23-letter words containing o, t, r
- hypobetalipoproteinemia — (pathology) A low level of betalipoprotein (low-density lipoprotein) in the bloodstream.
- hypothetical imperative — (esp in the moral philosophy of Kant) any conditional rule of action, concerned with means and ends rather than with duty for its own sake
- identification bracelet — a bracelet, usually of metal links, having an identification plate for the name of the wearer.
- if worst comes to worst — bad or ill in the highest, greatest, or most extreme degree: the worst person.
- immigration authorities — the authorities or official government bodies who regulate laws regarding immigration and immigrants
- immunological tolerance — the absence of antibody production in response to the presence of antigens, usually as a result of previous exposure to the antigens
- in favour/out of favour — If someone or something is in favour, people like or support them. If they are out of favour, people no longer like or support them.
- in the arms of morpheus — sleeping
- in the nature of things — If you say that something is in the nature of things, you mean that you would expect it to happen in the circumstances mentioned.
- in the neighbourhood of — In the neighbourhood of a number means approximately that number.
- in your heart of hearts — If you believe or know something in your heart of hearts, that is what you really believe or think, even though it may sometimes seem that you do not.
- in your stockinged feet — wearing stockings or socks but no shoes
- indirect discrimination — discrimination by means of rules, regulations or procedures that may appear to be neutral, but which actually discriminate against certain groups of people.
- industrial psychologist — a person who studies human behaviour and cognitive processes in relation to the working environment
- infinite monkey theorem — (humour) "If you put an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters, eventually one will bash out the script for Hamlet." (One may also hypothesise a small number of monkeys and a very long period of time.) This theorem asserts nothing about the intelligence of the one random monkey that eventually comes up with the script (and note that the mob will also type out all the possible *incorrect* versions of Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a brute force method; the implication is that, with enough resources thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a one-banana problem. This theorem was first popularised by the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington. It became part of the idiom through the classic short story "Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney, and many younger hackers know it through a reference in Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". See also: RFC 2795.
- informatics corporation — (company) Renamed to Sterling Software Corp.
- initial public offering — An initial public offering is the first offering of stock when a company goes public.
- integrated fire control — an electronic system that locates and tracks a target, computes the data, and employs a weapon to destroy it.
- interchange file format — (file format) (IFF, full name "EA IFF 1985") A generic file format published by Electronic Arts as an open standard. IFF is chunk-based and hierarchical so files can include other files. It is easily extensible and an all round Good Idea. An IFF file starts with one of the following "group IDs": 'FORM', 'LIST' or 'CAT '. This is followed by an unsigned 32-bit number of bytes in the remainder of the file. Then comes an ID that indicates which type of IFF file this is. The main image type is ILBM, audio is either AIFF or 8SVX, animations are ANIM etc. An IFF file will probably have a filename extension related to this file type stored in the file. The rest of the file is divided into chunks each of which also has a four-byte header and byte count.
- interference microscope — a microscope that utilizes light interference phenomena to create two superimposed images of an object, making possible the observation of transparent objects without using the staining technique.
- intermediate technology — technology which combines sophisticated ideas with cheap and readily available materials, esp for use in developing countries
- internal rate of return — an interest rate giving a net present value of zero when applied to the expected cash flow of a project. Its value, compared to the cost of the capital involved, is used to determine the project's viability
- internal reconstruction — the hypothetical reconstruction of an earlier stage of a language or of some part of it, as its phonology, by deductions from irregularities in its present structure, as the reconstruction of a stage in English when certain instances of r were related to s in a systematic way by comparing the pair was:were to other pairs, as lose:forlorn.
- international date line — the line approximately following the 180° meridian from Greenwich on the east side of which the date is one day earlier than on the west
- international relations — a branch of political science dealing with the relations between nations.
- internet monthly report — (IMR) Publication designed to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating organisations.
- interval of convergence — an interval associated with a given power series such that the series converges for all values of the variable inside the interval and diverges for all values outside it.
- intrinsic semiconductor — an almost pure semiconductor to which no impurities have been added and in which the electron and hole densities are equal at thermal equilibrium
- invertible counterpoint — counterpoint in which the voices, while retaining their original form, may be interchanged above or below one another in any order.
- irish christian brother — Brother of the Christian Schools (def 2).
- joint test action group —
- katmai new instructions — Streaming SIMD Extensions
- keep sth under your hat — If you tell someone to keep a piece of information under their hat, you are asking them not to tell anyone else about it.
- kinetic theory of gases — a theory that the particles in a gas move freely and rapidly along straight lines but often collide, resulting in variations in their velocity and direction. Pressure is interpreted as arising from the impacts of these particles with the walls of a container.
- knight in shining armor — chivalrous man
- lady chatterley's lover — a novel (1928) by D. H. Lawrence.
- large-scale integration — LSI.
- largemouth (black) bass — a black bass (Micropterus salmoides) found in warm, sluggish waters
- law enforcement officer — an official employee who prevents and detects crime and who maintains and upholds the police, such as a police officer, sheriff, customs officer etc
- lead replacement petrol — a less toxic fuel introduced in 2000 for cars requiring leaded petrol
- leave no stone unturned — the hard substance, formed of mineral matter, of which rocks consist.
- lesser peach tree borer — the larva of a clearwing moth, Synanthedon pictipes, distributed throughout the eastern U.S. and Canada but most prevalent in the South, that burrows into the injured trunks and branches of stone fruit trees.
- lie through one's teeth — a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood. Synonyms: prevarication, falsification. Antonyms: truth.
- lieutenant junior grade — a commissioned officer ranking above an ensign and below a lieutenant.
- light-emitting resistor — (electronics, humour) (LER, from "light-emitting diode") A resistor in the final stages of burning up. (Though intended as purely humorous, the term could sensibly describe the filament of a common incandescent electric light bulb). See also SED.
- lingual protrusion lisp — a speech defect consisting in pronouncing s and z like or nearly like the th- sounds of thin and this, respectively.
- liquefied petroleum gas — a mixture of various petroleum gases, esp propane and butane, stored as a liquid under pressure and used as an engine fuel
- living on borrowed time — living an unexpected extension of life
- lock, stock, and barrel — a device for securing a door, gate, lid, drawer, or the like in position when closed, consisting of a bolt or system of bolts propelled and withdrawn by a mechanism operated by a key, dial, etc.
- look on the bright side — consider positive aspects