28-letter words containing s, i, l
- national labor relations act — an act of Congress (1935) that forbade any interference by employers with the formation and operation of labor unions.
- national physical laboratory — a UK establishment founded in 1900 at Teddington to carry out research in physics and monitor standards of measurement
- 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. - newly industrialized country — a country that has recently become, or is now in the process of becoming, industrialized
- 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.
- online public access catalog — (library) (OPAC) A computerised system to catalogue and organise materials in a library (the kind that contains books). OPACs have replaced card-based catalogues in many libraries. An OPAC is available to library users (public access).
- ordinary-language philosophy — linguistic analysis.
- ousterhout's false dichotomy — Ousterhout's dichotomy
- packet in plastic grid array — (integrated circuit) (PPGA) The package used for Intel's Celeron Socket 370 CPU.
- palestinian autonomous areas — the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in Israel: these areas were granted autonomous status under the control of the Palestinian National Authority following the 1993 peace agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization
- peaches-and-cream complexion — a pale complexion with rosy cheeks
- penny-wise and pound-foolish — careful about trifles but wasteful in large ventures
- persistent organic pollutant — a toxin resulting from a manufacturing process, which remains in the environment for many years
- personal liability insurance — Personal liability insurance protects the insured if they are sued for claims that are covered by the insurance policy.
- pleuropneumonialike organism — any antibiotic-resistant mycoplasma causing a form of pneumonia in humans. Abbreviation: PPLO.
- potassium antimonyl tartrate — a white, water-soluble, sweet and metallic-tasting, poisonous powder or granules, C 4 H 4 KO 7 Sb, used as a mordant for dyeing textiles and leather, and in medicine as an expectorant, for inducing vomiting, and for infections by schistosomes.
- precious little/precious few — If you say that there is precious little of something, you are emphasizing that there is very little of it, and that it would be better if there were more. Precious few has a similar meaning.
- probability density function — a function of a continuous variable whose integral over a region gives the probability that a random variable falls within the region.
- quick mail transfer protocol — (communications) (QMTP) An SMTP replacement that works better over high latency links as it doesn't require as much interaction as SMTP. QMTP listens on port 209 and is used by qmail.
- raise specification language — (language) (RSL) (RAISE = Rigorous Approach to Industrial Software Engineering). A wide-spectrum specification and design language developed by ESPRIT Project 315 at CRI A/S, Denmark. Systems may be modular, concurrent and nondeterministic. Specifications may be applicative or imperative, explicit or implicit, abstract or concrete.
- real time streaming protocol — (multimedia, networking, protocol) (RTSP) An application layer protocol for controlling delivery of a stream of real-time multimedia content. RTSP allows users to start playing from a certain position. It does not actually deliver the data, but works alongside existing delivery channels such as UDP, TCP, or IP multicast. RTSP was developed by RealNetworks, Netscape Communications, and Columbia University, and is described in RFC 2326, April 1998. RTSP is an IETF proposed standard.
- real-estate investment trust — an unincorporated trust created for the purpose of investing in real property or to extend credit to those engaged in construction. Abbreviation: REIT.
- real-time transport protocol — (protocol) (RTP) An Internet protocol for transmitting real-time data such as audio and video. RTP itself does not guarantee real-time delivery of data, but it does provide mechanisms for the sending and receiving applications to support streaming data. Typically, RTP runs on top of the UDP protocol, although the specification is general enough to support other transport protocols. RTP has received wide industry support. Netscape intends to base its LiveMedia technology on RTP, and Microsoft claims that its NetMeeting product supports RTP.
- reflexive transitive closure — Two elements, x and y, are related by the reflexive transitive closure, R+, of a relation, R, if they are related by the transitive closure, R*, or they are the same element.
- regular expression converter — CONVERT
- religious society of friends — a sect founded by George Fox in England about 1650, opposed to oath-taking and war.
- revised version of the bible — a recension of the Authorized Version, prepared by British and American scholars, the Old Testament being published in 1885, and the New Testament in 1881.
- richardson's ground squirrel — a ground squirrel of the NW USA and Canada, Citellus richardsoni
- savings and loan association — a depositor-owned organization that solicits savings to be placed in saving accounts or in share accounts, on which interest or dividends are paid, and from which mortgage loans on homes or real estate are made
- sb will/can not go far wrong — If you say that someone won't go far wrong or can't go far wrong with a particular thing or course of action, you mean that it is likely to be successful or satisfactory.
- scanning electron microscope — a device in which the specimen is examined point by point directly in a moving electron beam, and electrons reflected by the specimen are used to form a magnified, three-dimensional image on a television screen. Abbreviation: SEM.
- second axiom of countability — the property satisfied by a topological space in which the neighborhood system of each point has a base consisting of a countable number of neighborhoods (first axiom of countability) or the property satisfied by a topological space that has a base for its topology consisting of a countable number of subsets of the space (second axiom of countability)
- second law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
- self-regulating organization — one of several British organizations set up in 1986 under the auspices of the Securities and Investment Board to regulate the activities of London investment markets
- sell someone a bill of goods — to persuade someone by deception or misrepresentation to accept, believe, or do something
- semiconservative replication — replication.
- service advertising protocol — (networking) (SAP) A Novell NetWare protocol. SAP follows the spirit of the Xerox Clearinghouse protocol, it permits file, print, and gateway servers to advertise their services and addresses.
- sexually transmitted disease — any disease characteristically transmitted by sexual contact, as gonorrhea, syphilis, genital herpes, and chlamydia. Abbreviation: STD.
- silicon-controlled rectifier — a semiconductor rectifier whose forward current between two electrodes, the anode and cathode, is initiated by means of a signal applied to a third electrode, the gate. The current subsequently becomes independent of the signal. It is a type of thyristor
- simulation oriented language — (language) (SOL) An ALGOL extension for discrete simulation by Donald Knuth and McNeley.
- single in-line memory module — (storage) (SIMM) A small circuit board or substrate, typically about 10cm x 2cm, with RAM integrated circuits or die on one or both sides and a single row of pins along one long edge. Several SIMMs are mounted with their substrates at right-angles to the main circuit board (the motherboard). This configuration allows greater packing density than direct mounting of, e.g. DIL (dual in-line) RAM packages on the motherboard. In 1993 one SIMM typically held one or four megabytes, by early 1997 one could hold 8, 16, or 32 MB.
- single sideband transmission — a method of transmitting radio waves in which either the upper or the lower sideband is transmitted, the carrier being either wholly or partially suppressed. This reduces the required bandwidth and improves the signal-to-noise ratio
- smooth endoplasmic reticulum — a network of tubular membranes within the cytoplasm of the cell, occurring either with a smooth surface (smooth endoplasmic reticulum) or studded with ribosomes (rough endoplasmic reticulum) involved in the transport of materials.
- special power of appointment — authority to appoint persons from a particular class to take an estate or interest in property
- special theory of relativity — the state or fact of being relative.
- spectral luminous efficiency — a measure of the efficiency of radiation of a given wavelength in producing a visual sensation. It is equal to the ratio of the radiant flux at a standard wavelength to that at the given wavelength when the standard wavelength is chosen so that the maximum value of this ratio is unity
- spill blood/spill sb's blood — If you spill someone's blood, you kill them or wound them.
- standard normal distribution — a normal distribution with mean zero and variance 1, with probability density function [exp(–1⁄2x2)]/√2π
- strictly decreasing function — a function having the property that for any two points in the domain such that one is larger than the other, the image of the larger point is less than the image of the smaller point.