0%

25-letter words containing n, e, t, m

  • massacre of the innocents — the slaughter of all the young male children of Bethlehem at Herod's command in an attempt to destroy Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18)
  • memorandum of association — a document giving details such as the company's name, the purpose of the company, and the address of its registered office that is legally required when incorporating a company in certain countries such as the UK
  • message passing interface — (communications, protocol)   A de facto standard for communication among the nodes running a parallel program on a distributed memory system. MPI is a library of routines that can be called from Fortran and C programs. MPI's advantage over older message passing libraries is that it is both portable (because MPI has been implemented for almost every distributed memory architecture) and fast (because each implementation is optimised for the hardware it runs on).
  • metal oxide semiconductor — a three-layer sandwich of a metal, an insulator (usually an oxide of the substrate), and a semiconductor substrate, used in integrated circuits. Abbreviation: MOS.
  • metal-free phthalocyanine — phthalocyanine (def 1).
  • methylrosaniline chloride — gentian violet.
  • metropolitan area network — (MAN) A data network intended to serve an area the size of a large city. Such networks are being implemented by innovative techniques, such as running optical fibre through subway tunnels. A popular example of a MAN is SMDS. See also Local Area Network, Wide Area Network.
  • mount kenya national park — a national park in Kenya, located in the regions of Mount Kenya that are above 3200 m (10 500 ft); now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the park covers 1420 sq km (548 sq miles)
  • mpc level 1 specification — (multimedia)   The original Multimedia Personal Computer specification. Minimum requirements are a 16 MHz 386SX with 2 megabytes of RAM, a 30 MB hard disk drive, and a CD-ROM drive with a sustained data transfer rate of 150 KB/s at no more than 40% of CPU bandwidth and reading at least 16 KB blocks. The maximum average seek time is 1 second and the Mean Time Between Failure 10000 hours. Capability Mode 1. The computer must have 8-bit digital sound and an 8-note synthesizer with MIDI playback. Sample rates of 22.05 and 11.025 kHz must be supported by no more than 10% of CPU bandwidth, preferably 44.1 kHz at no more than 15% of CPU bandwidth. The synthesizer must support multi-voice, multi-timbral generation of six simultaneous melody notes and two simultaneous percussive notes with internal mixing capabilities to combine input from three sources and present the output as a stereo, line-level audio signal at the back panel. The video display must have a resolution of at least 640 x 480 in 16 colours. MIDI, I/O, and joystick ports must be previded. Compare MPC Level 2 Specification.
  • mpc level 2 specification — (multimedia)   An improved version of the MPC Level 1 Specification for Multimedia Personal Computers. Minimum requirements are a 25 Mhz 486SX with 4 MB of RAM and a 160 MB hard disk drive. The CD-ROM drive must support a sustained data transfer rate of 300 KB/s using at most 60% of CPU bandwidth on 16 KB minimum block read size. Its average seek time must be 400 milliseconds maximum. Capability Mode 1, Mode 2 form 1, Mode 2 form 2, Multisession. It must be CD-ROM XA-ready. The computer must have 16-bit digital sound, an 8-note synthesizer, and MIDI playback. A sample rate of 44.1 kHz must be available on stereo channels with more than 15% of CPU bandwidth. A video display with a resolution of 640 x 480 in 65,536 colours, and MIDI, I/O, and joystick ports must be provided.
  • much/little to commend it — If you say that something has much to commend it, you approve of it. If you say that something has little to commend it, you disapprove of it.
  • multi-scene control board — preset board.
  • murders in the rue morgue — a short story (1841) by Edgar Allan Poe.
  • my favourite toy language — (jargon, language)   (MFTL) Describes a talk on a programming language design that is heavy on syntax (with lots of BNF), sometimes even talks about semantics (e.g. type systems), but rarely, if ever, has any content (see content-free). More broadly applied to talks - even when the topic is not a programming language --- in which the subject matter is gone into in unnecessary and meticulous detail at the sacrifice of any conceptual content. "Well, it was a typical MFTL talk". 2. A language about which the developers are passionate (often to the point of prosyletic zeal) but no one else cares about. Applied to the language by those outside the originating group. "He cornered me about type resolution in his MFTL." The first great goal in the mind of the designer of an MFTL is usually to write a compiler for it, then bootstrap the design away from contamination by lesser languages by writing a compiler for it in itself. Thus, the standard put-down question at an MFTL talk is "Has it been used for anything besides its own compiler?". On the other hand, a language that *cannot* be used to write its own compiler is beneath contempt. See break-even point, toolsmith.
  • national advanced systems — (company)   (NAS) A company, previously known as ITEL, that made IBM plug-compatible hardware and was bought by Hitachi.
