16-letter words containing t, e, l, p
- bootstrap loader — (operating system) A short program loaded from non-volatile storage and used to bootstrap a computer. On early computers great efforts were expended on making the bootstrap loader short, in order to make it easy to toggle in via the front panel switches. It was just clever enough to read in a slightly more complex program (usually from punched cards or paper tape), to which it handed control. This program in turn read the application or operating system from a magnetic tape drive or disk drive. Thus, in successive steps, the computer "pulled itself up by its bootstraps" to a useful operating state. Nowadays the bootstrap loader is usually found in ROM or EPROM, and reads the first stage in from a fixed location on the disk, called the "boot block". When this program gains control, it is powerful enough to load the actual OS and hand control over to it. A diskless workstation can use bootp to load its OS from the network.
- bouquet larkspur — a plant, Delphinium grandiflorum, of eastern Asia, having blue or whitish flowers and hairy fruit.
- bristlecone pine — a coniferous tree, Pinus aristata, of the western US, bearing cones with bristle-like prickles: one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating
- brittany spaniel — a short-tailed French bird dog that typically has a smooth orange- or liver-and-white coat
- broadloom carpet — any carpet woven on a wide loom and not having seams, especially one wider than 54 inches (137 cm).
- brothel-creepers — soft-soled men's shoes that were originally popular in the 1950s
- bulletproof vest — a protective garment
- buttercup family — the plant family Ranunculaceae, typified by mostly herbaceous plants having usually alternate leaves, multistaminate flowers sometimes lacking petals but with colorful sepals, and including the anemone, buttercup, clematis, columbine, delphinium, and monkshood.
- butterfly damper — a damper, as in a flue, that rotates about a central axis across its face.
- button one's lip — to stop talking: often imperative
- cabbage palmetto — a tropical American fan palm, Sabal palmetto, with edible leaf buds and leaves used in thatching
- can't tell apart — If you can't tell two people or things apart, they look exactly the same to you.
- can-not help but — to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist: He planned to help me with my work. Let me help you with those packages.
- cape cod lighter — a device for lighting a fire, as in a fireplace, consisting of a lump of nonflammable material on a metal rod, that is soaked in kerosene or the like and lighted with a match.
- capital employed — the money used by a business for buying land, buildings, equipment etc
- capital movement — the payments that flow between countries
- capital reserves — the money which a company holds in reserve
- capital sentence — the punishment of death for a crime
- caricature plant — a tropical Old World shrub, Graptophyllum pictum, of the acanthus family, characterized by purple or red tubular flowers and leaf markings resembling the profile of a human face.
- carnot principle — the principle that no heat engine can be more efficient than one operating on a Carnot cycle of reversible changes
- cartridge player — an audio or video system that reads cartridges of magnetic tape
- cascade particle — the least massive member of the xi particle family.
- category planner — A category planner is a person whose job to plan and co-ordinate future inventory and sales volume in one or more product categories.
- celestial empire — Chinese Empire
- celestial sphere — an imaginary sphere of infinitely large radius enclosing the universe so that all celestial bodies appear to be projected onto its surface
- central european — involving or denoting the people, countries, cultures, or languages of Central Europe
- centrifugal pump — a pump having a high-speed rotating impeller whose blades throw the water outwards
- cerebellopontine — (anatomy) Relating to the cerebellum and pons.
- charged particle — an atomic particle with a positive or negative charge, as an electron, proton, or helium ion
- charmed particle — See at charmed (def 2).
- chattel personal — an item of movable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc
- chemolithotrophs — Plural form of chemolithotroph.
- chernobyl packet — (networking) /cher-noh'b*l pak'*t/ A network packet that induces a broadcast storm and/or network meltdown, named in memory of the April 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine. The typical scenario involves an IP Ethernet datagram that passes through a gateway with both source and destination Ethernet address and IP address set as the respective broadcast addresses for the subnetworks being gated between. Compare Christmas tree packet.
- chest specialist — a physician who specializes in diseases affecting the organs in the chest
- chlorophenothane — DDT.
- cholecystography — radiography of the gall bladder after administration of a contrast medium
- chryselephantine — (of ancient Greek statues) made of or overlaid with gold and ivory
- circumscriptible — Capable of being circumscribed or limited by bounds.
- cleaning product — a detergent or other household cleaner
- clootie dumpling — a boiled suet pudding containing dried fruits
- closed-captioned — (of a video recording) having subtitles which appear on screen only if the cassette is played through a special decoder
- cochlear implant — a device that stimulates the acoustic nerve in the inner ear in order to produce some form of hearing in people who are deaf from inner ear disease
- collection plate — a plate that is used in church to collect money for charity or the support of the church
- collection point — the area in a shop where goods that have been paid for can be collected
- colorado plateau — a plateau in the SW United States, in N Arizona, NW New Mexico, S Utah, and SW Colorado: location of the Grand Canyon.
- commercial pilot — an airplane pilot licensed to transport passengers, goods, etc.
- comparable worth — the doctrine that a woman's and man's pay should be equal when their work requires equal training, skills, and responsibilities.
- compartmentalise — to divide into categories or compartments.
- compartmentalize — To compartmentalize something means to divide it into separate sections.
- complete lattice — A lattice is a partial ordering of a set under a relation where all finite subsets have a least upper bound and a greatest lower bound. A complete lattice also has these for infinite subsets. Every finite lattice is complete. Some authors drop the requirement for greatest lower bounds.