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23-letter words containing m, o, t, r

  • extrinsic semiconductor — a semiconductor into which a doping agent has been introduced, giving it different electrical properties than the intrinsic semiconductor
  • fear-driven development — (jargon, humour)   When project management adds more pressure (fires someone or something). A play on test-driven development.
  • ferric ammonium oxalate — a green, crystalline, water-soluble, synthetically produced powder, (NH 4) 3 Fe(C 2 O 4) 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the manufacture of blueprint paper.
  • fifth marquis lansdowne — Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of.
  • finite impulse response — (electronics, DSP)   (FIR) A type of digital signal filter, in which every sample of output is the weighted sum of past and current samples of input, using only some finite number of past samples.
  • first come first served — You say 'first come first served' to indicate that a group of people or things will be dealt with or given something in the order in which they arrive.
  • flow-matic or flowmatic — (Originally B-0) Possibly the first English-like DP language. Developed at Remington Rand in 1958 for the UNIVAC I.
  • for whom the bell tolls — a novel (1940) by Ernest Hemingway.
  • foreign exchange market — the market for the international buying, selling and trading of currencies
  • forward exchange market — a market for contracts that specify the exchange rate of a currency to be delivered at a later date
  • four colour map theorem — (mathematics, application)   (Or "four colour theorem") The theorem stating that if the plane is divided into connected regions which are to be coloured so that no two adjacent regions have the same colour (as when colouring countries on a map of the world), it is never necessary to use more than four colours. The proof, due to Appel and Haken, attained notoriety by using a computer to check tens of thousands of cases and is thus not humanly checkable, even in principle. Some thought that this brought the philosophical status of the proof into doubt. There are now rumours of a simpler proof, not requiring the use of a computer. See also chromatic number
  • free-enterprise economy — an economy characterized by free enterprise
  • frictional unemployment — those people who are in the process of moving from one job to another and who therefore appear in the unemployment statistics collected at any given time
  • frozen food compartment — a compartment of a refrigerator or fridge-freezer for the storage of frozen food
  • functional requirements — (specification)   What a system should be able to do, the functions it should perform. This term is used at both the user requirements analysis and software requirements specifications phases in the software life-cycle. An example of a non-functional requirement is an initialisation sequence incorporated into the software that is specific to a given customer.
  • fundamental interaction — any of the four basic interactions that occur in nature: the gravitational, electromagnetic, strong, and weak interactions
  • galilean transformation — the equations in classical mechanics that relate position and time in two frames of reference that are moving uniformly with respect to each other. Compare inertial system, relativity (def 2).
  • gamma-aminobutyric acid — GABA.
  • ge information services — (networking, company)   One of the leading on-line services, started on 1st October 1985, providing subscribers with hundreds of special interest areas, computer hardware and software support, award-winning multi-player games, the most software files in the industry (over 200 000), worldwide news, sports updates, business news, investment strategies, and Internet electronic mail and fax (GE Mail). Interactive conversations (Chat Lines) and bulletin boards (Round Tables) with associated software archives are also provided. GEnie databases (through the ARTIST gateway) allow users to search the full text of thousands of publications, including Dun & Bradstreet Company Profiles; a GEnie NewsStand with more than 900 newspapers, magazines, and newsletters; a Reference Center with information ranging from Agriculture to World History; the latest in medical information from MEDLINE; and patent and trademark registrations. Telephone: +1 (800) 638 9636. TDD: +1 (800) 238 9172. E-mail: <[email protected]>.
  • geiger-muller threshold — the minimum voltage applied to an ionization chamber, as in a Geiger counter, at which the charge collected per count is independent of the nature of the ionizing event producing the count.
  • german southwest africa — a former name of Namibia.
  • give (or get) a tumble — to give (or get) some favorable or affectionate notice, attention, etc.
