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25-letter words containing r, e, s, i, t, a

  • circle of least confusion — the smallest cross section in a beam of paraxial rays, lying in the plane of least spherical aberration.
  • commissioner of education — (in the US) the head of a state's education department
  • commonwealth of australia — Australia's official title
  • compensated semiconductor — a semiconductor in which donors and acceptors are related in such a way that their opposing electrical effects are partially cancelled
  • computer-aided publishing — desktop publishing. Abbreviation: CAP.
  • constant angular velocity — (storage)   (CAV) One of the two schemes for controlling the rate of rotation of the disk in a disk drive. Constant angular velocity keeps the rate of rotation constant. This means that the linear velocity of the disk under the head is larger when reading or writing the outer tracks. This in turn implies either a variation in the data rate to and from the heads or the bits per unit length along the track. The alternative, constant linear velocity, requires the rate of rotation of the disk to accelerate and decelerate according to the radial postion of the heads, increasing the energy use and vibration.
  • constant applicative form — (functional programming)   (CAF) A supercombinator which is not a lambda abstraction. This includes truly constant expressions such as 12, (+ 1 2), [1, 2, 3] as well as partially applied functions such as (+ 4). Note that this last example is equivalent under eta abstraction to \ x . + 4 x which is not a CAF. Since a CAF is a supercombinator, it contains no free variables. Moreover, since it is not a lambda abstraction it contains no variables at all. It may however contain identifiers which refer to other CAFs, e.g. c 3 where c = (* 2). A CAF can always be lifted to the top level of the program. It can either be compiled to a piece of graph which will be shared by all uses or to some shared code which will overwrite itself with some graph the first time it is evaluated. A CAF such as ints = from 1 where from n = n : from (n+1) can grow without bound but may only be accessible from within the code of one or more functions. In order for the garbage collector to be able to reclaim such structures, we associate with each function a list of the CAFs to which it refers. When garbage collecting a reference to the function we collect the CAFs on its list.
  • copyright deposit library — one of six libraries legally entitled to receive a gratis copy of every book published in the United Kingdom: the British Library, Bodleian, Cambridge University, Trinity College in Dublin, Scottish National Library, and National Library of Wales
  • court of general sessions — a local court with general jurisdiction, both civil and criminal.
  • creutzfeldt-jakob disease — a fatal slow-developing disease that affects the central nervous system, characterized by mental deterioration and loss of coordination of the limbs. It is thought to be caused by an abnormal prion protein in the brain
  • crude oil degassing plant — A crude oil degassing plant is equipment that removes light ends such as methane and butane from crude oil.
  • crude oil pyrolysis plant — A crude oil pyrolysis plant is equipment used for converting waste and poor fuel to a better product by pyrolysis (= the use of heat to decompose organic material).
  • cut a person down to size — to reduce in importance or decrease the conceit of
  • data processing equipment — Data processing equipment is electrically operated equipment that accumulates, processes, and stores data.
  • dataphone digital service — (communications, product)   (DDS) The first private-line digital service offered by AT&T, with data rates typically at 2.4, 4.8, 9.6 and 56 kilobits per second. DDS is now part of AT&T's Accunet family of services. Most LEC (local exchange carriers) and IXC (IntereXchange Carriers) offer similar services.
  • decision support database — A database from which data is extracted and analysed statistically (but not modified) in order to inform business or other decisions. This is in contrast to an operational database which is being continuously updated. For example, a decision support database might provide data to determine the average salary of different types of workers, whereas an operational database containing the same data would be used to calculate pay check amounts. Often, decision support data is extracted from operation databases.
  • decreasing term insurance — Decreasing term insurance is life insurance with the amount of coverage decreasing over the term of the policy and a lump sum payment if you die in advance.
  • defense trade regulations — (legal)   The U.S. law governening munitions export and defense technology (F-16s, TOW missiles and cryptology). According to the U.S. (and Canada) cryptography is a munition and people who export it can be charged as though they were exporting bombs or state secrets. People have been. See also EFF.
  • democratic unionist party — a Northern Irish political party, founded by Ian Paisley in 1971, advocating the maintenance of union with the UK
  • díaz del castillo, bernal — (bɛʀˈnɑl) ; bernälˈ) 1492?-1581?; Sp. historian & soldier with Cortés
  • diesel-electric generator — A diesel-electric generator is a piece of equipment that uses diesel as a fuel to produce electricity.
  • digital rights management — (legal)   (DRM) Any technology used to limit the use of software, music, movies or other digital data. This generally relies on some interaction between the media and the system that plays it. For example, video DVDs usually include a region code. If this does not match the player's region code, the player will refuse to play the disc.
  • digital signal processing — (DSP) Computer manipulation of analog signals (commonly sound or image) which have been converted to digital form (sampled).
  • directory access protocol — X.500 protocol used for communication between a Directory User Agent and a Directory System Agent.
  • disappear without a trace — If you say that someone or something disappears without a trace, you mean that they stop existing or stop being successful very suddenly and completely.
