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20-letter words containing t, i, p, e

  • cassegrain telescope — an astronomical reflecting telescope in which incident light is reflected from a large concave paraboloid mirror onto a smaller convex hyperboloid mirror and then back through a hole in the concave mirror to form the image
  • cat's-tail speedwell — a widely cultivated Eurasian plant, Veronica spicata, of the figwort family, having blue flowers in long, spikelike clusters.
  • catastrophic failure — Catastrophic failure is sudden and complete failure which cannot be put right.
  • catastrophic illness — A catastrophic illness is a major health event that takes place during a particular period of time, such as a heart attack, stroke, or cancer.
  • cavendish experiment — the experiment, conducted by Henry Cavendish, that determined the constant of gravitation by using a torsion balance and measuring the torsion produced by two masses placed at given distances from the masses on the balance.
  • cellular respiration — the oxidation of organic compounds that occurs within cells, producing energy for cellular processes.
  • center of percussion — the point on a rigid body, suspended so as to be able to move freely about a fixed axis, at which the body may be struck without changing the position of the axis.
  • centrifugal spinning — the spinning of rayon filaments in a centrifugal box.
  • chapter of accidents — a series of misfortunes
  • character repertoire — (character)   The set of all characters onto which a coded character set maps integers (code positions). For example, consider these two simple coded character sets: Coded Character Set One: integer 0 -> the character "A" integer 1 -> the character "B" Coded Character Set Two: integer 0 -> the character "B" integer 1 -> the character "A" Both of these coded character sets map to the characters "A" and "B", so they have the same character repertoire. But since the mapping is different (and obviously incompatible), these are different coded character sets.
  • chemical fingerprint — a distinctive characteristic or pattern indicating the presence of a certain molecule, used to identify a chemical.
  • chemically dependent — addicted to a drug or drugs
  • chemolithoautotrophs — Plural form of chemolithoautotroph.
  • chemotherapeutically — By means of chemotherapy.
  • chief superintendent — an officer of senior rank in a British police force or other similarly organized force
  • child support agency — the British government agency concerned with the welfare of children
  • chips & technologies — (company)   A former leading distributor and supplier of integrated circuits and software to personal computer manufacturers. As well as semiconductors they also made flat panel displays, video controllers and other computer related products. In 1998, Intel Corporation bought Chips and Technologies for their flat panel controllers. In January 2000, Asiliant Technologies licensed the rights from Intel to continue to manufacturer and sell Chips and Technologies components. Address: 2950 Zanker Road, San Jose, California 95134, USA.
  • christopher columbus — Christopher (Sp. Cristóbal Colón; It. Cristoforo Colombo) 1446?–1506, Italian navigator in Spanish service: traditionally considered the discoverer of America 1492.
  • christopher strachey — (person)   Professor of Computation at Oxford, England, born 1916, died May 1975. He invented the term "currying". See also: General Purpose Macro-generator.
  • clay-pigeon shooting — the activity of shooting clay pigeons
  • cleansing department — the department of a local authority that collects refuse
  • co-operative society — In Britain, a co-operative society is a commercial organization with several shops in a particular district. Customers can join this organization and get a share of its profits.
  • cognitive psychology — the psychological study of higher mental processes, including thinking and perception
  • collective ownership — ownership by a group for the benefit of members of that group
  • comparative judgment — any judgment about whether there is a difference between two or more stimuli
  • comparative religion — a field of study seeking to derive general principles from a comparison and classification of the growth and influence of various religions.
  • compartmentalisation — Alternative form of compartmentalization.
  • compartmentalization — to divide into categories or compartments.
  • compensating balance — Also, compensated balance, compensation balance. a balance wheel in a timepiece, designed to compensate for variations in tension in the hair spring caused by changes in temperature.
  • compensation culture — a culture in which people are very ready to go to law over even relatively minor incidents in the hope of gaining compensation
  • compensation package — the sum of compensation awarded in a legal case
  • complaints procedure — a prescribed method of lodging a complaint to an institution
  • complete unification — (programming)   W.P. Weijland's name for unification without occur check.
  • composite photograph — a photograph formed by superimposing two or more separate photographs
  • compression ignition — ignition of engine fuel by the heat of air compressed in the cylinders into which the fuel is introduced.
  • computability theory — (mathematics)   The area of theoretical computer science concerning what problems can be solved by any computer. A function is computable if an algorithm can be implemented which will give the correct output for any valid input. Since computer programs are countable but real numbers are not, it follows that there must exist real numbers that cannot be calculated by any program. Unfortunately, by definition, there isn't an easy way of describing any of them! In fact, there are many tasks (not just calculating real numbers) that computers cannot perform. The most well-known is the halting problem, the busy beaver problem is less famous but just as fascinating.
  • computer programming — the activity or profession of writing computer programs
  • computer typesetting — a system for the high-speed composition of type by a device driven by punched paper tape or magnetic tape that has been processed by a computer
  • conditioned response — a response that is transferred from the second to the first of a pair of stimuli. A well-known Pavlovian example is salivation by a dog when it hears a bell ring, because food has always been presented when the bell has been rung previously
  • conformal projection — a map projection in which angles formed by lines are preserved: a map made using this projection preserves the shape of any small area.
  • connector conspiracy — (business, standard)   The tendency of manufacturers (or, by extension, other designers) to come up with products that don't fit with the old stuff, thereby making you buy either all new stuff or expensive interface devices. The term probably came into prominence with the appearance of the DEC KL-10, none of whose connectors matched anything else. The KL-10 Massbus connector was actually *patented* by DEC, who reputedly refused to licence the design, thus effectively locking out competition for the lucrative Massbus peripherals market. This policy was a source of frustration for the owners of dying, obsolescent disk and tape drives. A related phenomenon is the invention of new screw heads so that only Designated Persons, possessing the magic screwdrivers, can remove covers and make repairs or install options. Older Apple Macintoshes took this one step further, requiring not only a hex wrench but a specialised case-cracking tool to open the box. With the advent of more open-systems computing this term has fallen somewhat into disuse. Compare backward combatability.
  • conservative baptist — a member of a Protestant denomination (Conservative Baptist Association of America) organized in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1948.
  • contact metamorphism — localized metamorphism resulting from the heat of an igneous intrusion.
  • contingency planning — planning for future events that seem less likely than others
  • continued proportion — geometric progression
  • continuum hypothesis — the assertion that there is no set whose cardinality is greater than that of the integers and smaller than that of the reals
  • controlled explosion — the deliberate detonation of an explosive device under strictly controlled circumstances
  • conventional weapons — weapons which are not nuclear
  • conversation stopper — a comment that is so shocking or boring that people stop talking
  • coordination complex — one of a number of complex compounds in which an atom or group of atoms is bound to the central atom by a shared pair of electrons supplied by the coordinated group and not by the central atom
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