16-letter words containing p, r, o, e, l
- knapsack problem — the problem of determining which numbers from a given collection of numbers have been added together to yield a specific sum: used in cryptography to encipher (and sometimes decipher) messages.
- ladies'-eardrops — lady's-earrings.
- lady of pleasure — a prostitute.
- land-poor farmer — a farmer who owns much unprofitable land and lacks the money to maintain its fertility or improve it
- laplace operator — the operator ∂2/∂x2 + ∂2/∂y2 + ∂2/∂z2,
- large-print book — a book where the text is printed in larger text than normal, so as to make it easier to read, esp for the visually impaired
- learning process — a process of learning
- legal separation — judicial separation.
- leptosporangiate — (of ferns) having each sporangium developing from a single cell, rather than from a group, and normally with specialized explosive spore dispersal
- lesser spearwort — a Eurasian ranunculaceous plant, R. flammula, of the genus Ranunculus, which grows in wet places and has long narrow leaves and yellow flowers
- 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
- light microscope — microscope (def 1).
- 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.
- literacy project — a project, plan or scheme to increase literacy in a country, area, etc
- liver of sulphur — a mixture of potassium sulphides used as a fungicide and insecticide and in the treatment of skin diseases
- logical operator — any of the Boolean symbols or functions, as AND, OR, and NOT, denoting a Boolean operation; Boolean operator.
- lord proprietary — (in Colonial America) an owner, governor, or grantee of a proprietary colony
- 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.
- lower palatinate — See under Palatinate (def 1).
- 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.
- macrolepidoptera — a collector's name for that part of the lepidoptera that comprises the butterflies and the larger moths (noctuids, geometrids, bombycids, springtails, etc): a term without taxonomic significance
- malapportionment — (of a state or other political unit) poorly apportioned, especially divided, organized, or structured in a manner that prevents large sections of a population from having equitable representation in a legislative body.
- 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
- methyl parathion — a synthetic pesticide, C 8 H 1 0 NO 5 PS, used in the control of mites and various insects, as aphids, boll weevils, and cutworms.
- microencapsulate — (transitive) To embed by means of microencapsulation.
- microlepidoptera — a collector's name for the smaller moths: a term without taxonomic significance
- mineral deposits — amounts of minerals that occur naturally in particular areas
- miniature poodle — a breed of poodle, bred to be much smaller than standard poodles
- 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.
- montpelier maple — a maple, Acer monspessulanum, that is native to southern Europe and Northwest Africa
- moulding process — the process of shaping or compacting a material into a frame or mould
- multiple factors — polygene.
- myelosuppression — (medicine) A reduction of bone marrow activity that leads to a lower concentration of platelets, red blood cells and white blood cells.
- nephrocalcinosis — (medicine) The deposition of calcium salts in the renal parenchyma due to hyperparathyroidism.
- network topology — (networking) The "shape" of a network, how the nodes are connected to each other. Common topologies are bus network, star network and ring network.
- neurodevelopment — The development of the nervous system during the life of an organism.
- neuroepithelioma — Neurocytoma.
- neurohypophyseal — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neurohypophysial — Relating to the neurohypophysis.
- neuropathologies — the pathology of the nervous system.
- neuropathologist — A specialist who practices neuropathology.
- non-compressible — to press together; force into less space.
- non-experiential — pertaining to or derived from experience.
- non-experimental — pertaining to, derived from, or founded on experiment: an experimental science.
- non-geographical — of or relating to geography.
- non-metropolitan — of, noting, or characteristic of a metropolis or its inhabitants, especially in culture, sophistication, or in accepting and combining a wide variety of people, ideas, etc.
- non-reproducible — to make a copy, representation, duplicate, or close imitation of: to reproduce a picture.