16-letter words containing p, o, s, l
- levallois-perret — a suburb of Paris, in N France, on the Seine.
- level descriptor — one of a set of criteria used to assess the performance of a pupil in a particular subject
- lick one's chops — Usually, chops. the jaw.
- light microscope — microscope (def 1).
- lighthouse point — a city in NW Florida.
- limited-stop bus — a bus which only stops at a small number of predetermined stops, rather than on request
- 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.
- 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.
- liver of sulphur — a mixture of potassium sulphides used as a fungicide and insecticide and in the treatment of skin diseases
- lost-wax process — a process of investment casting in which a refractory mold is built up around a pattern of wax and then baked so as to melt and drain off the wax.
- 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.
- mad-dog skullcap — a North American skullcap, Scutellaria lateriflora, having underground stems and one-sided clusters of blue to white flowers.
- malchus-porphyry — (Malchus) a.d. c233–c304, Greek philosopher.
- 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.
- marsupialization — (surgery) The surgical technique of cutting a slit into a cyst and suturing its edges to form a continuous surface from the exterior to the interior of the cyst, allowing it to drain freely.
- 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.
- microsporophylls — Plural form of microsporophyll.
- mineral deposits — amounts of minerals that occur naturally in particular areas
- misanthropically — In a misanthropic manner.
- mock turtle soup — a rich, clear soup prepared to resemble green turtle soup, made with a calf's head or other meat, seasonings, and often with wine.
- monopolistically — In a monopolistic manner.
- moral philosophy — philosophy dealing with the principles of morality; ethics.
- morphophysiology — The (study of the) biological interrelationship between form and physiological function.
- morris plan bank — a private banking organization, formerly common in the U.S., designed primarily to grant small loans to industrial workers.
- moulding process — the process of shaping or compacting a material into a frame or mould
- multiple factors — polygene.
- multiple fission — fission into more than two new organisms.
- myelosuppression — (medicine) A reduction of bone marrow activity that leads to a lower concentration of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.
- nasal applicator — A nasal applicator is a device for administering medication through the nose.
- 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.
- neurohypophyseal — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neurohypophysial — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neuropathologies — the pathology of the nervous system.
- neuropathologist — A specialist who practices neuropathology.
- 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.
- nonphysiological — of or relating to physiology.
- 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
- ophthalmologists — Plural form of ophthalmologist.
- 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 illusion — something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
- optical scanning — the process of interpreting data in printed, handwritten, bar-code, or other visual form by a device (optical scanner or reader) that scans and identifies the data.