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24-letter words containing o, p, t, i, s

  • explicit type conversion — (programming)   (Or "cast" in C and elsewhere). A programming construct (syntax) to specify that an expression's value should be converted to a different type. For example, in C, to convert an integer (usually 32 bits) to a char (usually 8 bits) we might write: int i = 42; char *p = &buf; *p = (char) i; The expression "(char)" (called a "cast") converts i's value to char type. Casts (including this one) are often not strictly necessary, due to automatic coercions performed by the compiler, but can be used to make the conversion obvious and to avoid warning messages.
  • 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.
  • family income supplement — a benefit formerly paid to low-income families
  • fight-or-flight response — 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.
  • finger-pointing syndrome — (programming)   All-too-frequent result of bugs, especially in new or experimental configurations. The hardware vendor points a finger at the software. The software vendor points a finger at the hardware. All the poor users get is the finger.
  • fish protein concentrate — an odorless and tasteless high-protein food additive made from ground fish and suitable for human consumption. Abbreviation: FPC.
  • floating-point specratio — SPECfp92
  • 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.
  • geographical determinism — the theory that human activity is determined by geographical conditions
  • graduated pension scheme — (between 1961 and 1975) an earnings-related pension scheme which was based on the amount of an employee's National Insurance contributions
  • gregorio lopez y fuentes — Gregorio [gre-gaw-ryaw] /grɛˈgɔ ryɔ/ (Show IPA), 1895–1966, Mexican writer.
  • hairdressing appointment — an appointment to have your hair cut, styled, coloured, etc, at a hairdresser
  • have ants in one's pants — any of numerous black, red, brown, or yellow social insects of the family Formicidae, of worldwide distribution especially in warm climates, having a large head with inner jaws for chewing and outer jaws for carrying and digging, and living in highly organized colonies containing wingless female workers, a winged queen, and, during breeding seasons, winged males, some species being noted for engaging in warfare, slavemaking, or the cultivation of food sources.
  • have at one's fingertips — to have available for instant use
  • high bypass ratio engine — a type of by-pass engine in which a large fan driven by a turbine and housed in a short duct forces air rearwards around the exhaust gases in order to increase the propulsive thrust
  • high-density lipoprotein — a blood constituent involved in the transport of cholesterol and associated with a decreased risk of atherosclerosis and heart attack. Abbreviation: HDL .
  • high-fructose corn syrup — corn syrup to which enzymes have been added to change some of the glucose to fructose, making the product sweeter than regular corn syrup. Abbreviation: HFCS.
  • hoop-petticoat narcissus — petticoat narcissus.
  • house of representatives — the lower legislative branch in many national and state bicameral governing bodies, as in the United States, Mexico, and Japan.
  • ichthyophthirius-disease — ich.
  • implicit type conversion — (programming)   (Or "coercion") The abilty of some compilers to automatically insert type conversion functions where an expression of one type is used in a context where another type is expected. A common example is coercion of integers to reals so that an expression like sin(1) is compiled as sin(integerToReal(1)) where sin is of type Real -> Real. A coercion is usually performed automatically by the compiler whereas a cast is an explicit type conversion inserted by the programmer. See also subtype.
  • incomplete metamorphosis — insect development, as in the grasshopper and cricket, in which the change is gradual and characterized by the absence of a pupal stage. Compare complete metamorphosis.
  • industrial correspondent — a journalist who specializes in reporting the industrial news
  • information superhighway — internet
  • internet access provider — (networking, company)   (IAP) A company or other origanisation which provides access to the Internet to businesses and/or consumers. An IAP purchases an Internet link from another company that has a direct link to the Internet and resells portions of that bandwidth to the general public. For example, an IAP may purchase a T1 link (1.544Mb/s) and resell that bandwidth in chunks consisting of ISDN (64Kb/s, 128Kb/s) and analog modems (14.4Kb/s, 28.8Kb/s). The IAP's customer base is likely to include both businesses and individuals. Individual customers usually connect to the IAP via a modem and telephone line to a (preferably local) point of presence. An IAP may also be an Internet Service Provider.
  • investment opportunities — opportunities to make financial investments
  • keep up with the joneses — If you say that someone is keeping up with the Joneses, you mean that they are doing something in order to show that they have as much money as other people, rather than because they really want to do it.
