18-letter words containing t, g, s, y
- neo-pythagoreanism — a philosophical system, established in Alexandria and Rome in the second century b.c., consisting mainly of revived Pythagorean doctrines with elements of Platonism and Stoicism.
- new storage system — (storage) (NSS) A major Multics implementation project during the 1970s. The initial Multics file system design had evolved from the one-huge-disk world of CTSS. When multiple disk units were used they were just assigned increasing ranges of disk addresses, so a segment could have pages scattered over all disks on the system. This provided good I/O parallelism but made crash recovery expensive. NSS redesigned the lower levels of the file system, introducing the concepts of logical volume and physical volume and a mapping from a Multics directory branch to a VTOC entry for each file. The new system had much better recovery performance in exchange for a small space and performance cost.
- not a pretty sight — If you say that someone or something is not a pretty sight, you mean that it is not pleasant to look at.
- not by a long shot — absolutely not
- offset lithography — offset (def 6).
- open heart surgery — surgery performed on the exposed heart while a heart-lung machine pumps and oxygenates the blood and diverts it from the heart.
- open-heart surgery — surgery performed on the exposed heart while a heart-lung machine pumps and oxygenates the blood and diverts it from the heart.
- organic solidarity — social cohesiveness that is based on division of labor and interdependence and is characteristic of complex, industrial societies.
- orthopedic surgery — corrective operation on bones or joints
- owen stanley range — a mountain range in SE New Guinea. Highest peak: Mount Victoria, 4073 m (13 363 ft)
- parathyroid glands — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
- phantasmagorically — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- phase-shift keying — (communications) (PSK) A digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing the phase of a carrier wave. The data can either determine the absolute phase relative to the unmodulated carrier or reference signal ("coherent phase-shift keying", CPSK) or the change in phase ("differential phase-shift keying", DPSK). The number of different phases used determines the amount of data that can be transmitted in each cycle. Each cycle can be considered to constitute one "symbol", e.g. with two possible phases, each cycle carries one bit. The more phases that are used, the less tollerant to noise the transmissions becomes. Alternatives to PSK are amplitude-shift keying (ASK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK).
- pigmy hippopotamus — a related but smaller animal, Choeropsis liberiensis
- point set topology — topology (def 2).
- positively charged — having a positive charge
- programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- proprietary rights — rights of ownership
- psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
- psychopathological — the science or study of mental disorders.
- psychotechnologist — a specialist in psychotechnology
- pygmy hippopotamus — a small hippopotamus, Choeropsis liberiensis, of forests and swamps in western Africa.
- quantity surveying — the action or profession of a person who estimates the cost of the materials and labour necessary for a construction job
- radius of gyration — the distance from an axis at which the mass of a body may be assumed to be concentrated and at which the moment of inertia will be equal to the moment of inertia of the actual mass about the axis, equal to the square root of the quotient of the moment of inertia and the mass.
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- rear its ugly head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- reduction strategy — (theory) An algorithm for deciding which redex(es) to reduce next. Different strategies have different termination properties in the presence of recursive functions or values. See string reduction, normal order reduction, applicative order reduction, parallel reduction
- registered charity — official aid organization
- registered company — a company which has officially registered its business
- reporters' gallery — an area in parliament reserved for journalists and reporters
- safety regulations — regulations or rules that are put in place to ensure a product, event, etc, is safe and not dangerous
- saint george's day — April 23, celebrated in parts of the British Commonwealth in honor of the patron saint of Britain and especially in New Zealand as a bank holiday.
- say/kiss goodnight — If you say goodnight to someone or kiss them goodnight, you say something such as 'Goodnight' to them or kiss them before one of you goes home or goes to sleep.
- seagate technology — (company) A major manufacturer of hard disk drives, founded in 1979 as "Shugart Technology" by Alan F. Shugart and Finis Conner. That name is on the original patents for the 5.25" hard disk drive. They changed the name to Seagate Technology soon after to avoid confusion, and also to avoid friction with Xerox, which had since purchased Alan's earlier company, Shugart Associates. Address: 920 Disc Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066, USA. Fax: +1 (408) 438 3320.
- secretarial agency — a recruiting business which deals with jobs for secretaries
- security agreement — business: contract
- self-deprecatingly — in a self-deprecating manner
- shaggy dog (story) — a long, rambling joke, typically involving ludicrously unreal or irrational behavior and usually having an irrelevant conclusion
- shugart technology — Seagate Technology
- significant symbol — a verbal or nonverbal gesture, as a word or smile, that has acquired a conventionalized meaning.
- six-finger country — an isolated area considered as being inhabited by people who practise inbreeding
- sling psychrometer — a psychrometer so designed that the wet-bulb thermometer can be ventilated, to expedite evaporation, by whirling in the air.
- spare-part surgery — surgical replacement of defective or damaged organs by transplant or insertion of artificial devices
- spectroheliography — the process of obtaining an image of the sun in light of a particular wavelength, such as calcium or hydrogen, showing the distribution of the element over the surface and in the solar atmosphere, using a spectroheliograph
- spherical geometry — the branch of geometry that deals with figures on spherical surfaces.
- stand-by generator — an electrical system which operates automatically in case the usual system malfunctions
- stand-by passenger — someone who buys a (usually cheaper) ticket, if they are still available, on a plane just before it is about to leave rather than booking in advance
- state of emergency — If a government or other authority declares a state of emergency in an area, it introduces special measures such as increased powers for the police or army, usually because of civil disorder or because of a natural disaster such as an earthquake.
- strathclyde region — a former local government region in W Scotland: formed in 1975 from Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Buteshire, Dunbartonshire, and parts of Argyllshire, Ayrshire, and Stirlingshire; replaced in 1996 by the council areas of Glasgow, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Argyll and Bute, East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, and East Ayrshire
- structural geology — the branch of geology dealing with the structure and distribution of the rocks that make up the crust of the earth. Also called tectonics. Compare structure (def 7a).