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24-letter words containing o, a, t, e

  • effort adjustment factor — (programming)   (EAF) A term used in COCOMO to calculate a cost driver attribute's effect on a project. It is the product of the effort multipliers corresponding to each of the cost drivers for the project.
  • electrocardiographically — By means of electrocardiography.
  • electromagnetic spectrum — the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves (wavelength 105 metres) to the shortest gamma radiation (wavelength 10–13 metre)
  • electronic configuration — the arrangement of electrons in the orbitals of an atom or molecule
  • electronic point of sale — a computerized system for recording sales in retail shops, using a laser scanner at the cash till to read bar codes on the packages of the items sold
  • electronic whiteboarding — audiographic teleconferencing
  • emotional roller coaster — a situation or experience that alternates between making you feel excited, exhilarated, or happy and making you feel sad, disappointed, or desperate
  • endotracheal anaesthesia — a method of administering gaseous anaesthetics to animals through a tube inserted into the trachea
  • environmental assessment — a formal assessment of the impact a project will have on the environment
  • environmental management — controlled and planned management of the environment
  • environmentally friendly — that has no or the least possible impact on the environment
  • equine infectious anemia — swamp fever (def 2).
  • equivalence partitioning — equivalence class partitioning
  • erythroblastosis fetalis — an anaemic blood disease of a fetus or newborn child, characterized by erythroblasts in the circulating blood: caused by a blood incompatibility between mother and fetus
  • ethyl-para-aminobenzoate — benzocaine
  • european investment bank — a financial institution of the European Union which is based in Luxembourg and which provides loans, especially to the less economically developed countries of the EU
  • european monetary system — the system used in the European Union for stabilizing exchange rates between the currencies of member states and financing the balance-of-payments support mechanism. The original Exchange Rate Mechanism was formed in 1979 but superseded in 1999 when the euro was adopted as official currency of 11 EU member states. A new exchange rate mechanism (ERM II) based on the euro is used to regulate the currencies of participating states that have not adopted the euro
  • evolutionary computation — Computer-based problem solving systems that use computational models of evolutionary processes as the key elements in design and implementation. A number of evolutionary computational models have been proposed, including evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithms, the evolution strategy, evolutionary programming, and artificial life.
  • evolutionary programming — (EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960. An initially random population of individuals (trial solutions) is created. Mutations are then applied to each individual to create new individuals. Mutations vary in the severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual. The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to select which should survive to form the new population. EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and recombination by genetic crossover. EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although the two approaches developed independently. In EP, selection is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the population.
  • exponential distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution used esp when making statements about the length of life of certain materials or waiting times between randomly occurring events. Its density function is p(x) = λe–λx for positive λ and nonnegative x, and it is a special case of the gamma distribution
  • extra-sensory perception — Extra-sensory perception means knowing without using your ordinary senses such as sight and hearing. Some people believe this is possible. The abbreviation ESP is also used.
  • false lily of the valley — a low-growing woodland plant, Maianthemum canadense, of the lily family, native to northeastern North America, having a cluster of small white flowers.
  • family income supplement — a benefit formerly paid to low-income families
  • federal trade commission — FTC.
  • fight or flight reaction — the response of the sympathetic nervous system to a stressful event, preparing the body to fight or flee, associated with the adrenal secretion of epinephrine and characterized by increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the brain and muscles, raised sugar levels, sweaty palms and soles, dilated pupils, and erect hairs.
  • fight-or-flight reaction — the response of the sympathetic nervous system to a stressful event, preparing the body to fight or flee, associated with the adrenal secretion of epinephrine and characterized by increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the brain and muscles, raised sugar levels, sweaty palms and soles, dilated pupils, and erect hairs.
  • fish protein concentrate — an odorless and tasteless high-protein food additive made from ground fish and suitable for human consumption. Abbreviation: FPC.
  • floating decimal (point) — a decimal (point) whose position is not fixed
  • floating point underflow — underflow
  • floating-point specratio — SPECfp92
  • flue gas desulfurization — Flue gas desulfurization is the removal of pollutants containing sulfur from flue gas.
  • footloose and fancy-free — If you describe someone as footloose and fancy-free, you mean that they are not married or in a similar relationship, and you therefore consider them to have very few responsibilities or commitments.
  • forward error correction — (algorithm)   (FEC) A class of methods for controling errors in a one-way communication system. FEC sends extra information along with the data, which can be used by the receiver to check and correct the data. A CPU writing data to RAM is a kind of one-way communication - see error correcting memory and error checking and correction.
  • fray at/around the edges — If you say that something is fraying at the edges or is fraying around the edges, you mean that it has an uncertain or unsteady quality, for example because it is gradually being spoiled or destroyed.
  • free and accepted masons — a member of a widely distributed secret order (Free and Accepted Masons) having for its object mutual assistance and the promotion of brotherly love among its members.
  • free software foundation — (body)   (FSF) An organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. The Foundation's main work is supporting the GNU project, started by Richard Stallman (RMS), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared. The GNU project has developed the GNU Emacs editor and a C compiler, gcc, replacements for many Unix utilities and many other tools. A complete Unix-like operating system (HURD) is in the works (April 1994). Software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which also provides a good summary of the Foundation's goals and principles. The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from distributing its software, although it is a charity rather than a company. Although the software is freely available (e.g. by FTP - see below) users are encouraged to support the work of the FSF by paying for their distribution service or by making donations. One of the slogans of the FSF is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" This remains controversial because authors want to own, assign and sell the results of their labour. However, many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur. See copyleft, General Public Virus, GNU archive site. Unofficial WWW pages: PDX, DeLorie. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Address: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Telephone: +1 (617) 876 3296.
  • french equatorial africa — a former federation of French territories in central Africa, including Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo (now People's Republic of the Congo), and Ubangi-Shari (now Central African Republic): each became independent in 1960.
  • frequent shopper program — A frequent shopper program is one that rewards customers for purchases made on multiple visits, and builds up points entitling them to reduced prices and free items.
  • frequent-flyer programme — a plan or system under which frequent flyers earn rewards for being regular customers
  • functional specification — (programming, project)   A description of what a system (e.g. a piece of software) does or should do (but not how it should do it). The functional specification is one of the inputs to the design process. See IEEE/ANSI Std. 610.12-1990.
  • general of the air force — the highest ranking officer in the U.S. Air Force.
  • general protection fault — General Protection Failure
  • geographical determinism — the theory that human activity is determined by geographical conditions
  • get hot under the collar — If someone gets hot under the collar about something, they get very annoyed, angry, or excited about it.
  • get one's arse into gear — to start to do something seriously and quickly
  • give as good as one gets — If someone gives as good as they get, they fight or argue as well as the person they are fighting or arguing with.
  • give hostages to fortune — to place oneself in a position in which misfortune may strike through the loss of what one values most
  • global network navigator — (GNN) A collection of free services provided by O'Reilly & Associates. The Whole Internet Catalog describes the most useful Net resources and services with live links to those resources. The GNN Business Pages list companies on the Internet. The Internet Help Desk provides help in starting Internetq exploration. NetNews is a weekly publication that reports on the news of the Internet, with weekly articles on Internet trends and special events, sports, weather, and comics. There are also pages aobut travel and personal finance. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Telephone: (800) 998 9938 (USA), +1 (707) 829 0515 (outside USA).
  • glycogen storage disease — any of several inherited disorders of glycogen metabolism that result in excess accumulation of glycogen in various organs of the body.
  • go (a person) one better — to outdo or surpass (a person)
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