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

  • digital switched network — (communications)   (DSN) The completely digital version of the PSTN.
  • diminished seventh chord — a chord often used in an enharmonic modulation and very common in modern music, esp jazz and pop music, consisting of a diminished triad with an added diminished seventh above the root
  • dionysius the areopagite — 1st century a.d, Athenian scholar: converted to Christianity by Saint Paul c50.
  • disturbance of the peace — a malicious and willful intrusion on the peace and quiet of a community or neighbourhood
  • domestic relations court — in some states, a court with jurisdiction over matters involving relations within the family or household, as between husband and wife or parent and child
  • domestic science college — a school or an institution providing specialized tuition in domestic science
  • domestic-relations court — court of domestic relations.
  • double overhead camshaft — a pair of overhead camshafts, one to operate the intake valves and the other to operate the exhaust valves. Abbreviation: DOHC.
  • double-crested cormorant — a North American cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, having tufts of black and white feathers on the sides of the head.
  • dutch west india company — a Dutch merchant company chartered in 1621 to carry on trade with Africa, the West Indies, North and South America, and Australia.
  • east riding of yorkshire — a county of NE England, a historical division of Yorkshire on the North Sea and the Humber estuary: became part of Humberside in 1974; reinstated as an independent unitary authority in 1996, with a separate authority for Kingston upon Hull: chiefly agricultural and low-lying, with various industries in Hull. Administrative centre: Beverley. Pop (excluding Hull): 321 300 (2003 est). Area (excluding Hull): 748 sq km (675 sq miles)
  • eating one's own dogfood — (programming)   When a developer uses their own code for their own daily needs. Being a user as well as a developer creates the user empathy that is the hallmark of good software. The term seems to have originated at Microsoft.
  • edetate calcium disodium — a chelating agent, C 10 H 12 CaN 2 Na 2 O 8 , used in medicine to treat lead poisoning.
  • educational psychologist — a person trained in educational psychology
  • effective number of bits — (hardware)   (ENOB) An indication of the quality of an analog to digital converter. The measurement is related to the test frequency and the signal-to-noise ratio.
  • effective sound pressure — the square root of the mean of the squares of the sound pressures of a sound wave, measured at a given point over a certain time interval.
  • 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.
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • equine infectious anemia — swamp fever (def 2).
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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.
  • 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 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
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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
  • get on the wrong side of — to come into disfavour with
  • get one's arse into gear — to start to do something seriously and quickly
  • get one's teeth into sth — If you describe a task or activity as something you can get your teeth into, you mean that you like it because it is interesting, complex, and makes you think hard.
  • get to the bottom of sth — If you want to get to the bottom of a problem, you want to solve it by finding out its real cause.
  • get under someone's skin — to anger or irritate someone
  • 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.
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