17-letter words containing n, o, g, u, c
- optical computing — (hardware) (Or "Optical Signal Processing") Operating on data represented using electromagnetic radiation, e.g. visible light, instead of the electrical signals used in a conventional electronic digital computer. Electronic digital computers are built from transistors. These form components that store data and logic gates that perform the low-level Boolean operations such as AND, OR and NOT that are the basis of all digital computation. The optical equivalent requires material with a non-linear refractive index such that light beams can interact with each other to perform the same Boolean operations. Though the photons that carry optical signals offer some theoretical advantages over the electrons that carry electronic signals, there are many practical problems that would have to be overcome before optical computing could compete in terms of cost, power and speed.
- organ-pipe cactus — a treelike or columnar cactus, Lemaireocereus marginatus, of Mexico, having a central, erect spine surrounded by spreading spines in clusters of five to eight, and funnel-shaped, brownish-purple flowers.
- osculating circle — circle of curvature.
- overnight success — sth or sb suddenly popular
- performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
- phonological rule — an operation in generative phonology that substitutes one sound or class of sounds for another in a phonological derivation.
- ploughman's lunch — a light lunch consisting of bread and cheese, and sometimes pickled onions.
- positive eugenics — the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by persons presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)
- pre-configuration — the relative disposition or arrangement of the parts or elements of a thing.
- prescription drug — medication available only on doctor's instruction
- production string — A production string is the series of pipes through which the oil or gas is brought up from the reservoir.
- psycholinguistics — the study of the relationship between language and the cognitive or behavioral characteristics of those who use it.
- pyroligneous acid — a yellowish, acidic, water-soluble liquid, containing about 10 percent acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood: used for smoking meats.
- quantum computing — quantum computer
- recreation ground — an open space for public recreation, esp one in a town, with swings and slides, etc, for children
- recreational drug — drug taken for pleasure
- recruiting office — an office where staff are recruited, esp by the military
- returning officer — a public official appointed to conduct and preside at an election.
- sanctions-busting — the deliberate disregarding of sanctions that are in force against a state, organization, etc
- school playground — school's outdoor recreation area
- self-constituting — to compose; form: mortar constituted of lime and sand.
- shouting distance — hailing distance.
- smoothing circuit — a circuit used to remove ripple from the output of a direct current power supply
- social accounting — the analysis of the economy by sectors leading to the calculation and publication of economic statistics, such as gross national product and national income
- sound spectrogram — a graphic representation, produced by a sound spectrograph, of the frequency, intensity, duration, and variation with time of the resonance of a sound or series of sounds.
- stretching course — (in brickwork) a course of stretchers.
- subclavian groove — either of two grooves in the first rib, one for the main artery (subclavian artery) and the other for the main vein (subclavian vein) of the arm
- symbolic language — a specialized language dependent upon the use of symbols for communication and created for the purpose of achieving greater exactitude, as in symbolic logic or mathematics.
- telecommunicating — to transmit (data, sound, images, etc.) by telecommunications.
- the witching hour — the hour at which witches are supposed to appear, usually midnight
- thermocoagulation — the coagulation of tissue by heat-producing high-frequency electric currents, used therapeutically to remove small growths or to create specific lesions in the brain.
- top-security wing — a wing of a prison, mental hospital, etc that has a very high level of precautions against escape
- uncomprehendingly — to understand the nature or meaning of; grasp with the mind; perceive: He did not comprehend the significance of the ambassador's remark.
- unipalm group plc — (company) A company floated in March 1994.
- village community — an early form of community organization in which land belonged to the village, the arable land being allotted to the members or households of the community by more or less permanent arrangements and the waste or excess land remaining undivided.
- warehousing costs — the costs involved in storing goods in a warehouse
- working substance — a substance, usually a fluid, that undergoes changes in pressure, temperature, volume, or form as part of a process for accomplishing work.