21-letter words containing s, i, m, p
- exposure compensation — the act of overriding a camera's automatic exposure in order to achieve a particular effect or due to difficult lighting conditions
- flip someone the bird — give someone the finger (see phrase under finger)
- framing specification — A specification of the "protocol bits" that surround the "data bits" on a communications channel to allow the data to be "framed" into chunks, like start and stop bits in EIA-232. It allows a receiver to synchronize at points along the data stream.
- freedom of expression — the unrestrained right to voice ideas, opinions, etc
- fuming sulphuric acid — a mixture of pyrosulphuric acid, H2S2O7, and other condensed acids, made by dissolving sulphur trioxide in concentrated sulphuric acid
- gastrohepatic omentum — lesser omentum.
- gender disappointment — a feeling of depression or anxiety experienced by an expectant parent when the gender of the baby does not match his or her preference
- geometric progression — a sequence of terms in which the ratio between any two successive terms is the same, as the progression 1, 3, 9, 27, 81 or 144, 12, 1, 1/12, 1/144.
- give place to someone — to make room for or be superseded by someone
- give someone a leg up — to help someone to climb an obstacle by pushing upwards
- give someone the slip — to move, flow, pass, or go smoothly or easily; glide; slide: Water slips off a smooth surface.
- homolosine projection — an equal-area projection of the world, distorting ocean areas in order to minimize the distortion of the continents.
- hop, skip, and a jump — a short distance: The laundry is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
- human papilloma virus — a species of virus that causes genital warts. Abbreviation: HPV.
- humanistic psychology — an approach to psychology that emphasizes emotions and the better understanding of the self in terms of observation of oneself and one's relations with others
- hypercholesterolaemia — the condition of having a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood
- ieee computer society — (body) The society of the IEEE which publishes the journal "Computer".
- immunoelectrophoresis — a technique for the separation and identification of mixtures of proteins, consisting of electrophoresis followed by immunodiffusion.
- imprecise probability — (probability) A probability that is represented as an interval (as opposed to a single number) included in [0,1].
- in someone's presence — If you are in someone's presence, you are in the same place as that person, and are close enough to them to be seen or heard.
- induction loop system — a system enabling partially deaf people to hear dialogue and sound in theatres, cinemas, etc, consisting of a loop of wire placed round the perimeter of a designated area. This emits an electromagnetic signal which is picked up by a hearing aid
- inner spring mattress — a mattress with a system of wire coils or springs inside for buoyancy or comfort purposes
- irish republican army — an underground Irish nationalist organization founded to work for Irish independence from Great Britain: declared illegal by the Irish government in 1936, but continues activity aimed at the unification of the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Abbreviation: IRA, I.R.A.
- joseph-marie jacquard — (person) /zhoh-zef' mah-ree' zhah-kar'/ (1752-07-07 to 1834-08-07) The inventor of the Jacquard loom.
- keep someone guessing — If someone keeps you guessing, they do not tell you what you want to know.
- least common multiple — lowest common multiple.
- macintosh common lisp — (language) (MCL) Common Lisp for the Apple Macintosh. Guillaume Cartier, of the Mathematics Department at UQAM, Canada, has written some libraries.
- madagascar periwinkle — a plant, Catharanthus roseus (or Vinca rosea), cultivated for its glossy foliage and pink or white flowers.
- magnetoplasmadynamics — magnetohydrodynamics.
- maidenhair spleenwort — an evergreen fern, Asplenium trichomanes, abundant in woody areas of the North Temperate Zone, having thickly clustered fronds.
- main-topsail schooner — a two-masted or three-masted schooner having square topsails on the foremast and mainmast: a jackass brig or jackass bark.
- make a pig of oneself — If you say that someone is making a pig of themselves, you are criticizing them for eating a very large amount at one meal.
- make one's peace with — the normal, nonwarring condition of a nation, group of nations, or the world.
- make up for lost time — compensate for past inaction
- manufacturing process — chain of production
- marine superintendent — a person who is responsible for the maintenance of the vessels of a shipping line, for their docking and the handling of cargo, and for the hiring of personnel for deck departments.
- marquise de pompadour — Marquise de (Jeanne Antoinette Poisson Le Normant d'Étioles) 1721–64, mistress of Louis XV of France.
- mechanical suspension — the act of suspending.
- medical jurisprudence — forensic medicine.
- metropolitan district — any of the districts making up the metropolitan counties of England: since 1986 they have functioned as unitary authorities, forming the sole principal tier of local government. Each metropolitan district has an elected council responsible for education, social services, etc
- microsoft corporation — (company) The biggest supplier of operating systems and other software for IBM PC compatibles. Software products include MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Windows NT, Microsoft Access, LAN Manager, MS Client, SQL Server, Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC), MS Mail, and SNA Server for Windows NT. Microsoft was founded as "Micro-soft" in 1975 by Bill Gates (now CEO) and his high school pal Paul Allen. Their first product was a version of BASIC for the new Altair computer [which one?]. In 1980, IBM chose Microsoft to supply the operating system for the IBM PC. On the UK television program "The Net" in May 1994, Bill Gates said he was betting his company on the information highway". Quarterly sales $1293M, profits $362M (Aug 1994).
- modern apprenticeship — an arrangement that allows a school leaver to gain vocational qualifications while being trained in a job
- mucopolysaccharidoses — Plural form of mucopolysaccharidosis.
- mucopolysaccharidosis — Any of a group of metabolic disorders caused by the absence or malfunction of lysosomal enzymes needed to break down glycosaminoglycans.
- multiplex transmitter — a transmitter that sends signals by multiplex
- operational semantics — (theory) A set of rules specifying how the state of an actual or hypothetical computer changes while executing a program. The overall state is typically divided into a number of components, e.g. stack, heap, registers etc. Each rule specifies certain preconditions on the contents of some components and their new contents after the application of the rule. It is similar in spirit to the notion of a Turing machine, in which actions are precisely described in a mathematical way. Compuare axiomatic semantics, denotational semantics.
- opposite-sex marriage — (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage: Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times. See Word Story at the current entry.
- pacific standard time — See under standard time.
- parametric statistics — the branch of statistics concerned with data measurable on interval or ratio scales, so that arithmetic operations are applicable to them, enabling parameters such as the mean of the distribution to be defined
- payload assist module — a U.S. solid-propellant rocket used to boost a medium-weight spacecraft from a circular low-earth orbit to an elliptical transfer orbit for later insertion into a geosynchronous orbit. Abbreviation: PAM.