  • knowledge representation — The subfield of artificial intelligence concerned with designing and using systems for storing knowledge - facts and rules about some subject. A body of formally represented knowledge is based on a conceptualisation - an abstract view of the world that we wish to represent. In order to manipulate this knowledge we must specify how the abstract conceptualisation is represented as a concrete data structure. An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualisation.
  • komi autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the NW Russian Federation in Europe. 145,221 sq. mi. (376,122 sq. km). Capital: Syktyvkar.
  • lab for computer science — MIT. http://lcs.mit.edu/.
  • lease with option to buy — A lease with option to buy is a lease that states that the person leasing the property has the right to purchase it at the end of the lease period.
  • liquid components of gas — Liquid components of gas are associated hydrocarbons in natural gas, which include ethane, propane, and butane.
  • low-density polyethylene — highly branched polyethylene with low crystallinity and melting point, and a density of 0.91 to 0.94, prepared at very high pressures, and used mainly for sheeting, films, and packaging materials. Abbreviation: LDPE.
  • mari autonomous republic — autonomous republic in the Russian Federation in Europe. 8994 sq. mi. (23,294 sq. km). Capital: Ioshkar-Ola.
  • master-slave manipulator — any of various devices, guided by the hand of the operator, for imitating the motions and tactile sensitivity of the human hand to a greater or lesser extent: used in situations in which direct handling of the objects or materials involved would be dangerous or impossible.
  • minister plenipotentiary — plenipotentiary.
  • monopolistic competition — the form of imperfect competition that exists when there are many producers or sellers of similar but differentiated goods or services
  • morphologic construction — a construction that forms a compound or complex word. Compare syntactic construction (def 1).
  • multiple virtual storage — (operating system)   (MVS) Release 2 of OS/VS2, called MVS because it had multiple 16 MB virtual address spaces, in contrast to SVS. MVS ran on the IBM 390 series mainframes. It became MVS/SP, then MVS/XA (with 31-bit addressing) and then MVS/ESA. MVS/Open Edition (MVS/OE), aimed at the growing open systems market, added TCP/IP and Unix support in an MVS address space, allowing users to run IBM, CICS-type applications, batch applications and Unix. MVS/ESA was repackaged as OS/390 as a marketing exercise but it's basically the same thing. Version: 5.1.
  • mutual insurance company — an insurance company owned by the policyholders and not by shareholders
  • narcissistic personality — a personality disorder characterized by extreme self-centeredness and self-absorption, fantasies involving unrealistic goals, an excessive need for attention and admiration, and disturbed interpersonal relationships.
  • network operating system — (operating system)   (NOS) The operating system on Control Data Corporation's Cyber Computer.
  • neutrosophic probability — (logic)   An extended form of probability based on Neutrosophy, in which a statement is held to be t true, i indeterminate, and f false, where t, i, f are real values from the ranges T, I, F, with no restriction on T, I, F or the sum n=t+i+f.
  • newton-raphson iteration — (algorithm)   An iterative algorithm for solving equations. Given an equation, f x = 0 and an initial approximation, x(0), a better approximation is given by: x(i+1) = x(i) - f(x(i)) / f'(x(i)) where f'(x) is the first derivative of f, df/dx. Newton-Raphson iteration is an example of an anytime algorithm in that each approximation is no worse than the previous one.
  • nonparametric statistics — the branch of statistics that studies data measurable on an ordinal or nominal scale, to which arithmetic operations cannot be applied
  • officers' training corps — part of the British Army which provides military leadership training to students at UK universities
  • open shortest-path first — Open Shortest-Path First Interior Gateway Protocol
  • open software foundation — (body)   (OSF) A foundation created by nine computer vendors, (Apollo, DEC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Bull, Nixdorf, Philips, Siemens and Hitachi) to promote "Open Computing". It is planned that common operating systems and interfaces, based on developments of Unix and the X Window System will be forthcoming for a wide range of different hardware architectures. OSF announced the release of the industry's first open operating system - OSF/1 on 23 October 1990.
  • open system architecture — (operating system)   (OSA) A competitor to IBM's SNA.
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