18-letter words containing v, a, l, i, u
- parallel evolution — the independent development of closely corresponding adaptive features in two or more groups of organisms that occupy different but equivalent habitats, as marsupial mammals in Australia and placental mammals on other continents.
- partial evaluation — (compiler, algorithm) (Or "specialisation") An optimisation technique where the compiler evaluates some subexpressions at compile-time. For example, Partial evaluation might change the termination properties of the program if, for example, the expression (x * 0) was reduced to 0 it would terminate even if x (and thus x * 0) did not. It may be necessary to reorder an expression to partially evaluate it, e.g. f x y = (x + y) + 1 g z = f 3 z If we rewrite f: f x y = (x + 1) + y then the expression x+1 becomes a constant for the function g and we can say g z = f 3 z = (3 + 1) + z = 4 + z Partial evaluation of built-in functions applied to constant arguments is known as constant folding. See also full laziness.
- particular average — a loss at sea, as through accident or negligence, that is borne solely by the owner of the lost property. Abbreviation: P.A.
- passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
- pemphigus vulgaris — a potentially fatal blistering skin disease, characterized by large blisters on the skin, mucous membranes of the mouth, genitals, intestines, etc, which eventually rupture and form painful denuded areas from which critical amounts of bodily protein, fluid, and blood may be lost
- pennsylvania dutch — the descendants of 17th- and 18th-century settlers in Pennsylvania from southwest Germany and Switzerland.
- plenum ventilation — a system of mechanical ventilation in which fresh air is forced into the spaces to be ventilated from a chamber (plenum chamber) at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, so as to expel foul air.
- post-revolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- provably difficult — The set or property of problems for which it can be proven that no polynomial-time algorithm exists, only exponential-time algorithms.
- provascular tissue — procambium.
- provincial council — (formerly) a council administering any of the New Zealand provinces
- quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
- quevedo y villegas — Francisco Gómez de. 1580–1645, Spanish poet and writer, noted for his satires and the picaresque novel La historia de la vida del Buscón (1626)
- relative frequency — the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the number of occasions on which it might occur in the same period.
- restrictive clause — a relative clause that identifies the antecedent and that is usually not set off by commas in English. In The year that just ended was bad for crops, the clause that just ended is a restrictive clause.
- revolutionary wars — American Revolution.
- russian revolution — Also called February Revolution. the uprising in Russia in March, 1917 (February Old Style), in which the Czarist government collapsed and a provisional government was established.
- sodium-vapour lamp — a type of electric lamp consisting of a glass tube containing neon and sodium vapour at low pressure through which an electric current is passed to give an orange light. They are used in street lighting
- survival mechanism — something you or your body does automatically, in order to survive in a dangerous or unpleasant situation
- teacher evaluation — the process of vetting teachers to maintain teaching standards
- to play favourites — to display favouritism
- tristimulus values — three values that together are used to describe a colour and are the amounts of three reference colours that can be mixed to give the same visual sensation as the colour considered
- turbine ventilator — a ventilator, usually mounted on the roof of a building, deck of a ship, etc., having at its head a globular, vaned rotor that is rotated by the wind, conveying air through a duct to and from a chamber below.
- ulcerative colitis — chronic ulceration in the large intestine, characterized by painful abdominal cramps and profuse diarrhea containing pus, blood, and mucus.
- ultraviolet filter — a filter used on a lens to absorb ultraviolet radiation that may impart an undesirable blue cast to a photograph.
- universal coupling — a coupling between rotating shafts set at an angle to one another, allowing for rotation in three planes.
- universal debugger — (tool, parallel) (udb) KSR's interactive source level debugger for serial and parallel programs written in KSR, Fortran, KSR C and KSR1 assembly language. Udb is a source level debugger for testing and debugging serial and parallel programs; it is compatible with GDB and dbx. The user can direct udb either by typing commands or graphically through an X-based window interface; the latter provides simultaneous display of source code, I/O and instructions. For parallel programs, operations can be carried out per-thread.
- universal language — an auxiliary language that is used and understood everywhere.
- universal negative — a proposition of the form “No S is P.” Symbol: E, e.
- universal suffrage — suffrage for all persons over a certain age, usually 18 or 21, who in other respects satisfy the requirements established by law.
- universalizability — the thesis that any moral judgment must be equally applicable to every relevantly identical situation
- university faculty — a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas
- venture capitalist — funds invested or available for investment in a new or unproven business enterprise.
- victor emmanuel ii — 1820–78, king of Sardinia 1849–78; first king of Italy 1861–78.
- video surveillance — a system of monitoring activity in an area or building using a television system in which signals are transmitted from a television camera to the receivers by cables or telephone links forming a closed circuit
- voluntary abortion — abortion (def 1).
- voluntary-abortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- vulcan nerve pinch — (jargon) (Or "three-finger salute", Vulcan death grip; from the old "Star Trek" TV series via Commodore Amiga hackers) The keyboard combination that forces a soft boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a feature). On an Amiga this is done with Ctrl/Right Amiga/Left Amiga; on IBM PCs and many microcomputers it is Ctrl/Alt/Del; on Suns, L1-A; on some Macintoshes, it is
- ! Silicon Graphics users are obviously the most dextrous however, as these machines use the five-finger combination: Left Shift/Left Ctrl/Left Alt/Keypad Divide/F12. Compare quadruple bucky. - yves saint laurent — Louis Stephen [lwee ste-fen] /lwi stɛˈfɛn/ (Show IPA), 1882–1973, prime minister of Canada 1948–57.