16-letter words containing m, u, s, i, c
- munching squares — A display hack dating back to the PDP-1 (ca. 1962, reportedly discovered by Jackson Wright), which employs a trivial computation (repeatedly plotting the graph Y = X XOR T for successive values of T - see HAKMEM items 146--148) to produce an impressive display of moving and growing squares that devour the screen. The initial value of T is treated as a parameter, which, when well-chosen, can produce amazing effects. Some of these, later (re)discovered on the LISP Machine, have been christened "munching triangles" (try AND for XOR and toggling points instead of plotting them), "munching w's", and "munching mazes". More generally, suppose a graphics program produces an impressive and ever-changing display of some basic form, foo, on a display terminal, and does it using a relatively simple program; then the program (or the resulting display) is likely to be referred to as "munching foos". [This is a good example of the use of the word foo as a metasyntactic variable.]
- musical director — A musical director is the same as a music director.
- musique concrete — tape-recorded musical and natural sounds, often electronically distorted, arranged in planned combinations, sequences, and rhythmic patterns to create an artistic work.
- mutual exclusion — (parallel, operating system) (Or "mutex", plural: "mutexes") A collection of techniques for sharing resources so that different uses do not conflict and cause unwanted interactions. One of the most commonly used techniques for mutual exclusion is the semaphore.
- mutual insurance — insurance in which those insured become members of a company who reciprocally engage, by payment of certain amounts into a common fund, to indemnify one another against loss.
- mutual recursion — recursion
- national costume — traditional dress
- non-consummation — the act of consummating; completion.
- nuclear emulsion — a photographic emulsion in the form of a thick block, used to record the tracks of elementary particles.
- osmotic pressure — the force that a dissolved substance exerts on a semipermeable membrane, through which it cannot penetrate, when separated by it from pure solvent.
- over-consumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.
- permaculturalist — a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.
- photoluminescent — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
- pick up stompies — to come late to a conversation and so misunderstand what is being discussed
- pneumonoconiosis — pneumoconiosis.
- pocono mountains — ridge of the Appalachians, in E Pa.: resort area: c. 2,000 ft (610 m) high
- political asylum — asylum provided by one nation to refugees, especially political refugees, from another nation.
- primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
- promiscuous mode — (networking) Where a node on a network accepts all packets, regardless of their destination address.
- psychoimmunology — the branch of medicine studying the effects of psychological phenomena on the immune system; the intersection of psychology and immunology.
- punctuationalism — punctuated equilibrium.
- quantum sufficit — as much as suffices; enough.
- quasi-commercial — of, relating to, or characteristic of commerce.
- quasi-compulsory — required; mandatory; obligatory: compulsory education.
- quasi-democratic — pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
- quasi-diplomatic — of, relating to, or engaged in diplomacy: diplomatic officials.
- queen's champion — a hereditary official at British coronations, representing the king (King's Champion) or the queen (Queen's Champion) who is being crowned, and having originally the function of challenging to mortal combat any person disputing the right of the new sovereign to rule.
- rambunctiousness — difficult to control or handle; wildly boisterous: a rambunctious child.
- rectus abdominis — a long flat muscle that extends along the whole length of both sides of the abdomen. It flexes the vertebral column, particularly the lumbar portion; it also tenses the anterior abdominal wall and assists in compressing the abdominal contents
- sauce americaine — a sauce prepared with tomatoes, garlic, wine, shallots, and herbs. See also à l’américaine.
- saxo grammaticus — c1150–1206? Danish historian and poet.
- schaumburg-lippe — a former state in NW Germany.
- secular humanism — any set of beliefs that promotes human values without specific allusion to religious doctrines.
- security manager — The security manager of a store is the person responsible for organizing all security in the store and to whom security guards report.
- security measure — a precaution taken against terrorism, espionage or other danger
- self-consumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- semantic tableau — a method of demonstrating the consistency or otherwise of a set of statements by constructing a diagrammatic representation of all the circumstances that satisfy the set of statements
- semiagricultural — partly engaged in or given over to agriculture
- session musician — a studio musician, esp one who works freelance
- situation comedy — a comedy drama, especially a television series made up of discrete episodes about the same group of characters, as members of a family.
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- sodium carbonate — Also called soda ash. an anhydrous, grayish-white, odorless, water-soluble powder, Na 2 CO 3 , usually obtained by the Solvay process and containing about 1 percent of impurities consisting of sulfates, chlorides, and bicarbonates of sodium: used in the manufacture of glass, ceramics, soaps, paper, petroleum products, sodium salts, as a cleanser, for bleaching, and in water treatment.
- sodium cyclamate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, NaC 6 NH 1 2 SO 3 , that has been used as a sweetening agent: banned by the FDA in 1970.
- somatic mutation — a mutation occurring in a somatic cell, resulting in a change in the morphology or some other aspect of one part of an organism (usually a plant). It may be maintained by vegetative propagation but not by sexual reproduction
- sonoluminescence — the emission of a flash of light accompanying the bursting of a bubble in a liquid when sound waves are passed through the liquid.
- sounding machine — any of various machines for taking and recording soundings.
- sour-milk cheese — cottage cheese made from sour milk.
- source materials — publications from which information is obtained
- specific impulse — a measure, usually in seconds, of the efficiency with which a rocket engine utilizes its propellants, equal to the number of pounds of thrust produced per pound of propellant burned per second.