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17-letter words containing o, c, t, m

  • fellow countryman — sb of same nationality
  • fermentation lock — a valve placed on the top of bottles of fermenting wine to allow bubbles to escape
  • ferroelectric ram — Ferroelectric Random Access Memory
  • fifth commandment — “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”: fifth of the Ten Commandments.
  • fine-toothed comb — a comb with fine, closely set teeth
  • first commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”: first of the Ten Commandments.
  • first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
  • foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
  • fractal dimension — (mathematics)   A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
  • function complete — (programming)   State of a software component or system such that each function described by the software's functional specification can be reached by at least one functional path, and attempts to operate as specified.
  • functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
  • gas chromatograph — a chromatograph used for the separation of volatile substances.
  • genetic algorithm — (GA) An evolutionary algorithm which generates each individual from some encoded form known as a "chromosome" or "genome". Chromosomes are combined or mutated to breed new individuals. "Crossover", the kind of recombination of chromosomes found in sexual reproduction in nature, is often also used in GAs. Here, an offspring's chromosome is created by joining segments choosen alternately from each of two parents' chromosomes which are of fixed length. GAs are useful for multidimensional optimisation problems in which the chromosome can encode the values for the different variables being optimised.
  • geomagnetic storm — magnetic storm.
  • glove compartment — a compartment in the dashboard of an automobile for storing small items.
  • good-time charlie — an affable, sociable, pleasure-loving man.
  • government action — intervention by a government, esp to influence financial markets
  • grandmother clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
  • gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
  • haematocrystallin — Alternative form of hematocrystallin.
  • haemorrhoidectomy — surgical removal of haemorrhoids
  • hamiltonian cycle — Hamiltonian problem
  • hanging committee — a group of people that selects and hangs works of art to exhibit
  • harmonic interval — an intervening period of time: an interval of 50 years.
  • hemiglossectomies — Plural form of hemiglossectomy.
  • hemoconcentration — an increase in the concentration of cellular elements in the blood, resulting from loss of plasma.
  • heterochlamydeous — (of a plant) having a perianth consisting of distinct sepals and petals
  • heterochromosomes — Plural form of heterochromosome.
  • histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
  • historical method — the process of establishing general facts and principles through attention to chronology and to the evolution or historical course of what is being studied.
  • ho chi minh trail — a network of jungle paths winding from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam, used as a military route by North Vietnam to supply the Vietcong during the Vietnam War.
  • holistic medicine — incorporating the concept of holism, or the idea that the whole is more than merely the sum of its parts, in theory or practice: holistic psychology.
  • homeland security — national defence
  • homeopathic magic — magic that attempts to control the universe through the mimicking of a desired event, as by stabbing an image of an enemy in an effort to destroy him or her or by performing a ritual dance imitative of the growth of food in an effort to secure an abundant supply; a branch of sympathetic magic based on the belief that similar actions produce similar results.
  • homogentisic acid — an intermediate compound in the metabolism of tyrosine and of phenylalanine, found in excess in the blood and urine of persons affected with alkaptonuria.
  • homolytic fission — the dissociation of a molecule into two neutral fragments
  • hypocholesteremia — an abnormally low amount of cholesterol in the blood.
  • ideogrammatically — In terms of, or by means of, ideograms.
  • image recognition — (graphics, artificial intelligence)   The identification of objects in an image. This process would probably start with image processing techniques such as noise removal, followed by (low-level) feature extraction to locate lines, regions and possibly areas with certain textures. The clever bit is to interpret collections of these shapes as single objects, e.g. cars on a road, boxes on a conveyor belt or cancerous cells on a microscope slide. One reason this is an AI problem is that an object can appear very different when viewed from different angles or under different lighting. Another problem is deciding what features belong to what object and which are background or shadows etc. The human visual system performs these tasks mostly unconsciously but a computer requires skillful programming and lots of processing power to approach human performance.
  • immunodiagnostics — the determination of immunologic characteristics of individuals, cells, and other biologic entities.
  • immunofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or using immunofluorescence.
  • immunotherapeutic — (immunology, medicine) Of a pharmaceutical, acting on the immune system to treat disease; used in immunotherapy.
  • impersonification — (archaic) the act of impersonating; impersonation.
  • implicit function — See at implicit (def 4).
  • improper fraction — a fraction having the numerator greater than the denominator.
  • in mint condition — looking as good as new
  • in the same canoe — of the same tribe
  • income inequality — a situation in which there is great disparity in income within a society
  • incommunicability — incapable of being communicated, imparted, shared, etc.
  • incompatibilities — not compatible; unable to exist together in harmony: She asked for a divorce because they were utterly incompatible.
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