25-letter words containing r, u, t, l, e
- nuffield teaching project — (in Britain) a complete school programme in mathematics, science, languages, etc, with suggested complementary theory and practical work
- observational equivalence — Two terms M and N are observationally equivalent iff for all contexts C[] where C[M] is a valid term, C[N] is also a valid term with the same value.
- open educational resource — Usually, open educational resources. a piece of content or a tool for teaching or learning, often developed online, that is made available free of charge for anyone to use, revise, adapt, or redistribute. Abbreviation: OER.
- operator control language — (language) (OCL) The batch language for the IBM System/36, used specifically with the RPG II compiler. See also CL.
- orpheus in the underworld — a classical operetta; the French name is Orphée aux enfers
- out of kilter, off kilter — If something or someone is out of kilter or off kilter, they are not completely right.
- page description language — a high-level programming language for determining the output of a page printer designed to work with it, independent of the printer's internal codes. Abbreviation: PDL.
- peripheral nervous system — the portion of the nervous system lying outside the brain and spinal cord.
- permanent virtual circuit — (networking) (PVC, or in ATM terminology, "Permanent Virtual Connection") A virtual circuit that is permanently established, saving the time associated with circuit establishment and tear-down.
- personalized number plate — a car registration plate that has the owner's initials or name on it
- principle of virtual work — the principle that the total work done by all forces on a system in static equilibrium is zero for a set of infinitesimally small displacements.
- public inter national law — Also called public law. the law governing the legal relations between independent states or nations and, increasingly, between these and individuals.
- public key infrastructure — (cryptography, communications) (PKI) A system of public key encryption using digital certificates from Certificate Authorities and other registration authorities that verify and authenticate the validity of each party involved in an electronic transaction. PKIs are currently evolving and there is no single PKI nor even a single agreed-upon standard for setting up a PKI. However, nearly everyone agrees that reliable PKIs are necessary before electronic commerce can become widespread.
- public relations exercise — something which is done for the sake of attracting favourable publicity
- pull/get one's finger out — If you tell someone to pull their finger out or to get their finger out, you are telling them rudely that you want them to start doing some work or making an effort.
- qualified majority voting — a voting system, used by the EU Council of Ministers, enabling certain resolutions to be passed without unanimity
- radio-controlled junction — A radio-controlled junction is a piece of equipment used to control underground pipelines which connect oil tanks.
- rate monotonic scheduling — (algorithm) A means of scheduling the time allocated to periodic hard-deadline real-time users of a resource. The users are assigned priorities such that a shorter fixed period between deadlines is associated with a higher priority. Rate monotonic scheduling provides a low-overhead, reasonably resource-efficient means of guaranteeing that all users will meet their deadlines provided that certain analytical equations are satisfied during the system design. It avoids the design complexity of time-line scheduling and the overhead of dynamic approaches such as earliest-deadline scheduling.
- rotational quantum number — the quantum number that distinguishes the angular momentum states associated with the rotational motion of a molecule.
- ruffle someone's feathers — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
- saint pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
- saybolt universal seconds — a US measurement of viscosity similar in type to the British Redwood seconds
- sequential parlog machine — (SPM) The virtual machine (and its machine code) for the Parlog logic programming language.
- single document interface — (programming) (SDI) A limitation applying to an application program that only shows a single windows giving a view of one document at a time. The opposite is Multiple Document Interface (MDI).
- single electron tunneling — (electronics) (SET) A New electrical standard for capacitance. SET devices can be used to construct circuits which process information by manipulating individual electrons. SET devices are small, dissipate little power, and can detect exquisitely small quantities of charge. The small size and low power dissipation of SET circuits makes them potentially useful for the Information Technology industry.
- slip/fall through the net — You use slip through the net or fall through the net to describe a situation where people are not properly cared for by the system that is intended to help them.
- spark annotation language — (language) (SAL) ICL, Ltd. Used in the verification of SPARK programs against Z specifications.
- structured query language — SQL
- subscriber trunk dialling — a service by which telephone subscribers can obtain trunk calls by dialling direct without the aid of an operator
- sulphate-resisting cement — a type of Portland cement that resists normal concentrations of sulphates: used in concrete for flues and underwater work
- take up the cudgels (for) — to come to the defense (of)
- tess of the d'urbervilles — a novel (1891) by Thomas Hardy.
- thank one's (lucky) stars — to be thankful for what appears to be good luck
- the ball is in sb's court — If you say that the ball is in someone's court, you mean that it is his or her responsibility to take the next action or decision in a situation.
- the ball is in your court — you are obliged to make the next move
- the empire state building — a very high skyscraper in New York City
- the industrial revolution — the transformation in the 18th and 19th centuries of first Britain and then other W European countries and the US into industrial nations
- thermal imaging equipment — heat-sensitive devices that can detect or provide images of people or things
- thermodynamic equilibrium — the condition of an isolated system in which the quantities that specify its properties, such as pressure, temperature, etc, all remain unchanged
- thermoluminescence dating — a method of dating archaeological specimens, chiefly pottery, by measuring the radiation given off by ceramic materials as they are heated.
- through the looking-glass — a story for children (1871) by Lewis Carroll: the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
- to live beyond your means — If someone is living beyond their means, they are spending more money than they can afford. If someone is living within their means, they are not spending more money than they can afford.
- to open/reopen old wounds — Something that opens old wounds or reopens old wounds reminds someone about an upsetting experience in the past which they would prefer to forget.
- touch/cover all the bases — If someone touches all the bases or covers the bases, they deal with everyone or everything involved in a situation.
- unconditional convergence — the property of a convergent infinite series that remains convergent when the terms are arranged in any order.
- under the watchful eye of — If you do something under the watchful eye of someone who has authority over you, they watch you carefully to make sure there are no problems.
- undisputed world champion — a boxer who holds the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, the World Boxing Organization, and the International Boxing Federation world championship titles simultaneously
- university of east london — (body, education) (UEL) A UK University with six academic Faculties: Design and The Built Environment, East London Business School, Institute Of Health and Rehabilitation, Faculty Of Science, Social Sciences and Technology.
- vertical redundancy check — (storage, communications) (VRC) An error checking method performed on one 8-bit ASCII character, where the 8th bit is used as the parity bit. The resulting parity bit is constructed by XORing the word. The result is a "1" if there is an odd number of 1s, and a "0" if there is an even number of 1s in the word. This method is unreliable because if an odd number of bits are distorted, the check will not detect the error. The Longitudinal Redundancy Check is an improvement.
- world wide web consortium — (web, body) (W3C) The main standards body for the web. W3C works with the global community to establish international standards for client and server protocols that enable on-line commerce and communications on the Internet. It also produces reference software. W3C was created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on 25 October 1994. Netscape Communications Corporation was a founding member. The Consortium is run by MIT LCS and INRIA, in collaboration with CERN where the web originated. W3C is funded by industrial members but its products are freely available to all. The director is Tim Berners-Lee who invented the web at the Center for European Particle Research (CERN).