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15-letter words containing p, s, e, u

  • clumber spaniel — a type of thickset spaniel having a broad heavy head
  • come up against — If you come up against a problem or difficulty, you are faced with it and have to deal with it.
  • come up smiling — to recover cheerfully from misfortune
  • compendiousness — The state or quality of being compendious.
  • computer ethics — (philosophy)   Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, that is, judgments about what human behaviour is "good" or "bad". Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those in any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, and power, to name but a few. Computer ethics can be grounded in one of four basic world-views: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, or Existentialism. Idealists believe that reality is basically ideas and that ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals. Realists believe that reality is basically nature and that ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural. Pragmatists believe that reality is not fixed but is in process and that ethics therefore is practical (that is, concerned with what will produce socially-desired results). Existentialists believe reality is self-defined and that ethics therefore is individual (that is, concerned only with one's own conscience). Idealism and Realism can be considered ABSOLUTIST worldviews because they are based on something fixed (that is, ideas or nature, respectively). Pragmatism and Existentialism can be considered RELATIVIST worldviews because they are based or something relational (that is, society or the individual, respectively). Thus ethical judgments will vary, depending on the judge's world-view. Some examples: First consider theft. Suppose a university's computer is used for sending an e-mail message to a friend or for conducting a full-blown private business (billing, payroll, inventory, etc.). The absolutist would say that both activities are unethical (while recognising a difference in the amount of wrong being done). A relativist might say that the latter activities were wrong because they tied up too much memory and slowed down the machine, but the e-mail message wasn't wrong because it had no significant effect on operations. Next consider privacy. An instructor uses her account to acquire the cumulative grade point average of a student who is in a class which she instructs. She obtained the password for this restricted information from someone in the Records Office who erroneously thought that she was the student's advisor. The absolutist would probably say that the instructor acted wrongly, since the only person who is entitled to this information is the student and his or her advisor. The relativist would probably ask why the instructor wanted the information. If she replied that she wanted it to be sure that her grading of the student was consistent with the student's overall academic performance record, the relativist might agree that such use was acceptable. Finally, consider power. At a particular university, if a professor wants a computer account, all she or he need do is request one but a student must obtain faculty sponsorship in order to receive an account. An absolutist (because of a proclivity for hierarchical thinking) might not have a problem with this divergence in procedure. A relativist, on the other hand, might question what makes the two situations essentially different (e.g. are faculty assumed to have more need for computers than students? Are students more likely to cause problems than faculty? Is this a hold-over from the days of "in loco parentis"?).
  • computer screen — the working area on the monitor of a computer
  • computer system — a computer or a set of computers that works together
  • computer vision — a robot analogue of human vision in which information about the environment is received by one or more video cameras and processed by computer: used in navigation by robots, in the control of automated production lines, etc.
  • computerisation — (chiefly, British) alternative spelling of computerization.
  • conceptualising — Present participle of conceptualise.
  • conceptualistic — Of or pertaining to conceptualism.
  • concurrent lisp — (language)   A concurrent version of Lisp. Sugimoto et al implemented an interpreter on a "large scale computer" and were planning to implement it on multiple microprocessors.
  • connoisseurship — a person who is especially competent to pass critical judgments in an art, particularly one of the fine arts, or in matters of taste: a connoisseur of modern art.
  • conspicuousness — Openness or exposure to the view; a state of being clearly visible.
  • contemporaneous — If two events or situations are contemporaneous, they happen or exist during the same period of time.
  • copper sulphate — a copper salt found naturally as chalcanthite and made by the action of sulphuric acid on copper oxide. It usually exists as blue crystals of the pentahydrate that form a white anhydrous powder when heated: used as a mordant, in electroplating, and in plant sprays. Formula: CuSO4
  • corruptibleness — The state or quality of being corruptible.
  • coude telescope — a telescope in which light from the primary mirror is reflected along the polar axis to additional mirrors, and in which the focus (coudé focus) is independent of the telescope's motion, permitting the use of heavy instruments without disturbing the delicate balance of the telescope.
  • counterexamples — Plural form of counterexample.
  • counterpressure — an opposing pressure
  • counterproposal — a proposal offered as an alternative to a previous proposal
  • counterpurchase — barter, especially of products or materials between international companies or importers and exporters.
  • counterresponse — a response or reply which opposes or answers a previous response
  • couples therapy — a counseling procedure that attempts to improve the adaptation and adjustment of two people who form a conjugal unit.
  • creeping fescue — red fescue.
  • crepuscular ray — a twilight ray of sunlight shining through breaks in high clouds and illuminating dust particles in the air.
  • cricopharyngeus — (anatomy) Part of the inferior pharyngeal constrictor, arising from the cricoid cartilage.
  • customer appeal — attractiveness to customers
  • cut (up) didoes — to behave in mischievous or silly way
  • cyanide capsule — a capsule containing cyanide, traditionally given to spies and others so that they can commit suicide to avoid capture
  • daguerreotypist — an obsolete photographic process, invented in 1839, in which a picture made on a silver surface sensitized with iodine was developed by exposure to mercury vapor.
  • defunct process — zombie process
  • deposit account — A deposit account is a type of bank account where the money in it earns interest.
  • deputy minister — (in Canada) the senior civil servant in a government department
  • dessertspoonful — You can refer to an amount of food resting on a dessertspoon as a dessertspoonful of food.
  • die standing up — to cease to live; undergo the complete and permanent cessation of all vital functions; become dead.
  • disreputability — The state of being disreputable.
  • disrespectfully — characterized by, having, or showing disrespect; lacking courtesy or esteem: a disrespectful remark about teachers.
  • double exposure — the act of exposing the same film, frame, plate, etc., twice.
  • double saucepan — a cooking utensil consisting of two saucepans, one fitting inside the other. The bottom saucepan contains water that, while boiling, gently heats food in the upper pan
  • double stopping — playing two notes or parts simultaneously on a string instrument
  • draw oneself up — to assume a straighter posture; stand or sit straight
  • duelling pistol — one of a pair of identical pistols made specifically for use in duels
  • dumpster diving — the practice of foraging in garbage that has been put out on the street in dumpsters, garbage cans, etc., for discarded items that may still be valuable, useful, or fixable.
  • duplicitousness — The state or condition of being duplicitous.
  • dutchman's-pipe — a climbing vine, Aristolochia durior, of the birthwort family, having large, heart-shaped leaves and brownish-purple flowers of a curved form suggesting a tobacco pipe.
  • e pluribus unum — one out of many: the motto of the USA
  • east massapequa — a town on SW Long Island, in SE New York.
  • eclipse plumage — the dull plumage developed in some brightly colored birds after the breeding season.
  • edriophthalmous — (of certain crustaceans) having stalkless eyes
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