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22-letter words containing v, e, r, n, a

  • every now and then etc — You use every in the expressions every now and then, every now and again, every once in a while, and every so often in order to indicate that something happens occasionally.
  • evolutionary algorithm — (EA) An algorithm which incorporates aspects of natural selection or survival of the fittest. An evolutionary algorithm maintains a population of structures (usually randomly generated initially), that evolves according to rules of selection, recombination, mutation and survival, referred to as genetic operators. A shared "environment" determines the fitness or performance of each individual in the population. The fittest individuals are more likely to be selected for reproduction (retention or duplication), while recombination and mutation modify those individuals, yielding potentially superior ones. EAs are one kind of evolutionary computation and differ from genetic algorithms. A GA generates each individual from some encoded form known as a "chromosome" and it is these which are combined or mutated to breed new individuals. EAs are useful for optimisation when other techniques such as gradient descent or direct, analytical discovery are not possible. Combinatoric and real-valued function optimisation in which the optimisation surface or fitness landscape is "rugged", possessing many locally optimal solutions, are well suited for evolutionary algorithms.
  • ferdinand von zeppelin — Count Ferdinand von [fer-di-nahnt fuh n] /ˈfɛr dɪˌnɑnt fən/ (Show IPA), 1838–1917, German general and aeronaut: designer and manufacturer of the zeppelin.
  • flat-screen television — A flat-screen television is a television with a flat, narrow screen.
  • friar minor conventual — a friar belonging to a branch of the Franciscan order that separated from the Observants in the 15th century, and that observes a modification of the rule of St. Francis. Also called Conventual. Compare Friar Minor, capuchin (def 4).
  • galvanic skin response — a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin caused by an emotional reaction to a stimulus.
  • get (or have) wind of — to get (or have) information or a hint concerning; hear (or know) of
  • give a person what for — to punish or reprimand a person severely
  • give something a whirl — to attempt or give a trial to something
  • glossopharyngeal nerve — either of the ninth pair of cranial nerves, consisting of motor fibers that innervate the muscles of the pharynx, the soft palate, and the parotid glands, and of sensory fibers that conduct impulses to the brain from the pharynx, the middle ear, and the posterior third of the tongue.
  • government corporation — a corporation set up by a national government to carry out business transactions on its behalf
  • gravitational collapse — the final stage of stellar evolution in which a star collapses to a final state, as a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, when the star's nuclear reactions no longer generate enough pressure to balance the attractive force of gravity.
  • gravitational redshift — (in general relativity) the shift toward longer wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation emitted by a source in a gravitational field, especially at the surface of a massive star.
  • guest services manager — A guest services manager at a hotel is responsible for the services and facilities that the hotel provides for its guests.
  • halfwave rectification — a rectifier that changes only one half of a cycle of alternating current into a pulsating, direct current.
  • have one's heart in it — to have enthusiasm for something
  • home improvement grant — a government grant for house improvements such as insulation, adding a bathroom, or urgent repairs
  • hue, saturation, value — (graphics)   (HSV) A colour model that describes colours in terms of hue (or "tint"), saturation (or "shade") and value (or "tone" or "luminance").
  • human interface device — (hardware)   (HID) Any device to interact directly with humans (mostly input) like keyboard, mouse, joystick, or graphics tablet.
  • imperative programming — imperative language
  • in vitro fertilization — a specialized technique by which an ovum, especially a human one, is fertilized by sperm outside the body, with the resulting embryo later implanted in the uterus for gestation.
  • indeterminate cleavage — the division of an egg into cells, each of which has the potential of developing into a complete organism
  • inland revenue service — In the United States, the Inland Revenue Service is the government authority which collects taxes. The abbreviation IRS is often used.
  • integrative bargaining — a type of bargaining in which all parties involved recognize that there are common problems requiring mutual resolution
  • interactive courseware — (ICW) A training program controlled by a computer that relies on trainee input to determine the order and pace of instruction delivery. The trainee advances through the sequence of instructional events by making decisions and selections. The instruction branches according to the trainee's responses. ICW is a US military term which includes computer-aided instruction and computer-based training.
