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24-letter words containing r, e, s, i

  • electromagnetic spectrum — the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves (wavelength 105 metres) to the shortest gamma radiation (wavelength 10–13 metre)
  • electronic point of sale — a computerized system for recording sales in retail shops, using a laser scanner at the cash till to read bar codes on the packages of the items sold
  • emotional roller coaster — a situation or experience that alternates between making you feel excited, exhilarated, or happy and making you feel sad, disappointed, or desperate
  • endotracheal anaesthesia — a method of administering gaseous anaesthetics to animals through a tube inserted into the trachea
  • english springer spaniel — breed of dog
  • environmental assessment — a formal assessment of the impact a project will have on the environment
  • erythroblastosis fetalis — an anaemic blood disease of a fetus or newborn child, characterized by erythroblasts in the circulating blood: caused by a blood incompatibility between mother and fetus
  • european investment bank — a financial institution of the European Union which is based in Luxembourg and which provides loans, especially to the less economically developed countries of the EU
  • explicit type conversion — (programming)   (Or "cast" in C and elsewhere). A programming construct (syntax) to specify that an expression's value should be converted to a different type. For example, in C, to convert an integer (usually 32 bits) to a char (usually 8 bits) we might write: int i = 42; char *p = &buf; *p = (char) i; The expression "(char)" (called a "cast") converts i's value to char type. Casts (including this one) are often not strictly necessary, due to automatic coercions performed by the compiler, but can be used to make the conversion obvious and to avoid warning messages.
  • exponential distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution used esp when making statements about the length of life of certain materials or waiting times between randomly occurring events. Its density function is p(x) = λe–λx for positive λ and nonnegative x, and it is a special case of the gamma distribution
  • extra-sensory perception — Extra-sensory perception means knowing without using your ordinary senses such as sight and hearing. Some people believe this is possible. The abbreviation ESP is also used.
  • failure-directed testing — (programming)   (Or "heuristics testing") Software testing based on the knowledge of the types of errors made in the past that are likely for the system under test.
  • federal power commission — FPC.
  • federal reserve district — the district served by a certain Federal Reserve Bank.
  • federal trade commission — FTC.
  • ferdinand lewis alcindor — (Ferdinand) Lew(is, Jr.) original name of Abdul-Jabbar.
  • fight-or-flight response — the response of the sympathetic nervous system to a stressful event, preparing the body to fight or flee, associated with the adrenal secretion of epinephrine and characterized by increased heart rate, increased blood flow to the brain and muscles, raised sugar levels, sweaty palms and soles, dilated pupils, and erect hairs.
  • finger-pointing syndrome — (programming)   All-too-frequent result of bugs, especially in new or experimental configurations. The hardware vendor points a finger at the software. The software vendor points a finger at the hardware. All the poor users get is the finger.
  • fish protein concentrate — an odorless and tasteless high-protein food additive made from ground fish and suitable for human consumption. Abbreviation: FPC.
  • floating-point specratio — SPECfp92
  • flue gas desulfurization — Flue gas desulfurization is the removal of pollutants containing sulfur from flue gas.
  • free software foundation — (body)   (FSF) An organisation devoted to the creation and dissemination of free software, i.e. software that is free from licensing fees or restrictions on use. The Foundation's main work is supporting the GNU project, started by Richard Stallman (RMS), partly to proselytise for his position that information is community property and all software source should be shared. The GNU project has developed the GNU Emacs editor and a C compiler, gcc, replacements for many Unix utilities and many other tools. A complete Unix-like operating system (HURD) is in the works (April 1994). Software is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License, which also provides a good summary of the Foundation's goals and principles. The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from distributing its software, although it is a charity rather than a company. Although the software is freely available (e.g. by FTP - see below) users are encouraged to support the work of the FSF by paying for their distribution service or by making donations. One of the slogans of the FSF is "Help stamp out software hoarding!" This remains controversial because authors want to own, assign and sell the results of their labour. However, many hackers who disagree with RMS have nevertheless cooperated to produce large amounts of high-quality software for free redistribution under the Free Software Foundation's imprimatur. See copyleft, General Public Virus, GNU archive site. Unofficial WWW pages: PDX, DeLorie. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Address: Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Telephone: +1 (617) 876 3296.
