15-letter words containing s, w
- label switching — (networking) A routing technique that uses information from existing IP routing protocols to identify IP datagrams with labels and forwards them to a modified switch or router, which then uses the labels to switch the datagrams through the network. Label switching combines the best attributes of data link layer (layer two) switching (as in ATM and Frame Relay) with the best attributes of network layer (layer three) routing (as in IP). Prior to the formation of the MPLS Working Group in 1997, a number of vendors had announced and/or implemented proprietary label switching.
- lady's bedstraw — a Eurasian rubiaceous plant, Galium verum, with clusters of small yellow flowers
- lake washington — a lake in W Washington, forming the E boundary of the city of Seattle: linked by canal with Puget Sound. Length: about 32 km (20 miles). Width: 6 km (4 miles)
- law of averages — a statistical principle formulated by Jakob Bernoulli to show a more or less predictable ratio between the number of random trials of an event and its occurrences.
- leeward islands — a group of islands in the Caribbean, in the N Lesser Antilles between Puerto Rico and Martinique
- legacy software — legacy system
- levant wormseed — the dried, unexpanded flower heads of a wormwood, Artemisia cina (Levant wormseed) or the fruit of certain goosefoots, especially Chenopodium anthelminticum (or C. ambrosioides), the Mexican tea or American wormseed, used as an anthelmintic drug.
- levelling screw — a screw, often one of three, for adjusting the level of an apparatus
- lobster newburg — (sometimes lowercase) lobster cooked in a thick seasoned cream sauce made with sherry or brandy.
- long sweetening — liquid sweetening, as maple syrup, molasses, or sorghum.
- low pass filter — (electronics, graphics) A filter that attenuates high frequency components of a signal. In image processing, a low pass filter might be used to remove noise from an image.
- low-cholesterol — containing little dietary cholesterol
- low-level waste — waste material contaminated by traces of radioactivity that can be disposed of in steel drums in concrete-lined trenches but not (since 1983) in the sea
- low-pass filter — a filter that transmits all frequencies below a specified value, substantially attenuating frequencies above this value
- lower criticism — a form of Biblical criticism having as its purpose the reconstruction of the original texts of the books of the Bible.
- lower east side — a section in the borough of Manhattan, New York: noted for its immigrant culture.
- lower slobbovia — any place considered to be remote, poor, or unenlightened.
- lzw compression — Lempel-Ziv Welch compression
- mad cow disease — BSE: bovine spongiform encephalopathy
- make allowances — to take mitigating circumstances into account in consideration (of)
- make sb welcome — If you make someone welcome or make them feel welcome, you make them feel happy and accepted in a new place.
- man of his word — a unit of language, consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their written representation, that functions as a principal carrier of meaning. Words are composed of one or more morphemes and are either the smallest units susceptible of independent use or consist of two or three such units combined under certain linking conditions, as with the loss of primary accent that distinguishes black·bird· from black· bird·. Words are usually separated by spaces in writing, and are distinguished phonologically, as by accent, in many languages.
- man-of-war fish — a small, tropical fish, Nomeus gronovii, that lives among the tentacles of the Portuguese man-of-war.
- manx shearwater — a European oceanic bird, Puffinus puffinus, with long slender wings and black-and-white plumage: family Procellariidae (shearwaters)
- meadow mushroom — any of various fleshy fungi including the toadstools, puffballs, coral fungi, morels, etc.
- meals on wheels — a program, usually one supported or subsidized by a charitable, social, or government agency, for delivering hot meals regularly to elderly, disabled, or convalescing persons who are housebound and cannot cook for themselves.
- mendeleev's law — periodic law (def 2).
- minkowski world — a four-dimensional space in which the fourth coordinate is time and in which a single event is represented as a point.
- mishnaic hebrew — the Hebrew language as used from about a.d. 70 to 500.
- moccasin flower — the lady's-slipper.
- moving sidewalk — a moving surface, similar to a conveyor belt, for carrying pedestrians.
- moving stairway — escalator (def 1).
- multiphase flow — Multiphase flow is a type of flow that involves more than one fluid, for example a liquid and a gas, or two liquids that do not mix.
- mushroom growth — rapid increase or growth
- napoleonic wars — French-led war in early 19th century
- natural wastage — Natural wastage is the process of employees leaving their jobs because they want to retire or move to other jobs, rather than because their employer makes them leave.
- navigation laws — laws relating to navigation
- nearly-new shop — a shop that sells secondhand clothes and other objects
- neck sweetbread — sweetbread (def 2).
- nest of drawers — a miniature chest of drawers made in the 18th century, often set on top of a desk or table.
- network address — (networking) 1. The network portion of an IP address. For a class A network, the network address is the first byte of the IP address. For a class B network, the network address is the first two bytes of the IP address. For a class C network, the network address is the first three bytes of the IP address. In each case, the remainder is the host address. In the Internet, assigned network addresses are globally unique. See also subnet address, Internet Registry. 2. (Or "net address") An electronic mail address on the network. In the 1980s this might have been a bang path but now (1997) it is nearly always a domain address. Such an address is essential if one wants to be to be taken seriously by hackers; in particular, persons or organisations that claim to understand, work with, sell to, or recruit from among hackers but *don't* display net addresses are quietly presumed to be clueless poseurs and mentally flushed. Hackers often put their net addresses on their business cards and wear them prominently in contexts where they expect to meet other hackers face-to-face (e.g. science-fiction fandom). This is mostly functional, but is also a signal that one identifies with hackerdom (like lodge pins among Masons or tie-dyed T-shirts among Grateful Dead fans). Net addresses are often used in e-mail text as a more concise substitute for personal names; indeed, hackers may come to know each other quite well by network names without ever learning each others' real monikers. See also sitename, domainist.
- network segment — (networking) A part of an Ethernet or other network, on which all message traffic is common to all nodes, i.e. it is broadcast from one node on the segment and received by all others. This is normally because the segment is a single continuous conductor, though it may include repeaters(?). Since all nodes share the physical medium, collision detection or some other protocol is required to determine whether a message was transmitted without interference from other nodes. The receiving node inspects the destination address of a packet to tell if it was (one of) the intended recipient(s). Communication between nodes on different segments is via one or more routers.
- neural networks — any group of neurons that conduct impulses in a coordinated manner, as the assemblages of brain cells that record a visual stimulus.
- new brunswicker — a native or inhabitant of New Brunswick
- new hampshirite — of New Hampshire
- new jersey plan — a plan, unsuccessfully proposed at the Constitutional Convention, providing for a single legislative house with equal representation for each state.
- new south wales — a state in SE Australia. 309,433 sq. mi. (801,430 sq. km). Capital: Sydney.
- new territories — a British crown colony comprising Hong Kong island (29 sq. mi.; 75 sq. km), Kowloon peninsula, nearby islands, and the adjacent mainland in SE China (New Territories) reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. 404 sq. mi. (1046 sq. km). Capital: Victoria.
- new westminster — a city in SW British Columbia, in SW Canada, on the Fraser River: suburb of Vancouver.
- new york school — a loosely associated group of American and European artists and sculptors, especially abstract expressionist painters, active in and near New York City chiefly in the 1940s and 1950s.