26-letter words containing s, p, e
- first-past-the-post system — a voting system in which a candidate may be elected by a simple majority rather than an absolute majority
- fixed-point representation — the representation of numbers by a single set of digits such that the radix point has a predetermined location, the value of the number depending on the position of each digit relative to the radix point
- follow someone's footsteps — the setting down of a foot, or the sound so produced; footfall; tread.
- gastroesophageal sphincter — a ring of smooth muscle fibers connecting the esophagus and stomach.
- generic expert system tool — (artificial intelligence) (GEST) An expert system shell for Symbolics Lisp machine, with frames, forward chaining, backward chaining and fuzzy logic; written by John Gilmore(?) at GA Tech.
- german shorthaired pointer — one of a German breed of large sporting dogs having a short hard coat, usually liver or liver and white in color, and a docked tail, used as a versatile hunting dog.
- give a piece of one's mind — (in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind.
- give someone (enough) rope — to allow someone freedom of action in the expectation that that person will overreach himself or herself
- gnu general public license — General Public License
- greater spotted woodpecker — a black-and-white bird, Dendrocopos major, of the woodpecker family
- histocompatibility antigen — any antigen on the surface of tissue or blood cells that provokes the immune response and subsequent rejection when transplanted to an individual of a different antigenic type, thus determining whether the tissues or organs of a donor and recipient are histocompatible.
- hoist with your own petard — If someone who has planned to harm someone else is hoist with their own petard or hoist by their own petard, their plan in fact results in harm to themselves.
- human resources department — the department in an organization dealing with matters involving employees, as hiring, training, labor relations, and benefits.
- hydraulic submersible pump — A hydraulic submersible pump is a pump which is used offshore and onshore for downhole and subsea boosting, and can combine production and injection duties.
- hydrogenated glucose syrup — a syrup produced by the incomplete hydrolysis of starch followed by the hydrogenation of the glucose syrup, and used as a sweetener in confectionery, etc
- insulin-dependent diabetes — See under diabetes.
- integrated data processing — IDP.
- integrated pest management — an ecological approach to pest management that combines understanding the causes of pest outbreaks, manipulating the crop ecosystem for pest control, and monitoring pest populations and their life cycles to determine if and when the use of pesticides is indicated. Abbreviation: IPM.
- interactive voice response — (communications) (IVR)
A telecommunications system, prevelant with PBX and voice mail systems, that uses a prerecorded database of voice messages to present options to a user, typically over telephone lines. User input is retrieved via DTMF tone key presses. When used in conjunction with voice mail, for example, these systems typically allow users to store, retrieve, and route messages, as well as interact with an underlying database server which may allow for automated transactions and data processing. (15 Sept 1997) - javascript object notation — (programming) (JSON) Syntax for serialising JavaScript objects, often used as a data carrier format. JSON is based on a subset of the JavaScript programming language. It uses a file extension of .json and is considered a language-independent data format.
- jump down someone's throat — the passage from the mouth to the stomach or to the lungs, including the pharynx, esophagus, larynx, and trachea.
- justice of the peace court — (in Scotland, formerly) a court with limited criminal jurisdiction held by justices of the peace in counties: replaced in 1975 by the district court
- karachai-cherkess republic — an autonomous republic in the S Russian Federation in Europe, in the Caucasus. 5442 sq. mi. (14,100 sq. km). Capital: Cherkessk.
- keep one's eye on the ball — the organ of sight, in vertebrates typically one of a pair of spherical bodies contained in an orbit of the skull and in humans appearing externally as a dense, white, curved membrane, or sclera, surrounding a circular, colored portion, or iris, that is covered by a clear, curved membrane, or cornea, and in the center of which is an opening, or pupil, through which light passes to the retina.
- keep one's fingers crossed — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
- keep someone on their toes — If you say that someone or something keeps you on your toes, you mean that they cause you to remain alert and ready for anything that might happen.
- keep your eye on something — If you keep an eye on something or someone, you watch them carefully, for example to make sure that they are satisfactory or safe, or not causing trouble.
- knee-high to a grasshopper — very young or very small
- lossless audio compression — (audio, compression) Any kind of audio compression in which the original signal and the decoded signal are bitwise identical. Lossless audio compression algorithms are usually based on a data compression algorithm like PKzip or gzip but specialized for PCM audio data. The signal is divided into predictable tonal components and unpredictable noisy components. Tonal components are stored as coefficients of a predictor, the remaining signal is coded by Rice coding, Huffman coding or arithmetic coding.
