16-letter words containing n, o, s, p
- knapsack problem — the problem of determining which numbers from a given collection of numbers have been added together to yield a specific sum: used in cryptography to encipher (and sometimes decipher) messages.
- know one's place — a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent.
- lapsang souchong — a large-leafed variety of China tea with a slightly smoky flavour
- law of exponents — the theorem stating the elementary properties of exponents, as the property that the product of the same bases, each raised to an exponent, is equal to the base raised to the sum of the exponents: xa ⋅ xb = xa + b .
- law of parsimony — a principle according to which an explanation of a thing or event is made with the fewest possible assumptions.
- lay oneself open — to make oneself vulnerable (to criticism, attack, etc)
- league champions — the team that has come top of the league
- leaps and bounds — You can use in leaps and bounds or by leaps and bounds to emphasize that someone or something is improving or increasing quickly and greatly.
- learning process — a process of learning
- legal separation — judicial separation.
- leptosporangiate — (of ferns) having each sporangium developing from a single cell, rather than from a group, and normally with specialized explosive spore dispersal
- lick one's chops — Usually, chops. the jaw.
- lighthouse point — a city in NW Florida.
- line composition — type produced on a linecaster
- line of position — a line connecting all the possible positions of a ship or aircraft, as determined by a single observation. Abbreviation: LOP.
- linux user group — (body, operating system) (LUG) Any organisation of Linux users in a local area, university, etc., that offers mutual technical support, companionship with people of similar interests and promotes the use of Linux among computer users generally. LUGs often hold Install Fests for the general public, in which experienced Linux users explain and supervise the installation of Linux on new users' systems.
- lz77 compression — The first algorithm to use the Lempel-Ziv substitutional compression schemes, proposed in 1977. LZ77 compression keeps track of the last n bytes of data seen, and when a phrase is encountered that has already been seen, it outputs a pair of values corresponding to the position of the phrase in the previously-seen buffer of data, and the length of the phrase. In effect the compressor moves a fixed-size "window" over the data (generally referred to as a "sliding window"), with the position part of the (position, length) pair referring to the position of the phrase within the window. The most commonly used algorithms are derived from the LZSS scheme described by James Storer and Thomas Szymanski in 1982. In this the compressor maintains a window of size N bytes and a "lookahead buffer", the contents of which it tries to find a match for in the window: while (lookAheadBuffer not empty) { get a pointer (position, match) to the longest match in the window for the lookahead buffer; if (length > MINIMUM_MATCH_LENGTH) { output a (position, length) pair; shift the window length characters along; } else { output the first character in the lookahead buffer; shift the window 1 character along; } } Decompression is simple and fast: whenever a (POSITION, LENGTH) pair is encountered, go to that POSITION in the window and copy LENGTH bytes to the output. Sliding-window-based schemes can be simplified by numbering the input text characters mod N, in effect creating a circular buffer. The sliding window approach automatically creates the LRU effect which must be done explicitly in LZ78 schemes. Variants of this method apply additional compression to the output of the LZSS compressor, which include a simple variable-length code (LZB), dynamic Huffman coding (LZH), and Shannon-Fano coding (ZIP 1.x), all of which result in a certain degree of improvement over the basic scheme, especially when the data are rather random and the LZSS compressor has little effect. An algorithm was developed which combines the ideas behind LZ77 and LZ78 to produce a hybrid called LZFG. LZFG uses the standard sliding window, but stores the data in a modified trie data structure and produces as output the position of the text in the trie. Since LZFG only inserts complete *phrases* into the dictionary, it should run faster than other LZ77-based compressors. All popular archivers (arj, lha, zip, zoo) are variations on LZ77.
- lz78 compression — A substitutional compression scheme which works by entering phrases into a dictionary and then, when a reoccurrence of that particular phrase is found, outputting the dictionary index instead of the phrase. Several algorithms are based on this principle, differing mainly in the manner in which they manage the dictionary. The most well-known Lempel-Ziv scheme is Terry Welch's Lempel-Ziv Welch variant of LZ78.
- macpherson strut — an automobile suspension-system component that consists of a strut combined with a spring and shock absorber and connects the wheel to the frame of the vehicle.
- magmatic stoping — the process by which country rock is broken up and engulfed by the upward movement of magma
- magnetic compass — a compass having a magnetized needle generally in line with the magnetic poles of the earth.
- magnetoreceptors — Plural form of magnetoreceptor.
- mangrove snapper — gray snapper.
- manic depression — bipolar disorder.
- marsupialization — (surgery) The surgical technique of cutting a slit into a cyst and suturing its edges to form a continuous surface from the exterior to the interior of the cyst, allowing it to drain freely.
- mechanoreceptors — Plural form of mechanoreceptor.
- megacorporations — Plural form of megacorporation.
- megasporogenesis — the formation and development of megaspores.
- menstrual period — the bleeding from the womb that occurs approximately monthly in nonpregnant women of reproductive age
- metamorphosising — Present participle of metamorphosise.
- microencapsulate — (transitive) To embed by means of microencapsulation.
- microenterprises — Plural form of microenterprise.
- mineral deposits — amounts of minerals that occur naturally in particular areas
- misanthropically — In a misanthropic manner.
- misapprehensions — Plural form of misapprehension.
- misappropriating — Present participle of misappropriate.
- misappropriation — to put to a wrong use.
- miscomprehension — the act or process of comprehending.
- mispronunciation — (uncountable) The act of mispronouncing.
- misspecification — An incorrect specification.
- mistranscription — the act or process of transcribing.
- monopolistically — In a monopolistic manner.
- monterey cypress — a tree, Cupressus macrocarpa, of southern California, being pyramid-shaped in youth, but spreading in age: occurs naturally in only two groves on the coast of Monterey County, California, but is cultivated extensively.
- montes apenninus — a mountain range in the first and second quadrants of the visible face of the moon, forming the SE border of Mare Imbrium: about 600 miles (970 km) long.
- morris plan bank — a private banking organization, formerly common in the U.S., designed primarily to grant small loans to industrial workers.
- moulding process — the process of shaping or compacting a material into a frame or mould
- multiple fission — fission into more than two new organisms.
- myelosuppression — (medicine) A reduction of bone marrow activity that leads to a lower concentration of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.
- nasal applicator — A nasal applicator is a device for administering medication through the nose.
- neapolitan sixth — (in musical harmony) a chord composed of the subdominant of the key, plus a minor third and a minor sixth. Harmonically it is equivalent to the first inversion of a major chord built upon the flattened supertonic