  • geographical determinism — the theory that human activity is determined by geographical conditions
  • get on the wrong side of — to come into disfavour with
  • get one's arse into gear — to start to do something seriously and quickly
  • get under someone's skin — to anger or irritate someone
  • give hostages to fortune — to place oneself in a position in which misfortune may strike through the loss of what one values most
  • give sb/sth a wide berth — If you give someone or something a wide berth, you avoid them because you think they are unpleasant or dangerous, or simply because you do not like them.
  • give someone enough rope — a strong, thick line or cord, commonly one composed of twisted or braided strands of hemp, flax, or the like, or of wire or other material.
  • give something houseroom — to have or keep something in one's house
  • glasgow haskell compiler — (language)   (GHC) A Haskell 1.2 compiler written in Haskell by the AQUA project at Glasgow University, headed by Simon Peyton Jones <[email protected]> throughout the 1990's [started?]. GHC can generate either C or native code for SPARC, DEC Alpha and other platforms. It can take advantage of features of gcc such as global register variables and has an extensive set of optimisations. GHC features an extensible I/O system based on a "monad", in-line C code, fully fledged unboxed data types, incrementally-updatable arrays, mutable reference types, generational garbage collector, concurrent threads. Time and space profiling is also supported. It requires GNU gcc 2.1+ and Perl. GHC runs on Sun-4, DEC Alpha, Sun-3, NeXT, DECstation, HP-PA and SGI. E-mail: <[email protected]>.
  • glycogen storage disease — any of several inherited disorders of glycogen metabolism that result in excess accumulation of glycogen in various organs of the body.
  • gottfried von strassburg — early 13th-century German poet; author of the incomplete epic Tristan and Isolde, the version of the legend that served as the basis of Wagner's opera
  • graduated pension scheme — (between 1961 and 1975) an earnings-related pension scheme which was based on the amount of an employee's National Insurance contributions
  • graphical user interface — a software interface designed to standardize and simplify the use of computer programs, as by using a mouse to manipulate text and images on a display screen featuring icons, windows, and menus.
  • great saint bernard pass — St. Bernard, Great.
  • greenhouse gas emissions — gases given off that damage ozone layer
  • gregorio lopez y fuentes — Gregorio [gre-gaw-ryaw] /grɛˈgɔ ryɔ/ (Show IPA), 1895–1966, Mexican writer.
  • grin like a cheshire cat — a constantly grinning cat in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
  • hairdressing appointment — an appointment to have your hair cut, styled, coloured, etc, at a hairdresser
  • have at one's fingertips — to have available for instant use
  • have one's head straight — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
  • heart is a lonely hunter — a novel (1940) by Carson McCullers.
  • hierarchical file system — (file system)   A file system in which the files are organised into a hierarchy. The nodes of the hierarchy are called directories while the leaves are the files themselves. See also root directory. Compare flat file system.
  • high bypass ratio engine — a type of by-pass engine in which a large fan driven by a turbine and housed in a short duct forces air rearwards around the exhaust gases in order to increase the propulsive thrust
  • high-density lipoprotein — a blood constituent involved in the transport of cholesterol and associated with a decreased risk of atherosclerosis and heart attack. Abbreviation: HDL .
  • high-fructose corn syrup — corn syrup to which enzymes have been added to change some of the glucose to fructose, making the product sweeter than regular corn syrup. Abbreviation: HFCS.
  • hoop-petticoat narcissus — petticoat narcissus.
  • house of representatives — the lower legislative branch in many national and state bicameral governing bodies, as in the United States, Mexico, and Japan.
  • hyaline membrane disease — respiratory distress syndrome.
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