24-letter words containing u, l, e
- compressed petroleum gas — a gas liquefied by compression, consisting of flammable hydrocarbons, as propane and butane, obtained as a by-product from the refining of petroleum or from natural gas: used chiefly as a domestic fuel in rural areas, as an industrial and motor fuel, and in organic synthesis, especially of synthetic rubber.
- computational complexity — (algorithm) The number of steps or arithmetic operations required to solve a computational problem. One of the three kinds of complexity.
- computer design language — (language) An ALGOL-like language for computer design.
- congestive heart failure — heart failure characterized by weakness, breathlessness, and abnormal congestion in the circulatory system, esp. in the lungs or lower legs
- consultant paediatrician — a paediatrician who has attained the rank of consultant
- cooperative multitasking — (parallel, operating system) A form of multitasking where it is the responsibility of the currently running task to give up the processor to allow other tasks to run. This contrasts with pre-emptive multitasking where the task scheduler periodically suspends the running task and restarts another. Cooperative multitasking requires the programmer to place calls at suitable points in his code to allow his task to be descheduled which is not always easy if there is no obvious top-level main loop or some routines run for a long time. If a task does not allow itself to be descheduled all other tasks on the system will appear to "freeze" and will not respond to user action. The advantage of cooperative multitasking is that the programmer knows where the program will be descheduled and can make sure that this will not cause unwanted interaction with other processes. Under pre-emptive multitasking, the scheduler must ensure that sufficient state for each process is saved and restored that they will not interfere. Thus cooperative multitasking can have lower overheads than pre-emptive multitasking because of the greater control it offers over when a task may be descheduled. Cooperative multitasking is used in RISC OS, Microsoft Windows and Macintosh System 7.
- council of nationalities — the legislature of the former Soviet Union and its successor states, consisting of an upper house (Soviet of the Union or Council of the Union) whose delegates are elected on the basis of population, and a lower house (Soviet of Nationalities or Council of Nationalities) whose delegates are elected to represent the various nationalities.
- curiosity killed the cat — You say 'Curiosity killed the cat' in order to tell someone that they should not try to find out about something which does not concern them.
- data definition language — (language, database) (DDL) 1. A language enabling the structure and instances of a database to be defined in a human-, and machine-readable form. See also Data manipulation language (DML). 2. A specification language for databases, based on the entity-relationship model. It is used in the Eli compiler-compiler to manage type definitions.
- data management language — (language) (DML) 1. Any language for manipulating data or files, e.g. IBM's Distributed Data Management (DDM). 2. An early ALGOL-like language with lists and graphics, that ran on the Honeywell 635.
- data structures language — (language) A dialect of MAD with extensions for lists and graphics, on Philco 212.
- dead white european male — a man whose importance and talents may have been exaggerated because he belonged to a historically dominant gender and ethnic group
- definite relative clause — a relative clause with a definite relative pronoun as subordinating word, as that they said in We heard the things that they said.
- dejeuner a la fourchette — a luncheon or light meal, especially one at which eggs, meat, etc., are served.
- destructive distillation — the decomposition of a complex substance, such as wood or coal, by heating it in the absence of air and collecting the volatile products
- display screen equipment — Visual Display Unit
- domain-specific language — (language) A machine-processable language whose terms are derived from a domain model and that is used for the definition of components or software architectures supporting that domain. A domain-specific language is often used as input to an application generator.
- domestic relations court — in some states, a court with jurisdiction over matters involving relations within the family or household, as between husband and wife or parent and child
- domestic-relations court — court of domestic relations.
- double overhead camshaft — a pair of overhead camshafts, one to operate the intake valves and the other to operate the exhaust valves. Abbreviation: DOHC.
- double-crested cormorant — a North American cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus, having tufts of black and white feathers on the sides of the head.
- ecole normale superieure — (body) (ENS) A higher education and research institution in Paris, France.
- edetate calcium disodium — a chelating agent, C 10 H 12 CaN 2 Na 2 O 8 , used in medicine to treat lead poisoning.