  • national insurance number — a number allocated to UK citizens so that they can pay national insurance
  • national unity government — a government formed by a coalition of parties, esp in time of national emergency
  • network computing devices — (company)   (NCD) Producer of X terminals, PC-Xware and Z-Mail.
  • non-algorithmic procedure — heuristic
  • normal equivalent deviate — a value x such that the integral of a normal curve over all those values of the independent variable less than x is equal to the given probability.
  • not darken someone's door — not come to someone's home
  • object relational mapping — (programming, database)   (ORM) The software development activity that defines a correspondence between objects in a program and rows in a database table. Atomic object properties correspond to columns in the table, non-atomic data types and relations between objects are represented as foreign keys referring to other tables. An object persistence mechanism is responsible for maintaining the correspondence between objects and the database contents at run-time.
  • of someone's acquaintance — A person of your acquaintance is someone who you have met and know.
  • office of war information — OWI.
  • on the big/small etc side — If you say that something is on the small side, you are saying politely that you think it is slightly too small. If you say that someone is on the young side, you are saying politely that you think they are slightly too young.
  • on the horns of a dilemma — one of the bony, permanent, hollow paired growths, often curved and pointed, that project from the upper part of the head of certain ungulate mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats, or antelopes.
  • on the spur of the moment — a U -shaped device that slips over and straps to the heel of a boot and has a blunt, pointed, or roweled projection at the back for use by a mounted rider to urge a horse forward.
  • open systems interconnect — Open Systems Interconnection
  • over-the-counter medicine — An over-the-counter medicine is a medicine that may be sold without a doctor's prescription.
  • peripheral nervous system — the portion of the nervous system lying outside the brain and spinal cord.
  • permanent virtual circuit — (networking)   (PVC, or in ATM terminology, "Permanent Virtual Connection") A virtual circuit that is permanently established, saving the time associated with circuit establishment and tear-down.
  • personal-opinion telegram — a type of domestic telegram sent at the lowest rate with a minimum charge for 20 words or less to elected federal or state officials on a subject of national or regional interest.
  • personalized number plate — a car registration plate that has the owner's initials or name on it
  • phase contrast microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
  • phase-contrast microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
  • play into someone's hands — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
  • poacher turned gamekeeper — someone whose occupation or behaviour is the opposite of what it previously was, such as a burglar who now advises on home security
  • polycystic ovary syndrome — a hormonal disorder in which the Graafian follicles in the ovary fail to develop completely so that they are unable to ovulate, remaining as multiple cysts that distend the ovary. The results can include reduced fertility, obesity, and hirsutism
  • polymerase chain reaction — a technique in which a known DNA sequence is synthesized at high temperatures by means of a polymerase, producing millions of copies for statistical analysis: used in DNA fingerprinting, in detecting minute quantities of cancer cells, etc.
  • polynomial-time algorithm — (complexity)   A known algorithm (or Turing Machine) that is guaranteed to terminate within a number of steps which is a polynomial function of the size of the problem. See also computational complexity, exponential time, nondeterministic polynomial-time (NP), NP-complete.
  • primary domain controller — (networking)   (PDC) Each Windows NT domain has a Primary Domain Controller and zero or more Backup Domain Controllers. The PDC holds the SAM database and authenticates access requests from workstations and servers in the domain.
  • primary management domain — (messaging)   (PRMD) The component of an X.400 electronic mail address that gives the organisation name, usually abbreviated to p= in written addresses. See also ADMD.
  • profit and loss statement — A profit and loss statement is a statement that is compiled at the end of a financial year showing that year's revenue and expense items and indicating gross and net profit or loss.
  • property damage insurance — insurance against losses arising from damage to the property of others, as in a motor-vehicle accident.
  • put sb/sth/swh on the map — If you say that someone or something put a person, thing, or place on the map, you approve of the fact that they made it become well-known and important.
  • put/set sb's mind at rest — To put someone's mind at rest or set their mind at rest means to tell them something that stops them worrying.
  • qualified majority voting — a voting system, used by the EU Council of Ministers, enabling certain resolutions to be passed without unanimity
  • ram down someone's throat — the passage from the mouth to the stomach or to the lungs, including the pharynx, esophagus, larynx, and trachea.
  • rate monotonic scheduling — (algorithm)   A means of scheduling the time allocated to periodic hard-deadline real-time users of a resource. The users are assigned priorities such that a shorter fixed period between deadlines is associated with a higher priority. Rate monotonic scheduling provides a low-overhead, reasonably resource-efficient means of guaranteeing that all users will meet their deadlines provided that certain analytical equations are satisfied during the system design. It avoids the design complexity of time-line scheduling and the overhead of dynamic approaches such as earliest-deadline scheduling.
  • read someone the riot act — If someone in authority reads you the riot act, they tell you that you will be punished unless you start behaving properly.
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?