  • discrete cosine transform — (mathematics)   (DCT) A technique for expressing a waveform as a weighted sum of cosines. The DCT is central to many kinds of signal processing, especially video compression. Given data A(i), where i is an integer in the range 0 to N-1, the forward DCT (which would be used e.g. by an encoder) is: B(k) = sum A(i) cos((pi k/N) (2 i + 1)/2) i=0 to N-1 B(k) is defined for all values of the frequency-space variable k, but we only care about integer k in the range 0 to N-1. The inverse DCT (which would be used e.g. by a decoder) is: AA(i)= sum B(k) (2-delta(k-0)) cos((pi k/N)(2 i + 1)/2) k=0 to N-1 where delta(k) is the Kronecker delta. The main difference between this and a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is that the DFT traditionally assumes that the data A(i) is periodically continued with a period of N, whereas the DCT assumes that the data is continued with its mirror image, then periodically continued with a period of 2N. Mathematically, this transform pair is exact, i.e. AA(i) == A(i), resulting in lossless coding; only when some of the coefficients are approximated does compression occur. There exist fast DCT algorithms in analogy to the Fast Fourier Transform.
  • do-it-yourself enthusiast — an enthusiast of the hobby or process of constructing and repairing things by yourself
  • document image processing — (DIP) Storage, management and retrieval of images.
  • dopamine receptor agonist — A dopamine receptor agonist is any compound that activates dopamine receptors when dopamine is not present.
  • drive someone up the wall — If you say that something or someone is driving you up the wall, you are emphasizing that they annoy and irritate you.
  • edward trowbridge collins — Edward Trowbridge ("Eddie") 1887–1951, U.S. baseball player.
  • electroconvulsive therapy — the treatment of certain psychotic conditions by passing an electric current through the brain to induce coma or convulsions
  • electronic funds transfer — (application, communications)   (EFT, EFTS, - system) Transfer of money initiated through electronic terminal, automated teller machine, computer, telephone, or magnetic tape. In the late 1990s, this increasingly includes transfer initiated via the web. The term also applies to credit card and automated bill payments.
  • electronic news gathering — the collecting of a television news story using electronic equipment, such as a portable video camera, rather than a traditional film camera
  • enhanced graphics adapter — (graphics, hardware)   (EGA) An IBM PC display standard with a resolution of 640 x 350 pixels of 16 colours.
  • entity-relationship model — (database, specification)   An approach to data modelling proposed by P. Chen in 1976. The model says that you divide your database in two logical parts, entities (e.g. "customer", "product") and relations ("buys", "pays for"). One of the first activities in specifying an application is defining the entities involved and their relationships, e.g. using an entity-relationship diagram to represent a model.
  • european court of justice — law: international court
  • examination for discovery — a pretrial meeting to disclose evidence that will be presented later
  • exhaust gas recirculation — Exhaust gas recirculation is the process of mixing exhaust gas with air taken in to make sure that all fuel is burned before entering the atmosphere.
  • expanding universe theory — the theory, developed from the observed red shifts of celestial bodies, that the space between galaxies is expanding, so that they appear to recede from us at velocities that increase with their distance
  • exploratory data analysis — (EDA)
  • first and second manassas — two battles fought at Manassas Junction near a stream named Bull Run, during the American Civil War (July, 1861 and August, 1862), in both of which the Federal army was routed by the Confederates
  • first generation computer — (architecture)   A prototype computer based on vacuum tubes and other esoteric technologies. Chronologically, any computer designed before the mid-1950s. Examples include Howard Aiken's Mark 1 (1944), Maunchly and Eckert's ENIAC (1946), and the IAS computer.
  • first generation language — Raw machine code. When computers were first "programmed" from an input device, rather than by being rewired, they were fed input in the form of numbers, which they then interpreted as commands. This was really low level, and a program fragment might look like "010307 010307". Almost no one programs in machine language anymore, because translators are nearly trivial to write.
  • flash lights impressively — (programming, humour)   (FLI) /FLY/ A joke assembly language instruction first documented in the late 1970s in "The Hackers Dictionary". The FLI instruction was frequently referred to by engineers when minicomputers such as the DEC PDP-8, PDP-11 and some early microcomputers such as the IMSAI and Altair had dozens of front panel lights. "When the computer is about to do some long I/O operation, stick in a FLI so the accountants won't think the machine has hung again."
  • franked investment income — (formerly) dividends from one UK company received by another on which the paying company had paid corporation tax so that the receiving company had no corporation tax to pay: discontinued from 1999
  • frequently asked question — (convention)   (FAQ, or rarely FAQL, FAQ list) A document provided for many Usenet newsgroups (and, more recently, web services) which attempts to answer questions which new readers often ask. These are maintained by volunteers and posted regularly to the newsgroup. You should always consult the FAQ list for a group before posting to it in case your question or point is common knowledge. The collection of all FAQ lists is one of the most precious and remarkable resources on the Internet. It contains a huge wealth of up-to-date expert knowledge on many subjects of common interest. Accuracy of the information is greatly assisted by its frequent exposure to criticism by an interested, and occasionally well-informed, audience (the readers of the relevant newsgroup). The main FTP archive for FAQs is on a computer called RTFM at MIT, where they can be accessed either by group or by hierarchy. There is another archive at Imperial College, London, UK and a web archive in Ohio, USA. The FAQs are also posted to Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.answers, news:news.answers and news:alt.answers.
  • functional representation — representation in a governing body on the basis of social class or occupation.
  • future farmers of america — a national organization of high-school students studying vocational agriculture. Abbreviation: FFA.
  • gas desulfurization plant — A gas desulfurization plant is a place with equipment that removes sulfur dioxide from flue gas before it is released into the atmosphere.
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