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27-letter words containing o, n, e, s, f

  • master of the queen's music — (in Britain when the sovereign is female) a court post dating from the reign of Charles I. It is an honorary title and normally held by an established English composer
  • measure of central tendency — a statistic that in some way specifies the central tendency of a sample of measurements, as the mean, median, or mode.
  • memorandum of understanding — a document that describes the general principles of an agreement between parties, but does not amount to a substantive contract
  • national insurance benefits — benefits provided as a result of payments to national insurance, such a state pension, sick pay, etc
  • national science foundation — an independent agency of the executive branch, created in 1950, that promotes and supports research and education in the sciences. Abbreviation: NSF.
  • network information service — (networking, protocol)   (NIS) Sun Microsystems' Yellow Pages (yp) client-server protocol for distributing system configuration data such as user and host names between computers on a network. Sun licenses the technology to virtually all other Unix vendors. The name "Yellow Pages" is a registered trademark in the United Kingdom of British Telecommunications plc for their (paper) commercial telephone directory. Sun changed the name of their system to NIS, though all the commands and functions still start with "yp", e.g. ypcat, ypmatch, ypwhich.
  • newton's law of gravitation — the principle that two particles attract each other with forces directly proportional to the product of their masses divided by the square of the distance between them
  • not like the look of sth/sb — If you don't like the look of something or someone, you feel that they may be dangerous or cause problems.
  • office workstations limited — (company)   (OWL) A UK software company, now a subsidiary of Matsushita (Panasonic, etc.). They previously supported the Guide hypertext system but that support is now provided by US company InfoAccess. E-mail: <[email protected]>
  • on the coat-tails of sb/sth — If you do something on the coat-tails of someone else, you are able to do it because of the other person's success, and not because of your own efforts.
  • on the scene/from the scene — When a person or thing appears on the scene, they come into being or become involved in something. When they disappear from the scene, they are no longer there or are no longer involved.
  • one's (own) flesh and blood — one's close relatives
  • pelvic inflammatory disease — an inflammation of the female pelvic organs, most commonly the fallopian tubes, usually as a result of bacterial infection. Abbreviation: PID.
  • perfect programmer syndrome — Arrogance; the egotistical conviction that one is above normal human error. Most frequently found among programmers of some native ability but relatively little experience (especially new graduates; their perceptions may be distorted by a history of excellent performance at solving toy problems). "Of course my program is correct, there is no need to test it." "Yes, I can see there may be a problem here, but *I'll* never type "rm -r /" while in root mode."
  • post-viral fatigue syndrome — Post-viral fatigue syndrome is a long-lasting illness that is thought to be caused by a virus. Its symptoms include feeling tired all the time and muscle pain.
  • precession of the equinoxes — the earlier occurrence of the equinoxes in each successive sidereal year because of the slow retrograde motion of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic, caused by the precession of the earth's axis of rotation; a complete precession of the equinoxes requires about 25,800 years.
  • presumption of survivorship — a presumption that one of two or more related persons was the last to die in a common disaster, made so that the estates may be settled and the final heirs determined.
  • put one's best foot forward — (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.
  • republic of the philippines — a republic in SE Asia, occupying an archipelago of about 7100 islands (including Luzon, Mindanao, Samar, and Negros): became a Spanish colony in 1571 but ceded to the US in 1898 after the Spanish-American War; gained independence in 1946. The islands are generally mountainous and volcanic. Official languages: Filipino, based on Tagalog, and English. Religion: Roman Catholic majority. Currency: peso. Capital: Manila. Pop: 105 720 644 (2013 est). Area: 300 076 sq km (115 860 sq miles)
  • scalable coherent interface — (hardware, protocol)   (SCI) The ANSI/IEEE 1596-1992 standard that defines a point-to-point interface and a set of packet protocols. The SCI protocols use packets with a 16-byte header and 16, 64, or 256 data bytes. Each packet is protected by a 16-bit CRC code. The standard defines 1 Gbit/second serial fiber-optic links and 1 Gbyte/second parallel copper links. SCI has two unidirectional links that operate concurrently. The SCI protocols support shared memory by encapsulating bus requests and responses into SCI request and response packets. Packet-based handshake protocols guarantee reliable data delivery. A set of cache coherence protocols are defined to maintain cache coherence in a shared memory system. SCI uses 64-bit addressing and the most significant 16 bits are used for addressing up to 64K nodes.
