22-letter words containing s, p, e
- lord justice of appeal — an ordinary judge of the Court of Appeal
- love-hate relationship — If you have a love-hate relationship with someone or something, your feelings towards them change suddenly and often from love to hate.
- lowest common multiple — the smallest number that is a common multiple of a given set of numbers.
- magnetic pole strength — Electricity. a measure of the force exerted by one face of a magnet on a face of another magnet when both magnets are represented by equal and opposite poles. Symbol: m.
- make one's flesh creep — to move slowly with the body close to the ground, as a reptile or an insect, or a person on hands and knees.
- make/prove one's point — If you make your point or prove your point, you prove that something is true, either by arguing about it or by your actions or behaviour.
- mcculloch-pitts neuron — (artificial intelligence) The basic building block of artificial neural networks. It receives one or more inputs and produces one or more identical outputs, each of which is a simple non-linear function of the sum of the inputs to the neuron. The non-linear function is typically a threshhold or step function which is usually smoothed (i.e. a sigmoid) to facilitate learning.
- microspectrophotometer — a spectrophotometer for examining light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by minute objects.
- microspectrophotometry — a spectrophotometer for examining light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by minute objects.
- microwave spectroscopy — the determination of those frequencies of the microwave spectrum that are selectively absorbed by certain materials, providing information about atomic, molecular, and crystalline structure.
- mind one's p's and q's — to be careful to behave correctly and use polite or suitable language
- miscellaneous expenses — small expenses of various kinds
- missing persons bureau — the part of the Police Force dealing with tracing missing people
- monoammonium phosphate — a white, crystalline, moderately water-soluble compound, NH 4 H 2 PO 4 , used as fertilizer, in fire extinguishers, etc.
- motoring correspondent — a journalist who reviews and writes about cars
- mozilla public license — Open source license
- multiplicative inverse — reciprocal (def 9).
- non-constructive proof — (logic) (Or "existence proof") A proof that something exists that does not provide an example of that thing or a method for finding an example. (A constructive proof does provide such an example or method). For example, for any pair of finite real numbers n < 0 and p > 0 there exists a real number 0 < k < 1 such that f(k) = (1-k)*n + k*p = 0. A non-constructive proof might proceed by observing that as k changes continuously from 0 to 1, f(k) changes continuously from n to p and, since they lie either side of zero, f(k) must pass through zero for some intermediate value of k. This proof does not tell us what that value of k is, only that it exists.
- non-maskable interrupt — (NMI) An IRQ 7 on the PDP-11 or 680x0 or the NMI line on an 80x86. In contrast with a priority interrupt (which might be ignored, although that is unlikely), an NMI is *never* ignored.
- nonrepresentationalism — not resembling or portraying any object in physical nature: a nonrepresentational painting.
- nonspecific urethritis — nongonococcal urethritis.
- nonspecular reflection — the diffuse reflection of sound or light waves
- north rhine-westphalia — a state in W Germany; formerly a part of Rhine province. 13,154 sq. mi. (34,070 sq. km). Capital: Düsseldorf.
- not be sb's department — If you say that a task or area of knowledge is not your department, you mean that you are not responsible for it or do not know much about it.
- oak processionary moth — a moth, (Thaumetopoea processionea), of the family Thaumetopoeidae, the larvae of which leave the communal shelter nightly for food in a V-shaped procession
- object-oriented pascal — Object Pascal
- occupational therapist — professional who assists with rehabilitation
- oceanic whitetip shark — whitetip shark (def 2).
- on the part of someone — as far as someone is concerned
- open source definition — (standard) (OSD) Definition of distribution terms for open source software, promoted by the Open Source Initiative.
- open source initiative — (body) (OSI) An organisation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community.
- open-market operations — the purchase and sale on the open market of government securities by the Bank of England for the purpose of regulating the supply of money and credit to the economy
- operating instructions — instructions on how to use something (such an electrical appliance, etc)
- operation desert storm — the codename for the US-led UN operation to liberate Kuwait from Iraq (1991)
- operational data store — (database) (ODS) A group of integrated databases designed to support the monitoring of operations. Unlike function oriented databases, an ODS contains subject-oriented, dynamic, current enterprise-wide information that is continually updated to show the current state of operations.
- oracle parallel server — (database) (OPS) An Oracle configuration that allows for multiple Oracle servers running on seperate computers to access the same database files simultaneously. Normally used for high availability, running parallel servers can improve performance by spreading out CPU load, however, it requires data to be partitioned correctly. This feature is enabled with the Parallel Server Option (or "PSO").
- out-of-pocket expenses — expenses which are unbudgeted and paid for in cash
- outline specifications — preliminary specifications or plans on which later plans are based
- outside awareness port — (humour) (OAP) A humorous IBM term for a window (the glass kind) rather than the GUI kind.
- paddle one's own canoe — any of various slender, open boats, tapering to a point at both ends, propelled by paddles or sometimes sails and traditionally formed of light framework covered with bark, skins, or canvas, or formed from a dug-out or burned-out log or logs, and now usually made of aluminum, fiberglass, etc.
- padparadschah sapphire — a rare, yellowish-orange sapphire found in Sri Lanka.
- pale horse, pale rider — a trilogy of short novels (1939) by Katherine Anne Porter.
- parallel server option — Oracle Parallel Server
- paranoid schizophrenia — severe psychiatric disorder
- parker morris standard — (in Britain) a set of minimum criteria for good housing construction, design, and facilities, recommended by the 1961 report of the Central Housing Advisory Committee chaired by Sir Parker Morris. Subsequent governments have urged private and local authority house-builders to achieve these standards
- partnerships for peace — a subsidiary organization of NATO, comprising former Warsaw Pact countries that wish to be allied with NATO but have not been granted full NATO membership: established in 1994
- passive matrix display — (hardware) A type of liquid crystal display which relies on persistence to maintain the state of each display element (pixel) between refresh scans. The resolution of such displays is limited by the ratio between the time to set a pixel and the time it takes to fade. Contrast active matrix display.
- pay dearly/cost dearly — If you pay dearly for doing something or if it costs you dearly, you suffer a lot as a result.
- peanut-butter sandwich — a sandwich with a filling of peanut-butter
- percussive maintenance — (jargon) The fine art of whacking a device to get it working, possibly using a fine adjuster.