23-letter words containing o, n, i, u
- constitutional monarchy — a monarchy governed according to a constitution that limits and defines the powers of the sovereign
- constructive cost model — (programming) (COCOMO) A method for estimating the cost of a software package, proposed by Dr Barry Boehm. The Basic COCOMO Model estimates the effort required to develop software in three modes of development (Organic Mode, Semidetached Mode, or Embedded Mode) using only DSIs as an input. The Basic model is good for quick estimates. The Intermediate Model extends the Basic Model with an Effort Adjustment Factor (EAF) and different coefficients for the effort equation. The user supplies settings for cost drivers that determine the effort and duration of the software projects. It also allows DSI values and cost drivers to be chosen for individual components instead of for the system as a whole. The Detailed COCOMO Model uses effort multipliers for each phase of the project and provides a three-level product hierarchy and has some other capabilities such as a procedure for adjusting the phase distribution of the development schedule.
- consultant psychiatrist — a psychiatrist who has attained the rank of consultant
- contributory negligence — failure by an injured person to have taken proper precautions to prevent an accident
- corporate restructuring — a change in the business strategy of an organization resulting in diversification, closing parts of the business, etc, to increase its long-term profitability
- correlative conjunction — either member of a matched pair of words, of which the second is a coordinating conjunction, as either … or, neither … nor, both … and, or not only … but.
- corridor of uncertainty — an area of a wicket just outside a batsman's off stump, so located that the batsman will have difficulty in deciding whether or not to play a ball bowled into it
- court of first instance — a court in which legal proceedings are begun or first heard
- creative writing course — a course in which people are taught creative writing skills
- criminal records bureau — (in England and Wales) a service offering employers and voluntary organizations access to police, health, and education records
- critique of pure reason — a philosophical work (1781) by Immanuel Kant.
- current-cost accounting — a method of accounting that values assets at their current replacement cost rather than their original cost
- dark-field illumination — illumination of the field of a microscope from the side so that the specimen is viewed against a dark background
- data acquisition system — A data acquisition system is a system that acquires data, generally by digitizing analog channels and storing the data in digital form.
- decision support system — a system in which one or more computers and computer programs assist in decision-making by providing information
- department of education — the department of the U.S. federal government that administers federal programs dealing with education: created in 1979, largely by transfer from part of the former Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Abbreviation: ED.
- deterministic automaton — (theory) A finite-state automaton in which the overall course of the computation is completely determined by the program, the starting state, and the initial inputs. The class of problems solvable by such automata is the class P (see polynomial-time algorithm).
- dichlorodifluoromethane — a colourless nonflammable gas easily liquefied by pressure: used as a propellant in aerosols and fire extinguishers and as a refrigerant. Formula: CCl2F2
- dictionary of computing — Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
- dionysius of alexandria — ("the Great") a.d. c190–265, patriarch of Alexandria 247?–265?.
- discontinuous variation — variation in phenotypic traits in which types are grouped into discrete categories with few or no intermediate phenotypes. Compare continuous variation.
- dishonourable discharge — dismissal from the US armed forces by a court martial as a result of serious misconduct
- disjunctive normal form — (DNF) A logical formula consisting of a disjunction of conjunctions where no conjunction contains a disjunction. E.g. the DNF of (A or B) and C is (A and C) or (B and C).
- dressed up to the nines — If you say that someone is dressed up to the nines or dressed to the nines, you mean that they are wearing very smart or elegant clothes.
- drive sb round the bend — If you say that someone or something drives you round the bend, you mean that you dislike them and they annoy or upset you very much.
- dual sensory impairment — the condition of being affected by sight and hearing loss
- duplication of the cube — the insoluble problem of constructing a cube having twice the volume of a given cube, using only a ruler and compass.
- earthquake-proof design — Earthquake-proof design is design which will not be badly damaged by earthquakes or tsunamis.
- eating your own dogfood — eating one's own dogfood
- education correspondent — a journalist who reports news in the field of education or teaching
- electronic surveillance — use of electronic devices to spy, observe
- ellipsoid of revolution — a geometric surface produced by rotating an ellipse about one of its two axes and having circular plane surfaces perpendicular to the axis of revolution
- encapsulated postscript — (EPS) An extension of the PostScript graphics file format developed by Adobe Systems. EPS is used for PostScript graphics files that are to be incorporated into other documents. An EPS file includes pragmas (special PostScript comments) giving information such as the bounding box, page number and fonts used. On some computers, EPS files include a low resolution version of the PostScript image. On the Macintosh this is in PICT format, while on the IBM PC it is in TIFF or Microsoft Windows metafile format.
- entrance qualifications — academic requirements
- equivalent focal length — the ratio of the size of an image of a small distant object near the optical axis to the angular distance of the object in radians
- european monetary union — the agreement between members of the European Union to establish a common currency. The current participating members are Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain
- eurovision song contest — an annual singing competition broadcast on live television and participated in by European countries who are members of the European Broadcasting Union. Each country submits one song and the other countries cast votes on the song to determine the winner.
- exclusive economic zone — the coastal water and sea bed around a country's shores, to which it claims exclusive rights for fishing, oil exploration, etc
- extrinsic semiconductor — a semiconductor into which a doping agent has been introduced, giving it different electrical properties than the intrinsic semiconductor
- ferric ammonium oxalate — a green, crystalline, water-soluble, synthetically produced powder, (NH 4) 3 Fe(C 2 O 4) 3 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in the manufacture of blueprint paper.
- fiddle while rome burns — If you say that someone is fiddling while Rome burns, you mean that they are not dealing with a difficult or dangerous situation but instead are doing useless things or pretending that nothing is wrong.
- fifth marquis lansdowne — Henry Charles Keith, 5th Marquis of Lansdowne, Lansdowne, 5th Marquis of.
- finite impulse response — (electronics, DSP) (FIR) A type of digital signal filter, in which every sample of output is the weighted sum of past and current samples of input, using only some finite number of past samples.
- fish in troubled waters — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- foreign currency income — the income earned by a country from foreign currency
- friction reducing agent — A friction reducing agent is an additive used to reduce friction exerted downhole on tools and pipes.
- frictional unemployment — those people who are in the process of moving from one job to another and who therefore appear in the unemployment statistics collected at any given time
- function graph language — (language) (FGL) The machine language for the AMPS (Applicative Multi-Processing System) proposed by Robert Keller, Gary Lindstrom and Suhas Patil at the University of Utah.
- function point analysis — (programming) (FPA) A standard metric for the relative size and complexity of a software system, originally developed by Alan Albrecht of IBM in the late 1970s. Functon points (FPs) can be used to estimate the relative size and complexity of software in the early stages of development - analysis and design. The size is determined by identifying the components of the system as seen by the end-user: the inputs, outputs, inquiries, interfaces to other systems, and logical internal files. The components are classified as simple, average, or complex. All of these values are then scored and the total is expressed in Unadjusted FPs (UFPs). Complexity factors described by 14 general systems characteristics, such as reusability, performance, and complexity of processing can be used to weight the UFP. Factors are also weighted on a scale of 0 - not present, 1 - minor influence, to 5 - strong influence. The result of these computations is a number that correlates to system size. Although the FP metric doesn't correspond to any actual physical attribute of a software system (such as lines of code or the number of subroutines) it is useful as a relative measure for comparing projects, measuring productivity, and estimating the amount a development effort and time needed for a project. See also International Function Point Users Group.
- functional requirements — (specification) What a system should be able to do, the functions it should perform. This term is used at both the user requirements analysis and software requirements specifications phases in the software life-cycle. An example of a non-functional requirement is an initialisation sequence incorporated into the software that is specific to a given customer.