27-letter words containing s, t, y, l
- sell your soul to the devil — If you say that someone has sold their soul to the devil, you mean that you disapprove of them because they have done something that you think is not right in order to get what they want.
- statistical analysis system — (language) (SAS) A statistical and matrix handling language with PL/I-like syntax.
- sudden adult death syndrome — the unexpected death of a young adult, usually due to undetected inherited heart disease
- symbol manipulation program — (SMP) Steven Wolfram's earlier symbol manipulation program, before he turned to Mathematica.
- synchronous optical network — (networking) (SONET) A broadband networking standard based on point-to-point optical fibre networks. SONET will provide a high-bandwidth "pipe" to support ATM-based services. The SONET standard will establish a digital hierarchical network with a consistent worldwide transport scheme. SONET has been designed to take advantage of fibre, in contrast to the plain old telephone system which was designed for copper wires. SONET carries circuit-switched data in frames at speeds in multiples of 51.84 megabits per second (Mbps) up to 48 * 51.84 Mbps = 2.488 gigabits per second. Since SONET uses multiple channels to transmit data, each SONET frame can be considered to be a two-dimensional table of bytes that is 9 rows high and 90 columns deep. For every OC-n level, SONET can transmit n number of frames at a given time. Groups of frames are called superframes. SONET is the American version of SDH.
- systems analysis definition — (programming) (SAD) The analysis of the role of a proposed system and the identification of the requirements that it should meet. SAD is the starting point for system design. The term is most commonly used in the context of commercial programming, where software developers are often classed as either systems analysts or programmers. The systems analysts are responsible for identifying requirements (i.e. systems analysis) and producing a design. The programmers are then responsible for implementing it.
- third law of thermodynamics — any of three principles variously stated in equivalent forms, being the principle that the change of energy of a thermodynamic system is equal to the heat transferred minus the work done (first law of thermodynamics) the principle that no cyclic process is possible in which heat is absorbed from a reservoir at a single temperature and converted completely into mechanical work (second law of thermodynamics) and the principle that it is impossible to reduce the temperature of a system to absolute zero in a finite number of operations (third law of thermodynamics)
- thyroid stimulating hormone — thyrotropin. Abbreviation: TSH.
- thyroid-stimulating hormone — thyrotropin. Abbreviation: TSH.
- to be suspended on full pay — if someone is suspended on full pay they are temporarily barred from work (due to misconduct, etc) while receiving full salary
- to fall over yourself to do — If you say that people are falling over themselves to do something, you mean that they are very enthusiastic about doing it, and often that you disapprove of this.
- to rear/raise its ugly head — If you say that something unpleasant or embarrassing rears its ugly head or raises its ugly head, you mean that it occurs, often after not occurring for some time.
- to take you out of yourself — If something takes you out of yourself, it makes you feel better and so you forget all your worries and unhappiness.
- to the best of your ability — as well as you can
- united states naval academy — an institution founded in 1845 at Annapolis, Maryland, for the training of U.S. naval officers.
- universal military training — a program for maintaining a nation's pool of trained military personnel, requiring all qualified citizens to serve for a period of active and reserve duty. Abbreviation: UMT.
- what you see is all you get — (jargon) (WYSIAYG) /wiz'ee-ayg/ Describes a user interface under which "What You See Is *All* You Get"; an unhappy variant of WYSIWYG. Visual, "point-and-drool interfaces" are easy to learn but often lack depth; they often frustrate advanced users who would be better served by a command-style interface. When this happens, the frustrated user has a WYSIAYG problem. This term is most often used of editors, word processors, and document formatting programs. WYSIWYG "desktop publishing" programs, for example, are a clear win for creating small documents with lots of fonts and graphics in them, especially things like newsletters and presentation slides. When typesetting book-length manuscripts, on the other hand, scale changes the nature of the task; one quickly runs into WYSIAYG limitations, and the increased power and flexibility of a command-driven formatter like TeX or Unix's troff becomes not just desirable but a necessity. Compare YAFIYGI.
- while-you-wait heel repairs — repairs to damaged heels of footwear, carried out while the customer waits