15-letter words containing s, e, r, p, n
- eric conspiracy — (person, humour) A shadowy group of moustachioed hackers named Eric first pinpointed as a sinister conspiracy by an infamous talk.bizarre posting ca. 1986. This was doubtless influenced by the numerous "Eric" jokes in the Monty Python oeuvre. There do indeed seem to be considerably more moustachioed Erics in hackerdom than the frequency of these three traits can account for unless they are correlated in some arcane way. Well-known examples include Eric Allman (of the "Allman style" described under indent style), Erik Fair (co-author of NNTP), Eric S. Raymond and about fifteen others. The organisation line "Eric Conspiracy Secret Laboratories" now emanates regularly from more than one site.
- evening prayers — the daily evening service of Bible readings and prayers prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer
- existence proof — non-constructive proof
- experientialism — (philosophy) The theory that experience is the source of knowledge.
- experientialist — A proponent of experientialism.
- experimentalism — An experimental practice or tendency, especially in the arts.
- experimentalist — One who performs experiments.
- export earnings — the earnings of a company or country that are generated through the export of goods or services
- express oneself — to communicate one's thoughts or ideas
- expression mark — one of a set of musical directions, usually in Italian, indicating how a piece or passage is to be performed
- expression tree — (mathematics, grammar) The syntax tree of an expression.
- expressionistic — Expressionist.
- expulsion order — a legal document ordering someone's expulsion
- extemporisation — Alternative spelling of extemporization.
- external spline — any one of a series of narrow keys formed longitudinally around the circumference of a shaft that fit into corresponding grooves (internal splines) in a mating part: used to prevent movement between two parts, esp in transmitting torque
- facile princeps — an obvious leader
- false pregnancy — physiological signs of pregnancy without conception; pseudocyesis.
- false pretences — fraud, deception
- false pretenses — If you do something under false pretenses, you do it when people do not know the truth about you and your intentions.
- fencepost error — 1. (Rarely "lamp-post error") A problem with the discrete equivalent of a boundary condition, often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the following problem: "If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts 10 feet apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better answer than the obvious 10). For example, suppose you have a long list or array of items, and want to process items m through n; how many items are there? The obvious answer is n - m, but that is off by one; the right answer is n - m + 1. The "obvious" formula exhibits a fencepost error. See also zeroth and note that not all off-by-one errors are fencepost errors. The game of Musical Chairs involves a catastrophic off-by-one error where N people try to sit in N - 1 chairs, but it's not a fencepost error. Fencepost errors come from counting things rather than the spaces between them, or vice versa, or by neglecting to consider whether one should count one or both ends of a row. 2. (Rare) An error induced by unexpected regularities in input values, which can (for instance) completely thwart a theoretically efficient binary tree or hash coding implementation. The error here involves the difference between expected and worst case behaviours of an algorithm.
- fillister plane — an adjustable plane for cutting rabbets, grooves, etc
- finders keepers — whoever finds something has the right to keep it
- finger spelling — a method of communicating with or among deaf people in which different shapes made with the fingers represent different letters of the alphabet
- first principle — any axiom, law, or abstraction assumed and regarded as representing the highest possible degree of generalization.
- first responder — a person who is certified to provide medical care in emergencies before more highly trained medical personnel arrive on the scene: a firefighter trained as a first responder.
- fissiparousness — The quality of being fissiparous.
- food processing — transforming raw materials into food
- for the present — being, existing, or occurring at this time or now; current: increasing respect for the present ruler of the small country.
- for their pains — You say that something was all you got for your pains when you are mentioning the disappointing result of situation into which you put a lot of work or effort.
- forensic expert — an expert in applying scientific, technical or medical knowledge to the purposes of law
- fourteen points — a statement of the war aims of the Allies, made by President Wilson on January 8, 1918.
- fourteen-points — a statement of the war aims of the Allies, made by President Wilson on January 8, 1918.
- fragrance strip — a folded, usually sealed strip on a page or card, impregnated with fragrance that is released when pulled or torn open: The magazine is full of fragrance strips in the advertisements.
- franz joseph ii — 1906–1989, prince of Liechtenstein 1938–89.
- free enterprise — an economic and political doctrine holding that a capitalist economy can regulate itself in a freely competitive market through the relationship of supply and demand with a minimum of governmental intervention and regulation.
- french-speaking — able to speak French
- fresnel biprism — biprism.
- front-page news — a story printed on the first page of a newspaper
- gender politics — debate about the roles and relations of men and women
- gender-specific — for, characteristic of, or limited to either males or females: Left-handedness is not gender-specific.
- general paresis — a syphilitic brain disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and degeneration of cerebral tissue resulting in mental and physical deterioration.
- general-purpose — useful in many ways; not limited in use or function: a good general-purpose dictionary.
- geomorphogenist — one who studies, or is an expert in, geomorphogeny
- german shepherd — one of a breed of large shepherd dogs having a coat ranging in color from gray to brindled, black-and-tan, or black, used especially in police work and as a guide for the blind.
- german-speaking — able to speak German
- glazier's point — a small, pointed piece of sheet metal, for holding a pane of glass in a sash until the putty has hardened.
- gnome computers — (company) A small UK hardware and software company. They make transputer boards for the Acorn Archimedes among other things. E-mail: Chris Stenton <[email protected]>.
- golden eardrops — a Californian plant, Dicentra chrysantha, of the fumitory family, having bluish-green foliage and branched clusters of yellow flowers.
- golden samphire — a Eurasian coastal plant, Inula crithmoides, with fleshy leaves and yellow flower heads: family Asteraceae (composites)
- gossipmongering — The behaviour of a gossipmonger; the spreading of salacious rumours.