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20-letter words containing s, p, e, i

  • catastrophic illness — A catastrophic illness is a major health event that takes place during a particular period of time, such as a heart attack, stroke, or cancer.
  • cavendish experiment — the experiment, conducted by Henry Cavendish, that determined the constant of gravitation by using a torsion balance and measuring the torsion produced by two masses placed at given distances from the masses on the balance.
  • cellular respiration — the oxidation of organic compounds that occurs within cells, producing energy for cellular processes.
  • center of percussion — the point on a rigid body, suspended so as to be able to move freely about a fixed axis, at which the body may be struck without changing the position of the axis.
  • centrifugal spinning — the spinning of rayon filaments in a centrifugal box.
  • chapter of accidents — a series of misfortunes
  • chebyshev polynomial — a polynomial solution of the Tchebycheff equation, of the form T n (x) = cos(n cos −1 x), where n is an integer.
  • chemolithoautotrophs — Plural form of chemolithoautotroph.
  • chief superintendent — an officer of senior rank in a British police force or other similarly organized force
  • child support agency — the British government agency concerned with the welfare of children
  • chip scale packaging — (hardware)   (CSP) A type of surface mount integrated circuit packaging that provides pre-speed-sorted, pre-tested and pre-packaged die without requiring special testing. An example is Motorola's Micro SMT packaging. See also: chip-on-board, flip chip, multichip module, known good die, ball grid array.
  • chips & technologies — (company)   A former leading distributor and supplier of integrated circuits and software to personal computer manufacturers. As well as semiconductors they also made flat panel displays, video controllers and other computer related products. In 1998, Intel Corporation bought Chips and Technologies for their flat panel controllers. In January 2000, Asiliant Technologies licensed the rights from Intel to continue to manufacturer and sell Chips and Technologies components. Address: 2950 Zanker Road, San Jose, California 95134, USA.
  • christopher columbus — Christopher (Sp. Cristóbal Colón; It. Cristoforo Colombo) 1446?–1506, Italian navigator in Spanish service: traditionally considered the discoverer of America 1492.
  • christopher strachey — (person)   Professor of Computation at Oxford, England, born 1916, died May 1975. He invented the term "currying". See also: General Purpose Macro-generator.
  • clay-pigeon shooting — the activity of shooting clay pigeons
  • cleansing department — the department of a local authority that collects refuse
  • clip someone's wings — to restrict someone's freedom
  • co-operative society — In Britain, a co-operative society is a commercial organization with several shops in a particular district. Customers can join this organization and get a share of its profits.
  • cognitive psychology — the psychological study of higher mental processes, including thinking and perception
  • collective ownership — ownership by a group for the benefit of members of that group
  • colloidal suspension — a mixture having particles of one component, with diameters between 10 −7 and 10 −9 metres, suspended in a continuous phase of another component. The mixture has properties between those of a solution and a fine suspension
  • compartmentalisation — Alternative form of compartmentalization.
  • compensating balance — Also, compensated balance, compensation balance. a balance wheel in a timepiece, designed to compensate for variations in tension in the hair spring caused by changes in temperature.
  • compensation culture — a culture in which people are very ready to go to law over even relatively minor incidents in the hope of gaining compensation
  • compensation package — the sum of compensation awarded in a legal case
  • complaints procedure — a prescribed method of lodging a complaint to an institution
  • composite photograph — a photograph formed by superimposing two or more separate photographs
  • comprehensive school — a secondary school for children of all abilities from the same district
  • compression ignition — ignition of engine fuel by the heat of air compressed in the cylinders into which the fuel is introduced.
  • computer typesetting — a system for the high-speed composition of type by a device driven by punched paper tape or magnetic tape that has been processed by a computer
  • conditioned response — a response that is transferred from the second to the first of a pair of stimuli. A well-known Pavlovian example is salivation by a dog when it hears a bell ring, because food has always been presented when the bell has been rung previously
  • connector conspiracy — (business, standard)   The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, other designers) to come up with products that don't fit with the old stuff, thereby making you buy either all new stuff or expensive interface devices. The term probably came into prominence with the appearance of the DEC KL-10, none of whose connectors matched anything else. The KL-10 Massbus connector was actually *patented* by DEC, who reputedly refused to licence the design, thus effectively locking out competition for the lucrative Massbus peripherals market. This policy was a source of frustration for the owners of dying, obsolescent disk and tape drives. A related phenomenon is the invention of new screw heads so that only Designated Persons, possessing the magic screwdrivers, can remove covers and make repairs or install options. Older Apple Macintoshes took this one step further, requiring not only a hex wrench but a specialised case-cracking tool to open the box. With the advent of more open-systems computing this term has fallen somewhat into disuse. Compare backward combatability.
  • conservative baptist — a member of a Protestant denomination (Conservative Baptist Association of America) organized in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1948.
  • consumer price index — The consumer price index is an official measure of the rate of inflation within a country's economy. The abbreviation CPI is also used.
  • contact metamorphism — localized metamorphism resulting from the heat of an igneous intrusion.
  • continuum hypothesis — the assertion that there is no set whose cardinality is greater than that of the integers and smaller than that of the reals
  • controlled explosion — the deliberate detonation of an explosive device under strictly controlled circumstances
  • conventional weapons — weapons which are not nuclear
  • conversation stopper — a comment that is so shocking or boring that people stop talking
  • copulative asyndeton — a staccato effect produced by omitting copulative connectives between two or more items in a group, as in “Friends, Romans, countrymen.”.
  • corresponding angles — a pair of nonadjacent angles, one interior and one exterior, on the same side of a transversal: these paired angles are equal if the lines cut by the transversal are parallel
  • craft apprenticeship — a period of training for a skilled trade in industry, such as for a plumber or electrician
  • craniosacral therapy — a form of therapy for various disorders in which the therapist manipulates the bones of the skull
  • crime and punishment — a novel (1866) by Feodor Dostoevsky.
  • criminal proceedings — action taken in a court to bring a criminal prosecution against someone
  • darkfield microscope — kind of microscope
  • decomposed petri net — (parallel)   (DPN) A Petri net that has been split into multiple, interconnected nets. This makes it easier to analyse or run the net. DPNs are the basis of concurrency in ConC.
  • deep vein thrombosis — Deep vein thrombosis is a serious medical condition caused by blood clots in the legs moving up to the lungs. The abbreviation DVT is also used.
  • deep-vein thrombosis — a condition in which a blood clot forms in a vein deep beneath the skin, typically in the leg or pelvic area: Immobility and lack of exercise are risk factors for deep-vein thrombosis.
  • definite description — a description that is modified by the definite article or a possessive, such as the woman in white or Rosemary's baby
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