switch crashed the machine. There is a theory that some circuit near the ground pin was marginal, and flipping the switch changed the electrical capacitance enough to upset the circuit as millionth-of-a-second pulses went through it. But we'll never know for sure; all we can really say is that the switch was magic. I still have that switch in my basement. Maybe I'm silly, but I usually keep it set on "more magic".
- magistrate's court — a court having limited jurisdiction over minor civil and criminal matters, as matters of contract not exceeding a particular amount of money.
- magistrates' court — law: handles minor crimes
- magnesium peroxide — a white, tasteless, water-insoluble powder, MgO 2 , used as an antiseptic and as an oxidizing and bleaching agent.
- magnetic resonance — the response by atoms, molecules, or nuclei subjected to a magnetic field to radio waves or other forms of energy: used in medicine for scanning
- magnetocrystalline — (physics) Describing the interaction between the magnetization and the crystal structure of a material.
- magnetogasdynamics — magnetohydrodynamics.
- malicious wounding — the intentional violent wounding or injuring of someone
- margaret of valois — ("Queen Margot") 1533–1615, 1st wife of Henry IV of France: queen of Navarre; patron of science and literature (daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici).
- menthol cigarettes — cigarettes that are flavoured with menthol
- micrometeorologist — a person who specializes in micrometeorology
- microsoft exchange — (messaging) Microsoft's messaging and enterprise collaboration server. Exchange's primary role is as an electronic mail message store but it can also store calendars, task lists, contact details, and other data.
- missing definition — (introduction) First, this is an (English language) computing dictionary. It includes lots of terms from related fields such as mathematics and electronics, but if you're looking for (or want to submit) words from other subjects or general English words or other languages, try http://wikipedia.org/, http://onelook.com/, http://yourdictionary.com/, http://www.dictionarist.com/ or http://reference.allrefer.com/. If you've already searched the dictionary for a computing term and it's not here then please don't tell me. There are, and always will be, a great many missing terms, no dictionary is ever complete. I use my limited time to process the corrections and definitions people have submitted and to add the most frequently requested missing terms. Try one of the sources mentioned above or http://techweb.com/encyclopedia/, http://whatis.techtarget.com/ or http://google.com/. See the Help page for more about missing definitions and bad cross-references.
- moccasin telegraph — the transmission of rumour or secret information; the grapevine
- molecular genetics — a subdivision of genetics concerned with the structure and function of genes at the molecular level.
- monographic series — a series of monographs issued in uniform style or format and related by subject or by issuing agency.
- moog (synthesizer) — an early musical synthesizer
- mortgage insurance — policy to compensate for property loan payments
- multi-user dungeon — Multi-User Dimension
- national guardsman — guardsman (def 2).
- neo-pythagoreanism — a philosophical system, established in Alexandria and Rome in the second century b.c., consisting mainly of revived Pythagorean doctrines with elements of Platonism and Stoicism.
- nightmare scenario — If you describe a situation or event as a nightmare scenario, you mean that it is the worst possible thing that could happen.
- no sign of someone — If you say that there is no sign of someone, you mean that they have not yet arrived, although you are expecting them to come.
- operations manager — business director
- osteogenic sarcoma — osteosarcoma
- paleoclimatologist — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.
- passing modulation — a modulation of a temporary nature.
- phantasmagorically — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- photochemical smog — air pollution containing ozone and other reactive chemical compounds formed by the action of sunlight on nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, especially those in automobile exhaust.
- photomorphogenesis — plant development that is controlled by light.
- pigmy hippopotamus — a related but smaller animal, Choeropsis liberiensis
- pilgrim's progress — an allegory (1678) by John Bunyan.
- pragmatic sanction — any one of various imperial decrees with the effect of fundamental law.
- programming skills — the skills required to write a program so that data may be processed by a computer
- ptomaine poisoning — (erroneously) food poisoning thought to be caused by ptomaine.
- publishing company — a firm which publishes books
- pygmy hippopotamus — a small hippopotamus, Choeropsis liberiensis, of forests and swamps in western Africa.
- registered company — a company which has officially registered its business
- retrograde amnesia — a memory disorder characterized by an inability to remember events or experiences that occurred before a significant point in time.