  • interactive television — techniques that enable viewers to interact with what they are watching
  • interactive whiteboard — a smooth, glossy sheet of white plastic that can be written on with a colored pen or marker in the manner of a blackboard.
  • interpretive semantics — a school of semantic theory based on the doctrine that the rules that relate sentences to their meanings form an autonomous system, separate from the rules that determine what is grammatical in a language
  • investigative new drug — a regulatory classification assigned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to an unproven drug, allowing its use in approved studies with human patients. Abbreviation: IND.
  • java community process — (project)   (JCP) An organization controlled by Sun Microsystems to further the growth of the Java language and runtime. The JCP produces standards called Java Standard Requests, which are "requests" in the same sense as RFCs.
  • judge advocate general — the chief legal officer of an army, navy, or air force.
  • league of women voters — a nonpartisan organization that works toward improving the political process: created in 1920 to inform women on public issues. Abbreviation: LWV.
  • lofoten and vesterålen — a group of islands off the NW coast of Norway, within the Arctic Circle. Largest island: Hinnøy. Pop: 54 589 (2004 est). Area: about 5130 sq km (1980 sq miles)
  • love-hate relationship — If you have a love-hate relationship with someone or something, your feelings towards them change suddenly and often from love to hate.
  • make/prove one's point — If you make your point or prove your point, you prove that something is true, either by arguing about it or by your actions or behaviour.
  • metasyntactic variable — (grammar)   Strictly, a variable used in metasyntax, but often used for any name used in examples and understood to stand for whatever thing is under discussion, or any random member of a class of things under discussion. The word foo is the canonical example. To avoid confusion, hackers never (well, hardly ever) use "foo" or other words like it as permanent names for anything. In filenames, a common convention is that any filename beginning with a metasyntactic-variable name is a scratch file that may be deleted at any time. To some extent, the list of one's preferred metasyntactic variables is a cultural signature. They occur both in series (used for related groups of variables or objects) and as singletons. Here are a few common signatures: bazola, ztesch: Stanford (from mid-'70s on). zxc, spqr, wombat: Cambridge University (England). shme: Berkeley, GeoWorks, Ingres. Pronounced /shme/ with a short /e/. blarg, wibble: New Zealand Of all these, only "foo" and "bar" are universal (and baz nearly so). The compounds foobar and "foobaz" also enjoy very wide currency. Some jargon terms are also used as metasyntactic names; barf and mumble, for example. See also Commonwealth Hackish for discussion of numerous metasyntactic variables found in Great Britain and the Commonwealth.
  • multiplicative inverse — reciprocal (def 9).
  • name service switching — Domain Name System
  • native elm bark beetle — elm bark beetle (def 2).
  • negative reinforcement — form of conditioning
  • non-restrictive clause — a relative clause that describes or supplements but is not essential in establishing the identity of the antecedent and is usually set off by commas in English. In This year, which has been dry, is bad for crops the clause which has been dry is a nonrestrictive clause.
  • nonmonetary advantages — the beneficial aspects of an employment, such as the stimulation of the work, attractiveness of the workplace, or its nearness to one's home, that do not reflect its financial remuneration
  • on the crest of a wave — If you say that you are on the crest of a wave, you mean that you are feeling very happy and confident because things are going well for you.
  • open source initiative — (body)   (OSI) An organisation dedicated to managing and promoting the Open Source Definition for the good of the community.
  • over-industrialization — the large-scale introduction of manufacturing, advanced technical enterprises, and other productive economic activity into an area, society, country, etc.
  • overstay one's welcome — to stay (at a party, on a visit, etc), longer than pleases the host or hostess
  • parallel server option — Oracle Parallel Server
  • percussive maintenance — (jargon)   The fine art of whacking a device to get it working, possibly using a fine adjuster.
  • physiographic province — a geographic region in which climate and geology have given rise to an array of landforms different from those of surrounding regions.
  • preventive maintenance — (PM) To bring down a machine for inspection or test purposes. See provocative maintenance, scratch monkey.
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