16-letter words containing p, i, l, e, s
- line composition — type produced on a linecaster
- line of position — a line connecting all the possible positions of a ship or aircraft, as determined by a single observation. Abbreviation: LOP.
- lines per minute — (unit) (lpm) A unit used to measure line printer throughput.
- linux user group — (body, operating system) (LUG) Any organisation of Linux users in a local area, university, etc., that offers mutual technical support, companionship with people of similar interests and promotes the use of Linux among computer users generally. LUGs often hold Install Fests for the general public, in which experienced Linux users explain and supervise the installation of Linux on new users' systems.
- lipstick lesbian — a lesbian who is feminine in manner or appearance; a femme.
- live in the past — If you accuse someone of living in the past, you mean that they think too much about the past or believe that things are the same as they were in the past.
- liver of sulphur — a mixture of potassium sulphides used as a fungicide and insecticide and in the treatment of skin diseases
- lizard peninsula — a promontory in SW England, in SW Cornwall: the southernmost point in Great Britain
- lymphangiectasia — (medicine) dilation of the lymphatic vessels.
- lymphangiectasis — Alt form lymphangiectasia.
- lymphatic system — an extensive network of capillary vessels that transports the interstitial fluid of the body as lymph to the venous blood circulation
- lymphatic tissue — tissue, such as the lymph nodes, tonsils, spleen, and thymus, that produces lymphocytes
- lz77 compression — The first algorithm to use the Lempel-Ziv substitutional compression schemes, proposed in 1977. LZ77 compression keeps track of the last n bytes of data seen, and when a phrase is encountered that has already been seen, it outputs a pair of values corresponding to the position of the phrase in the previously-seen buffer of data, and the length of the phrase. In effect the compressor moves a fixed-size "window" over the data (generally referred to as a "sliding window"), with the position part of the (position, length) pair referring to the position of the phrase within the window. The most commonly used algorithms are derived from the LZSS scheme described by James Storer and Thomas Szymanski in 1982. In this the compressor maintains a window of size N bytes and a "lookahead buffer", the contents of which it tries to find a match for in the window: while (lookAheadBuffer not empty) { get a pointer (position, match) to the longest match in the window for the lookahead buffer; if (length > MINIMUM_MATCH_LENGTH) { output a (position, length) pair; shift the window length characters along; } else { output the first character in the lookahead buffer; shift the window 1 character along; } } Decompression is simple and fast: whenever a (POSITION, LENGTH) pair is encountered, go to that POSITION in the window and copy LENGTH bytes to the output. Sliding-window-based schemes can be simplified by numbering the input text characters mod N, in effect creating a circular buffer. The sliding window approach automatically creates the LRU effect which must be done explicitly in LZ78 schemes. Variants of this method apply additional compression to the output of the LZSS compressor, which include a simple variable-length code (LZB), dynamic Huffman coding (LZH), and Shannon-Fano coding (ZIP 1.x), all of which result in a certain degree of improvement over the basic scheme, especially when the data are rather random and the LZSS compressor has little effect. An algorithm was developed which combines the ideas behind LZ77 and LZ78 to produce a hybrid called LZFG. LZFG uses the standard sliding window, but stores the data in a modified trie data structure and produces as output the position of the text in the trie. Since LZFG only inserts complete *phrases* into the dictionary, it should run faster than other LZ77-based compressors. All popular archivers (arj, lha, zip, zoo) are variations on LZ77.
- lz78 compression — A substitutional compression scheme which works by entering phrases into a dictionary and then, when a reoccurrence of that particular phrase is found, outputting the dictionary index instead of the phrase. Several algorithms are based on this principle, differing mainly in the manner in which they manage the dictionary. The most well-known Lempel-Ziv scheme is Terry Welch's Lempel-Ziv Welch variant of LZ78.
- mach's principle — the proposition that there is no absolute space and that the inertia and acceleration of a body are determined by all of the matter of the universe.
- malpractice suit — a lawsuit brought against a professional accused of illegal or unethical practices or neglect of duty
- manipulativeness — Quality of being manipulative.
- marseille prolog — (language) One of the two main dialects of Prolog, the other being Edinburgh Prolog. The difference is largely syntax. The original Marseille Interpreter (1973) was written in Fortran.
- menstrual period — the bleeding from the womb that occurs approximately monthly in nonpregnant women of reproductive age
- microencapsulate — (transitive) To embed by means of microencapsulation.
- mineral deposits — amounts of minerals that occur naturally in particular areas
- mit lisp machine — Lisp Machine
- moulding process — the process of shaping or compacting a material into a frame or mould
- multi-discipline — training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline.
- multidisciplined — composed of or combining several usually separate branches of learning or fields of expertise: a multidisciplinary study of the 18th century.
- multiple alleles — any one of a series of three or more alternative or allelic forms of a gene, only two of which can exist in any normal, diploid individual.
- multiple factors — polygene.
- multiple fission — fission into more than two new organisms.
- multiple listing — the listing of a home for sale with a number of real-estate brokers who participate in a shared listing service.
- myelosuppression — (medicine) A reduction of bone marrow activity that leads to a lower concentration of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.
- neapolitan sixth — (in musical harmony) a chord composed of the subdominant of the key, plus a minor third and a minor sixth. Harmonically it is equivalent to the first inversion of a major chord built upon the flattened supertonic
- nephrocalcinosis — (medicine) The deposition of calcium salts in the renal parenchyma due to hyperparathyroidism.
- neurohypophysial — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neuropathologies — the pathology of the nervous system.
- neuropathologist — A specialist who practices neuropathology.
- niche publishing — publishing books that are intended for a very specialized market
- nicoya peninsula — a peninsula in NW Costa Rica, on the Pacific Ocean.
- non-compressible — to press together; force into less space.
- non-metaphysical — pertaining to or of the nature of metaphysics.
- nonprofessionals — Plural form of nonprofessional.
- objective pascal — An extension of the PASCAL language which provides the possibility to use object-oriented programming constructs.
- open scholarship — a scholarship which anyone can apply for
- ophthalmoparesis — (medicine) A partial or complete paralysis of the extraocular muscles which are responsible for eye movements.
- opposed-cylinder — (of an internal-combustion engine) having cylinders on opposite sides of the crankcase in the same plane
- optical tweezers — a laser device used to study, manipulate, or trap a microscopic object, as a microorganism or cell, with nanometer precision.
- osculating plane — the plane containing the circle of curvature of a point on a given curve.
- over-speculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
- palmer peninsula — former name of Antarctic Peninsula.
- panel discussion — a formal discussion before an audience for which the topic, speakers, etc., have been selected in advance.
- papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.