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17-letter words containing r, o, a, s, t, i

  • disaster recovery — (business)   (DR) Planning and implementation of procedures and facilities for use when essential systems are not available for a period long enough to have a significant impact on the business, e.g. when the head office is blown up. Disasters include natural: fire, flood, lightning, hurricane; hardware: power failure, component failure, head crash; software failure: bugs, resources; vandalism: arson, bombing, cracking, theft; data corruption or loss: human error, media failure; communications: computer network equipment, network storm, telephones; security: passwords compromised, computer virus; legal: change in legislation; personnel: unavailability of essential staff, industrial action. Companies need to plan for disaster: before: risk analysis, preventive measures, training; during: how should staff and systems respond; after: recovery measures, post mortem analysis. Hardware can usually be replaced and is usually insured. Software and data needs to be backed up off site. Alternative communication systems should be arranged in case of network failure or inaccessible premises, e.g. emergency telephone number, home working, alternative data center.
  • disintermediation — the act of removing funds from savings banks and placing them into short-term investments on which the interest-rate yields are higher.
  • disproportionally — not in proportion; disproportionate.
  • disproportionates — Third-person singular simple present indicative form of disproportionate.
  • disruptive action — action performed by protestors, workers, etc that causes the disruption of a service
  • dissipation trail — a clear rift left behind an aircraft flying through a thin cloud layer.
  • dissociated press — [Play on "Associated Press"; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then prints the next word or letter. Emacs has a handy command for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of the Jargon File: wart: A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source: window sysIWYG: A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, "window sysIWYG" and "informash" show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called "travesty generators" have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see pseudo.
  • dissolve in tears — weep
  • district attorney — an officer who acts as attorney for the people or government within a specified district.
  • dramatis personae — (used with a plural verb) the characters in a play.
  • ductus arteriosis — a fetal blood vessel that connects the left pulmonary artery directly to the descending aorta, normally closing after birth.
  • eastern townships — an area of central Canada, in S Quebec: consists of 11 townships south of the St Lawrence
  • eastern tradition — any of the philosophies and teachings that derive from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and other spiritual traditions of the East
  • ectoparasiticides — Plural form of ectoparasiticide.
  • electric constant — the permittivity of free space, which has the value 8.854 187 × 10–12 farad per metre
  • electroanesthesia — Anesthesia induced by cranial electrotherapy stimulation.
  • electrostatically — In an electrostatic manner, by electrostatic means.
  • emergency rations — food and drink that is designated for use in an emergency: for example, in a famine, after a plane crash, when hill-walkers or mountaineers are stranded, etc.
  • emissions trading — the buying and selling of allowances for pollutant emissions
  • environmentalists — Plural form of environmentalist.
  • ethinyloestradiol — Alternative form of ethinylestradiol.
  • extraordinariness — The property of being extraordinary.
  • factory inspector — a person who inspects factories
  • fairness doctrine — a policy mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, requiring radio and television stations to grant equal time to a political candidate, group, etc., to present an opposing viewpoint to one already aired.
  • first call on sth — If you have first call on something, you will be asked before anyone else whether you want to buy or use it.
  • first commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”: first of the Ten Commandments.
  • first normal form — database normalisation
  • first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
  • fish out of water — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
  • fitness programme — a plan to help someone improve their health and physical condition
  • fluvioterrestrial — (of animals) able to live in rivers and on land
  • fore-and-aft sail — any of various sails, as jib-headed sails, gaff sails, lugsails, lateen sails, spritsails, staysails, and jibs, that do not set on yards and whose normal position, when not trimmed, is in a fore-and-aft direction amidships.
  • foreign relations — (used with a singular verb) the field of foreign affairs: an expert in foreign relations.
  • foreign secretary — foreign minister.
  • foundation course — A foundation course is a course that you do at some colleges and universities in order to prepare yourself for a longer or more advanced course.
  • fourier transform — a mapping of a function, as a signal, that is defined in one domain, as space or time, into another domain, as wavelength or frequency, where the function is represented in terms of sines and cosines.
  • fractal dimension — (mathematics)   A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
  • frankenstein food — any foodstuff that has been genetically modified
  • fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
  • frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
  • functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
  • general sarmiento — a city in E Argentina, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
  • geomagnetic storm — magnetic storm.
  • george washington — Booker T(aliaferro) [boo k-er tol-uh-ver] /ˈbʊk ər ˈtɒl ə vər/ (Show IPA), 1856–1915, U.S. reformer, educator, author, and lecturer.
  • gestatorial chair — a ceremonial chair on which the pope is carried
  • get a rise out of — to get up from a lying, sitting, or kneeling posture; assume an upright position: She rose and walked over to greet me. With great effort he rose to his knees.
  • get in one's hair — to annoy one
  • get to first base — Baseball. the first in counterclockwise order of the bases from home plate. the position of the player covering the area of the infield near first base.
  • glastonbury chair — a folding chair having legs crossed front-to-back and having arms connected to the back and to the front seat rail.
  • go-faster stripes — (jargon)   chrome. Mainstream in some parts of UK.
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