- macintosh operating system — (operating system) (Mac OS) Apple Computer, Inc.'s proprietary operating system for their Macintosh family of personal computers. The part of the operating system that simulates the desktop is called "Finder." The multitasking version of Finder was called "MultiFinder" until multitasking was integrated into the core of the OS with the introduction of System 7.0 in 1990. The Macintosh series provides a built-in graphics language, called "QuickDraw", which provides a standard for software developers. Mac OS 8, scheduled for delivery in July 1997, included new human-interface features, increased system stability and performance, a PowerPC processor-native Finder, tighter integration of Internet access through panel-based "assistants," Personal Web Sharing and the ability to run Java applets and programs through Mac OS Run Time for Java. Version 9.2 was the last version of the bespoke Mac OS. The next version, Mac OS X is quite different, being based on Unix. See also Macintosh file system, Macintosh user interface.
- mainstream corporation tax — (in Britain) the balance of the corporation tax formerly paid by a company for an accounting period after the advance corporation tax had been deducted
- make an example of someone — To make an example of someone who has done something wrong means to punish them severely as a warning to other people not to do the same thing.
- many-worlds interpretation — an interpretation of quantum mechanics based on the idea that every possible event exists in its own world
- master chief petty officer — a noncommissioned rank above a senior chief petty officer. Abbreviation: MCPO.
- mecklenburg-west pomerania — a state of NE Germany, along the Baltic coast: consists of the former state of Mecklenburg and those parts of W Pomerania not incorporated into Poland after World War II: part of East Germany until 1990. Pop: 1 732 000 (2003 est)
- metropolitan museum of art — the principal museum in New York City: founded in 1870 and housed in its present premises in Central Park since 1880
- micronetics standard mumps — (MSM) A version of MUMPS for the IBM PC RT and R6000.
- minimum-access programming — a method of programming in which latency is reduced to a minimum.
- minister without portfolio — a minister of state who is not appointed to any specific department in a government.
- monobasic sodium phosphate — Chemistry. sodium phosphate (def 1).
- monochrome display adapter — (hardware, graphics) (MDA) One of IBM's earliest hardware video display standards for use in IBM PC. MDA can display only monochrome 80*25 text (IBM PC video mode 7). It is now obsolete.
- national merit scholarship — one of some 6000 college scholarships awarded annually since 1956, by the nonprofit, grant-supported National Merit Scholarship Corporation, to high-school students (National Merit Scholars) on the basis of scholastic record, personal character, and score on a test administered nationally.
- national progressive party — Progressive party (def 1).
- new business profit margin — A new business profit margin is a system used by insurers to measure the cost of and profit from writing new policies.
- obscene publications squad — a division of the police force which deals with illegal books, pictures, or films which are judged obscene because they deal with sex or violence in a way that is considered offensive to the general public
- official production system — (language) (OPS) The first production system (i.e. rule based) programming language, developed at CMU in 1970 and used for building expert systems. OPS was originally written in Franz Lisp and later ported to other LISP dialects.
- on demand: usu phr after v — If something is available or happens on demand, you can have it or it happens whenever you want it or ask for it.
- on the tip of one's tongue — Anatomy. the usually movable organ in the floor of the mouth in humans and most vertebrates, functioning in eating, in tasting, and, in humans, in speaking.
- open database connectivity — (standard, database) (ODBC) A standard for accessing different database systems. There are interfaces for Visual Basic, Visual C++, SQL and the ODBC driver pack contains drivers for the Access, Paradox, dBase, Text, Excel and Btrieve databases. An application can submit statements to ODBC using the ODBC flavor of SQL. ODBC then translates these to whatever flavor the database understands. ODBC 1.0 was released in September 1992. ODBC is based on Call-Level Interface and was defined by the SQL Access Group. Microsoft was one member of the group and was the first company to release a commercial product based on its work (under Microsoft Windows) but ODBC is not a Microsoft standard (as many people believe). ODBC drivers and development tools are available now for Microsoft Windows, Unix, OS/2, and Macintosh.
- open the door to something — If someone or something opens the door to a good new idea or situation, they introduce it or make it possible.