16-letter words containing s, t, a, g, n, i
- national savings — a borrowing programme set up by the UK government, aimed esp at retail investors, and providing bonds, saving certificates, etc
- negative-raising — a rule that moves a negative element out of the complement clause of certain verbs, such as think, into the main clause, as in the derivation of He doesn't think that he'll finish
- neuropathologies — the pathology of the nervous system.
- neuropathologist — A specialist who practices neuropathology.
- nitrogen mustard — any of the class of poisonous, blistering compounds, as C 5 H 1 1 Cl 2 N, analogous in composition to mustard gas but containing nitrogen instead of sulfur: used in the treatment of cancer and similar diseases; mechlorethamine.
- odds are against — If you say that the odds are against something or someone, you mean that they are unlikely to succeed.
- oil storage tank — a very large industrial container where petroleum is stored
- on its last legs — about to fail
- operating system — (operating system) (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running. The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present and various system programs which use facilities provided by the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client-server relationship. Some would include a graphical user interface and window system as part of the OS, others would not. The operating system loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boot time or when installing the operating system would generally not be considered part of the operating system, though this distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operating system such as RISC OS. The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around the machines on which it runs. Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS, Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil, COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2, GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS, MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system, Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68, Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX, RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix, VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.
- operating-system — the collection of software that directs a computer's operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS.
- optical scanning — the process of interpreting data in printed, handwritten, bar-code, or other visual form by a device (optical scanner or reader) that scans and identifies the data.
- osculating plane — the plane containing the circle of curvature of a point on a given curve.
- otolaryngologist — Otorhinolaryngologist.
- overcompensating — Present participle of overcompensate.
- pacific sturgeon — a dark gray sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus, inhabiting marine and fresh waters along the northwestern coast of North America, valued as a food and sport fish.
- packet switching — a method of efficient data transmission whereby the initial message is broken into relatively small units, or packets, that are routed independently and subsequently reassembled.
- packet-switching — a method of efficient data transmission whereby the initial message is broken into relatively small units, or packets, that are routed independently and subsequently reassembled.
- parents' evening — an occasion when the parents of children at a school and their teachers come together (outside normal school hours, in the evening) in order to discuss the progress or work of the children
- passage to india — a novel (1924) by E. M. Forster.
- pension mortgage — an arrangement whereby a person takes out a mortgage and pays the capital repayment instalments into a pension fund and the interest to the mortgagee. The loan is repaid out of the tax-free lump sum proceeds of the pension plan on the borrower's retirement
- phantasmagorical — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- pharmacogenetics — the branch of pharmacology that examines the relation of genetic factors to variations in response to drugs.
- pigs in blankets — small frankfurters wrapped in dough and baked, served as an appetizer
- play off against — If you play people off against each other, you make them compete or argue, so that you gain some advantage.
- point of sailing — the bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.
- pork scratchings — small pieces of crisply cooked pork crackling, eaten cold as an appetizer with drinks
- portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
- pre-registration — the act of registering.
- prestidigitation — sleight of hand; legerdemain.
- preunderstanding — to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.
- processing plant — a factory where raw materials are treated or prepared by a special method, esp one where food is treated in order to preserve it
- prognostic chart — a chart showing the predicted state of the atmosphere for a given time in the future.
- proposal writing — Extension of Fortran for proposal writing.
- punitive damages — law: penalty payment
- purchasing agent — a person who buys materials, supplies, equipment, etc., for a company.
- radio evangelist — a Christian minister who devotes time to preaching on the radio
- regional ileitis — a chronic inflammatory bowel disease that causes scarring and thickening of the intestinal walls and frequently leads to obstruction.
- register dancing — Many older processor architectures suffer from a serious shortage of general-purpose registers. This is especially a problem for compiler-writers, because their generated code needs places to store temporaries for things like intermediate values in expression evaluation. Some designs with this problem, like the Intel 80x86, do have a handful of special-purpose registers that can be pressed into service, providing suitable care is taken to avoid unpleasant side effects on the state of the processor: while the special-purpose register is being used to hold an intermediate value, a delicate minuet is required in which the previous value of the register is saved and then restored just before the official function (and value) of the special-purpose register is again needed.
- register tonnage — the volume of a vessel, especially the net tonnage as measured officially and registered for purposes of taxation.
- registration fee — a fee paid to register, enrol or sign up for (a course, etc)
- releasing factor — a substance usually of hypothalamic origin that triggers the release of a particular hormone from an endocrine gland.
- reporting clause — A reporting clause is a clause which indicates that you are talking about what someone said or thought. For example, in 'She said that she was hungry', 'She said' is a reporting clause.
- rhinopharyngitis — inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose and pharynx.
- rigid designator — an expression that identifies the same individual in every possible world: for example, "Shakespeare" is a rigid designator since it is possible that Shakespeare might not have been a playwright but not that he might not have been Shakespeare
- ring the changes — to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of (something) different from what it is or from what it would be if left alone: to change one's name; to change one's opinion; to change the course of history.
- run a tight ship — a vessel, especially a large oceangoing one propelled by sails or engines.
- saddle stitching — to sew, bind, or decorate with a saddle stitch.
- saint petersburg — Also called Russian Empire. Russian Rossiya. a former empire in E Europe and N and W Asia: overthrown by the Russian Revolution 1917. Capital: St. Petersburg (1703–1917).
- saint-john-night — Midsummer Eve.
- saint-ulmo-light — St. Elmo's fire.