  • scientific content analysis — the close analysis of the content of statements made to the police by suspects in an attempt to identify innocence or guilt
  • seasonal affective disorder — recurrent winter depression characterized by oversleeping, overeating, and irritability, and relieved by the arrival of spring or by light therapy. Abbreviation: SAD.
  • see the error of one's ways — If someone sees the error of their ways, they realize or admit that they have made a mistake or behaved badly.
  • soft-coated wheaten terrier — one of an Irish breed of medium-sized sporting terriers having an abundant, soft, medium-length coat, any shade of wheat in color, with its head and face profusely covered with coat.
  • someone's side of the story — If someone tells you their side of the story, they tell you why they behaved in a particular way and why they think they were right, when other people think that person behaved wrongly.
  • sonnets from the portuguese — a sonnet sequence (1850) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
  • soviet of the nationalities — (in the former Soviet Union) part of the bicameral legislature of the Supreme Soviet, together with the Soviet of the Union
  • stanford research institute — Former name of SRI International.
  • systems analysis definition — (programming)   (SAD) The analysis of the role of a proposed system and the identification of the requirements that it should meet. SAD is the starting point for system design. The term is most commonly used in the context of commercial programming, where software developers are often classed as either systems analysts or programmers. The systems analysts are responsible for identifying requirements (i.e. systems analysis) and producing a design. The programmers are then responsible for implementing it.
  • take advantage of something — If you take advantage of something, you make good use of it while you can.
  • take someone out of himself — to make someone forget his anxieties, problems, etc
  • take someone's fingerprints — If the police take someone's fingerprints, they make that person press their fingers onto a pad covered with ink, and then onto paper, so that they know what that person's fingerprints look like.
  • take something upon oneself — to assume the right to do or responsibility for (something)
  • the forest of fontainebleau — a forest in N France, where the town of Fontainebleau is located
  • the long and (the) short of — the whole story of in a few words; gist or point of
  • the odds are in sb's favour — If you say that the odds are in someone's favour, you mean that they are likely to succeed in what they are doing.
  • the shape of things to come — If you say that something is the shape of things to come, you mean that it is the start of a new trend or development, and in future things will be like this.
  • third law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
  • to be suspended on full pay — if someone is suspended on full pay they are temporarily barred from work (due to misconduct, etc) while receiving full salary
  • to cast pearls before swine — If you say that someone is casting pearls before swine, you mean that they are wasting their time by offering something that is helpful or valuable to someone who does not appreciate or understand it.
  • to give someone a free hand — If someone gives you a free hand, they give you the freedom to use your own judgment and to do exactly as you wish.
  • to let someone off the hook — If someone gets off the hook or is let off the hook, they manage to get out of the awkward or unpleasant situation that they are in.
  • to the accompaniment of sth — If one thing happens to the accompaniment of another, they happen at the same time.
  • weapons of mass destruction — nuclear, biological and chemical arms
  • wernicke-korsakoff syndrome — a disorder of the central nervous system characterized by abnormal eye movements, incoordination, confusion, and impaired memory and learning functions, caused by thiamine deficiency, and observed in chronic alcoholism.
  • wipe the floor with someone — If you wipe the floor with someone, you defeat them completely in a competition or discussion.
  • working families tax credit — (in Britain) a means-tested allowance paid to single parents or families who have at least one dependent child, who work at least 16 hours per week, and whose earnings are low. It replaced family credit
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