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28-letter words containing s, e, r, n

  • have two strikes against one — to be at a decided disadvantage
  • high performance file system — (file system)   (HPFS) The native file system for IBM's OS/2.
  • human immunodeficiency virus — See under AIDS virus. Abbreviation: HIV.
  • hydrolysed vegetable protein — a powder or liquid that is produced by boiling legumes or cereals in hydrochloric acid and then neutralizing with sodium hydroxide. It is used as a flavouring in some foods, such as soups and bouillon cubes
  • ieee floating point standard — (standard, mathematics)   (IEEE 754) "IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic (ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985)" or IEC 559: "Binary floating-point arithmetic for microprocessor systems". A standard, used by many CPUs and FPUs, which defines formats for representing floating-point numbers; representations of special values (e.g. infinity, very small values, NaN); five exceptions, when they occur, and what happens when they do occur; four rounding modes; and a set of floating-point operations that will work identically on any conforming system. IEEE 754 specifies formats for representing floating-point values: single-precision (32-bit) is required, double-precision (64-bit) is optional. The standard also mentions that some implementations may include single-extended precision (80-bit) and double-extended precision (128-bit) formats.
  • imperial software technology — (company)   A software engineering company which emerged from Imperial College in about 1982. It enjoys a world-wide reputation for technical excellence as a software product and technology provider in the Open Systems market. Its flagship product is X-Designer, the award-winning graphical user interface builder. It also has considerable expertise in the Z language and Formal Methods.
  • in (good, poor, etc. ) taste — in a form, style, or manner showing a (good, poor, etc.) sense of beauty, excellence, fitness, propriety, etc.
  • infectious laryngotracheitis — a viral disease of adult chickens, characterized by inflammation and hemorrhage of the larynx and trachea and, in many cases, resulting in asphyxiation.
  • information retrieval system — a system for recovering specific information from stored data
  • instantaneous sound pressure — sound pressure (def 1).
  • instruction address register — (architecture)   (IAR) The IBM name for program counter. The IAR can be accessed by way of a supervisor call in supervisor state, but cannot be directly addressed in problem state.
  • instruction set architecture — (architecture)   (ISA) The parts of a processor's design that need to be understood in order to write assembly language, such as the machine language instructions and registers. Parts of the architecture that are left to the implementation, such as number of superscalar functional units, cache size and cycle speed, are not part of the ISA. The definition of SPARC, for example, carefully distinguishes between an implementation and a specification.
  • integrated drive electronics — Advanced Technology Attachment
  • internet research task force — (IRTF) The IRTF is chartered by the Internet Architecture Board to consider long-term Internet issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups, similar to Internet Engineering Task Force Working Groups, which are each tasked to discuss different research topics. Multi-cast audio/video conferencing and privacy enhanced mail are samples of IRTF output.
  • it won't hurt/it never hurts — If you say 'It won't hurt to do something' or 'It never hurts to do something', you are recommending an action which you think is helpful or useful.
  • java servlet development kit — (web)   (JSDK) A suite of software for easing the development of Java servlets.
  • karelian autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the NW Russian Federation in Europe. 66,500 sq. mi. (172,240 sq. km). Capital: Petrozavodsk.
  • keep a weather eye on sb/sth — If you keep a weather eye on someone or something, you stay alert so that you will notice if anything unpleasant happens.
  • keep one's ear to the ground — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
  • knowledge systems laboratory — (KSL) An artificial intelligence research laboratory within the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University. Current work focuses on knowledge representation for sharable engineering knowledge bases and systems, computational environments for modelling physical devices, architectures for adaptive intelligent systems, and expert systems for science and engineering.
  • lempel-ziv welch compression — (LZW) The algorithm used by the Unix compress command to reduce the size of files, e.g. for archival or transmission. LZW was designed by Terry Welch in 1984 for implementation in hardware for high-performance disk controllers. It is a variant of LZ78, one of the two Lempel-Ziv compression schemes. The LZW algorithm relies on reoccurrence of byte sequences (strings) in its input. It maintains a table mapping input strings to their associated output codes. The table initially contains mappings for all possible strings of length one. Input is taken one byte at a time to find the longest initial string present in the table. The code for that string is output and then the string is extended with one more input byte, b. A new entry is added to the table mapping the extended string to the next unused code (obtained by incrementing a counter). The process repeats, starting from byte b. The number of bits in an output code, and hence the maximum number of entries in the table is usually fixed and once this limit is reached, no more entries are added. LZW compression and decompression are licensed under Unisys Corporation's 1984 U.S. Patent 4,558,302 and equivalent foreign patents. This kind of patent isn't legal in most coutries of the world (including the UK) except the USA. Patents in the UK can't describe algorithms or mathematical methods.
  • level premium term insurance — Level premium term insurance is term insurance with premiums that remain the same throughout the life of the contract.