- educational psychologist — a person trained in educational psychology
- electromagnetic spectrum — the complete range of electromagnetic radiation from the longest radio waves (wavelength 105 metres) to the shortest gamma radiation (wavelength 10–13 metre)
- electronic configuration — the arrangement of electrons in the orbitals of an atom or molecule
- equivalence partitioning — equivalence class partitioning
- evolutionary computation — Computer-based problem solving systems that use computational models of evolutionary processes as the key elements in design and implementation. A number of evolutionary computational models have been proposed, including evolutionary algorithms, genetic algorithms, the evolution strategy, evolutionary programming, and artificial life.
- evolutionary programming — (EP) A stochastic optimisation strategy originally conceived by Lawrence J. Fogel in 1960. An initially random population of individuals (trial solutions) is created. Mutations are then applied to each individual to create new individuals. Mutations vary in the severity of their effect on the behaviour of the individual. The new individuals are then compared in a "tournament" to select which should survive to form the new population. EP is similar to a genetic algorithm, but models only the behavioural linkage between parents and their offspring, rather than seeking to emulate specific genetic operators from nature such as the encoding of behaviour in a genome and recombination by genetic crossover. EP is also similar to an evolution strategy (ES) although the two approaches developed independently. In EP, selection is by comparison with a randomly chosen set of other individuals whereas ES typically uses deterministic selection in which the worst individuals are purged from the population.
- exponential distribution — a continuous single-parameter distribution used esp when making statements about the length of life of certain materials or waiting times between randomly occurring events. Its density function is p(x) = λe–λx for positive λ and nonnegative x, and it is a special case of the gamma distribution
- extremely high frequency — a radio frequency between 30 000 and 300 000 megahertz
- failure-directed testing — (programming) (Or "heuristics testing") Software testing based on the knowledge of the types of errors made in the past that are likely for the system under test.
- family income supplement — a benefit formerly paid to low-income families
- fcc propylene production — FCC propylene production is the production of propylene from a catalytic cracker.
- floating point underflow — underflow
- flue gas desulfurization — Flue gas desulfurization is the removal of pollutants containing sulfur from flue gas.
- fluoxetine hydrochloride — a white crystalline compound, C 17 H 18 F 3 NO⋅HCl: inhibits the uptake of serotonin and is used chiefly as an antidepressant.
- french equatorial africa — a former federation of French territories in central Africa, including Chad, Gabon, Middle Congo (now People's Republic of the Congo), and Ubangi-Shari (now Central African Republic): each became independent in 1960.
- frequent-flyer programme — a plan or system under which frequent flyers earn rewards for being regular customers
- functional specification — (programming, project) A description of what a system (e.g. a piece of software) does or should do (but not how it should do it). The functional specification is one of the inputs to the design process. See IEEE/ANSI Std. 610.12-1990.
- general protection fault — General Protection Failure
- general purpose language — (GPL) An ALGOL 60 variant with user-definable types and operators.
- get hot under the collar — If someone gets hot under the collar about something, they get very annoyed, angry, or excited about it.
- go/fly out of the window — If you say that something such as a plan or a particular way of thinking or behaving has gone out of the window or has flown out of the window, you mean that it has disappeared completely.
- graphical user interface — a software interface designed to standardize and simplify the use of computer programs, as by using a mouse to manipulate text and images on a display screen featuring icons, windows, and menus.
- greater london authority — local government body of UK capital
- gregorio lopez y fuentes — Gregorio [gre-gaw-ryaw] /grɛˈgɔ ryɔ/ (Show IPA), 1895–1966, Mexican writer.
- ground-fault interrupter — a circuit breaker that senses currents caused by ground faults and quickly shuts off power before damage can occur to generating equipment.
- guaranteed annual income — Also called guaranteed income. compensation provided by the government to any family or individual whose annual income falls below a specified level.
- gulf cooperation council — an association of Persian Gulf nations formed for the purpose of collective defense against aggression. Abbreviation: GCC.