  • give someone the finger — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
  • give something a rub-up — to smooth or polish something
  • grant-maintained school — a school funded directly by central government
  • greatest common divisor — the largest number that is a common divisor of a given set of numbers. Abbreviation: G.C.D.
  • grist to someone's mill — anything that someone can use profitably
  • growing-equity mortgage — a type of mortgage under which the interest rate is fixed but monthly payments increase annually to include more of the principal, so that the mortgage can be paid off in about half the conventional term.
  • guest relations manager — A guest relations manager at a hotel is responsible for the relationships that the hotel has with its guests and the way in which it treats them.
  • hate-driven development — (programming, humour)   A play on test-driven development for use when a piece of code is not necessarily broken but you hate the way it is written so much that you feel compelled to rewrite it.
  • hermit of st. augustine — a member of an order of mendicant friars, founded in 1256.
  • higher national diploma — a work-related higher education qualification, taking two years full-time.
  • hold on like grim death — to hold very firmly or resolutely
  • homonymous construction — a construction that consists of the same morphemes in the same order as those of another construction, as Flying planes can be dangerous, in which planes in one construction is the object of flying, and in another the subject of can; a terminal string of formatives having two or more structural descriptions.
  • hunchback of notre dame — French Notre Dame de Paris. a novel (1831) by Victor Hugo.
  • hypergeometric equation — a differential equation of the form, (x 2 − x) d 2 y / d 2 x + [(a+b +1) x−c ] dy/dx + abx =0, where a, b, and c are arbitrary constants.
  • hypergeometric function — a function that is a solution to a hypergeometric equation.
  • hypobetalipoproteinemia — (pathology) A low level of betalipoprotein (low-density lipoprotein) in the bloodstream.
  • hypothetical imperative — (esp in the moral philosophy of Kant) any conditional rule of action, concerned with means and ends rather than with duty for its own sake
  • if worst comes to worst — bad or ill in the highest, greatest, or most extreme degree: the worst person.
  • immigration authorities — the authorities or official government bodies who regulate laws regarding immigration and immigrants
  • immunological tolerance — the absence of antibody production in response to the presence of antigens, usually as a result of previous exposure to the antigens
  • in the arms of morpheus — sleeping
  • indirect discrimination — discrimination by means of rules, regulations or procedures that may appear to be neutral, but which actually discriminate against certain groups of people.
  • infinite monkey theorem — (humour)   "If you put an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters, eventually one will bash out the script for Hamlet." (One may also hypothesise a small number of monkeys and a very long period of time.) This theorem asserts nothing about the intelligence of the one random monkey that eventually comes up with the script (and note that the mob will also type out all the possible *incorrect* versions of Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a brute force method; the implication is that, with enough resources thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a one-banana problem. This theorem was first popularised by the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington. It became part of the idiom through the classic short story "Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney, and many younger hackers know it through a reference in Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". See also: RFC 2795.
  • informatics corporation — (company)   Renamed to Sterling Software Corp.
  • interchange file format — (file format)   (IFF, full name "EA IFF 1985") A generic file format published by Electronic Arts as an open standard. IFF is chunk-based and hierarchical so files can include other files. It is easily extensible and an all round Good Idea. An IFF file starts with one of the following "group IDs": 'FORM', 'LIST' or 'CAT '. This is followed by an unsigned 32-bit number of bytes in the remainder of the file. Then comes an ID that indicates which type of IFF file this is. The main image type is ILBM, audio is either AIFF or 8SVX, animations are ANIM etc. An IFF file will probably have a filename extension related to this file type stored in the file. The rest of the file is divided into chunks each of which also has a four-byte header and byte count.
  • interference microscope — a microscope that utilizes light interference phenomena to create two superimposed images of an object, making possible the observation of transparent objects without using the staining technique.
  • intermediate technology — technology which combines sophisticated ideas with cheap and readily available materials, esp for use in developing countries
  • internet monthly report — (IMR) Publication designed to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating organisations.
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