  • lloyd's register of shipping — an annual publication giving details of all ships that have been built according to the various classifications established by this society
  • local mail transfer protocol — (messaging, protocol)   (LMTP) A protocol designed as an alternative to ESMTP for cases where the mail receiver does not manage a queue. LMTP is an application level protocol that runs on top of TCP/IP. It was initially defined in RFC 2033, and uses (with a few changes) the syntax and semantics of ESMTP. It should be used only by specific prior arrangement and configuration, and it must not be used on TCP port 25 (the SMTP port).
  • lotus notes formula language — (language)   A macro language for Lotus Notes that uses commands starting with @, e.g. @If, @Left, @Right, @Username. Many Notes applications are built with just this language.
  • machine-assisted translation — translation done by a human translator who uses computer software to assist with the translation
  • magnetic particle inspection — a method of testing for cracks and other defects in a magnetic material, such as steel, by covering it with a magnetic powder and magnetizing it: any variation in the concentration of the powder indicates a flaw in the material
  • make one's hair stand on end — any of the numerous fine, usually cylindrical, keratinous filaments growing from the skin of humans and animals; a pilus.
  • manpower services commission — (in Britain, formerly) an organization providing training for adult workers
  • marriage guidance counsellor — a person whose job is to give advice given to couples who have problems in their married life
  • meter-kilogram-second-ampere — of or relating to the system of units in which the meter, kilogram, second, and ampere are the principal units of length, mass, time, and electric current. Abbreviation: mksa, MKSA.
  • microsoft foundation classes — (programming)   (MFC) Software structures in C++, the Windows base classes which can respond to messages, make windows, and from which application specific classes can be derived.
  • morpheme structure condition — (in generative phonology) a constraint on the occurrence of sounds or sequences of sounds in the phonological representation of morphemes.
  • motion picture experts group — (spelling)   Incorrect expansion of MPEG, which stands for Moving Picture Experts Group.
  • mouth-to-mouth resuscitation — a method of artificial respiration in which a person rhythmically blows air into the victim's lungs, either directly, by placing the mouth over the patient's, or through a tube.
  • moving picture experts group — (compression, standard, algorithm, file format, body)   (MPEG, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC29 WG11) An ISO committee that generates standards for digital video compression and audio. Also the name of their algorithms.
  • multimedia personal computer — (multimedia)   (MPC) A specification published by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council in 1990 to encourage the adoption of a standard multimedia computing platform. In May 1993, the MPC Marketing Council published a new specification called MPC Level 2 Specification as an enhanced multimedia computer standard. The original MPC specification, now also known as the MPC Level 1 Specification, continues in full effect. The appearance of the MPC or MPC2 certification mark on a computer system or upgrade kit indicates that the hardware meets the corresponding (Level 1 or Level 2) MPC Marketing Council specification. Software bearing the Multimedia PC mark has been designed to work on Multimedia PC licensed hardware. By establishing a standard platform, certifying hardware compliance and providing inter-operability between software and hardware for the consumer, the MPC Marketing Council is encouraging widespread use of multimedia applications and hardware.
  • munchausen syndrome by proxy — Psychiatry. a form of Munchausen syndrome in which a person induces or claims to observe a disease in another, usually a close relative, in order to attract the doctor's attention to herself or himself.
  • national bureau of standards — National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • national labor relations act — an act of Congress (1935) that forbade any interference by employers with the formation and operation of labor unions.
  • national savings certificate — (in Britain) a certificate bought from the National Savings department which can be redeemed tax-free with accrued interest, usually after 5 years
  • national semiconductor 32000 — (processor)   (NS32000) The first of a series of microprocessors from National Semiconductor. The 320xx processors have an interface which allows coprocessors such as FPUs and MMUs to be attached in a chain. The 320xx was the predecessor of the Swordfish processor.
  • new revised standard version — a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version of the Bible sponsored by the National Council of Churches in the U.S. and published in 1989
  • newly industrialized country — a country that has recently become, or is now in the process of becoming, industrialized
  • none the wiser/any the wiser — If you say that someone is none the wiser after an event or an explanation, or that nobody is any the wiser after it, you mean that they have failed to understand it, or are not fully aware of what happened.
  • north-west frontier province — a province in Pakistan, bordering Punjab and Kashmir on the west: a former province of British India. 28,773 sq. mi. (77,516 sq. km). Capital: Peshawar.
  • not have room to swing a cat — to have very little space
  • not to take no for an answer — If you say that someone will not take no for an answer, you mean that they go on trying to make you agree to something even after you have refused.
  • object persistence framework — (programming)   (OPF) Any system for storing objects so they can be reloaded into a future session. Typically this will use a relational database along with some kind of object relational mapping. Another typical solution would store objects in XML files (a form of serialisation). One of the trickier problems to solve is how to maintain references between objects, e.g. replacing memory pointers with unique names or identifiers. Virtually identical considerations apply to transferring objects, or indeed any kind of data structure, from one process to another via some communications channel, e.g. a TCP/IP connection.
  • object-oriented polymorphism — (programming)   The kind of polymorphism found in object-oriented programming languages where a variable can refer to an object whose class is not known exactly until run time. A method can use a variable of a given class - call other methods on it, pass it as an argument, etc. - without needing to know to which subclass it refers, as long as its actual class is compatible with those uses.
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