18-letter words containing st

ethnomethodologist — A person engaged in ethnomethodology.
evolution strategy — (ES) A kind of evolutionary algorithm where individuals (potential solutions) are encoded by a set of real-valued "object variables" (the individual's "genome"). For each object variable an individual also has a "strategy variable" which determines the degree of mutation to be applied to the corresponding object variable. The strategy variables also mutate, allowing the rate of mutation of the object variables to vary. An ES is characterised by the population size, the number of offspring produced in each generation and whether the new population is selected from parents and offspring or only from the offspring. ES were invented in 1963 by Ingo Rechenberg, Hans-Paul Schwefel at the Technical University of Berlin (TUB) while searching for the optimal shapes of bodies in a flow.
exhaustive testing — (programming) Executing a program with all possible combinations of inputs or values for program variables.
far eastern region — former name of Khabarovsk.
fast-food industry — the industry surrounding fast-food restaurants
feast of orthodoxy — a solemn festival held on the first Sunday of Lent (Orthodoxy Sunday) commemorating the restoration of the use of icons in the church (a.d. 842) and the triumph over all heresies.
feather one's nest — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
fermat's last post — (humour) A post to a bug tracker, mailing list or forum in which the author claims to have found a simple fix or workaround for a bug, but never says what it is and never shows up again to explain it (even after others have been puzzling over the bug for years).
fire and brimstone — When people talk about fire and brimstone, they are referring to hell and how they think people are punished there after death.
fire-and-brimstone — threatening punishment in the hereafter: a fire-and-brimstone sermon.
first and foremost — primarily
first class module — (programming) A module that is a first class data object of the programming language, e.g. a record containing functions. In a functional language, it is standard to have first class programs, so program building blocks can have the same status.
first duke of york — a member of the royal house of England that ruled from 1461 to 1485.
first things first — You say 'first things first' when you are talking about something that should be done or dealt with before anything else because it is the most important.
first year infants — a class for young children who have just started school
first-in first-out — (algorithm) (FIFO, or "queue") A data structure or hardware buffer from which items are taken out in the same order they were put in. Also known as a "shelf" from the analogy with pushing items onto one end of a shelf so that they fall off the other. A FIFO is useful for buffering a stream of data between a sender and receiver which are not synchronised - i.e. not sending and receiving at exactly the same rate. Obviously if the rates differ by too much in one direction for too long then the FIFO will become either full (blocking the sender) or empty (blocking the receiver). A Unix pipe is a common example of a FIFO. A FIFO might be (but isn't ever?) called a LILO - last-in last-out. The opposite of a FIFO is a LIFO (last-in first-out) or "stack".
fitness instructor — physical trainer, exercise teacher
for the rest of us — (abuse) (From the Macintosh slogan "The computer for the rest of us") 1. Used to describe a spiffy product whose affordability shames other comparable products, or (more often) used sarcastically to describe spiffy but very overpriced products. 2. Describes a program with a limited interface, deliberately limited capabilities, non-orthogonality, inability to compose primitives, or any other limitation designed to not "confuse" a naïve user. This places an upper bound on how far that user can go before the program begins to get in the way of the task instead of helping accomplish it. Used in reference to Macintosh software which doesn't provide obvious capabilities because it is thought that the poor luser might not be able to handle them. Becomes "the rest of *them*" when used in third-party reference; thus, "Yes, it is an attractive program, but it's designed for The Rest Of Them" means a program that superficially looks neat but has no depth beyond the surface flash. See also point-and-drool interface, user-friendly.
foreign investment — investment from foreign countries
forensic chemistry — the application of facts concerning chemistry to questions of civil and criminal law.
forensic scientist — science expert: provides evidence
french west africa — a former French federation in W Africa, including Dahomey (now Benin), French Guinea, French Sudan (now Mali), Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Fasso).
french west indies — islands in the West Indies that belong to France, including two overseas departments (Martinique & Guadeloupe) & several former dependencies of Guadeloupe
from first to last — all the way through
from stem to stern — If something happens from stem to stern on a boat, it involves the whole of the boat.
fu manchu mustache — a mustache whose ends droop to the chin.
functional testing — (testing) (Or "black-box testing", "closed-box testing") The application of test data derived from functional requirements without regard to how the system is implemented.
gamma distribution — a continuous two-parameter distribution from which the chi-square and exponential distributions are derived, written Gamma (α. β), where α and β are greater than zero, and defined in terms of the gamma function
garden loosestrife — any of various plants belonging to the genus Lysimachia, of the primrose family, having clusters of usually yellow flowers, as L. vulgaris (garden loosestrife) or L. quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
gastroduodenostomy — See under gastroenterostomy.
gastroenterologist — the study of the structure, functions, and diseases of digestive organs.
general anesthesia — induced unconsciousness
generating station — a power station
german east africa — a former German territory in E Africa, the area now comprised of continental Tanzania and the independent republics of Rwanda and Burundi.
gestalt psychology — (sometimes lowercase) the theory or doctrine that physiological or psychological phenomena do not occur through the summation of individual elements, as reflexes or sensations, but through gestalts functioning separately or interrelatedly.
go down in history — If someone or something goes down in history, people in the future remember them because of particular actions that they have done or because of particular events that have happened.
go with the stream — to conform to the accepted standards
grand canyon state — Arizona (used as a nickname).
great pastern bone — the part of the foot of a horse, cow, etc., between the fetlock and the hoof.
greater manchester — a metropolitan county in central England, with the city of Manchester as its center. 498 sq. mi. (1290 sq. km).
green-eyed monster — jealousy: Othello fell under the sway of the green-eyed monster.
grist for the mill — If you say that something is grist for the mill, you mean that it is useful for a particular purpose or helps support someone's point of view.
gulf stream system — a major ocean-current system consisting of the Gulf Stream and the Florida and North Atlantic currents.
handlebar mustache — A handlebar mustache is a long thick mustache with curled ends.
have a hand in sth — If you have a hand in something such as an event or activity, you are involved in it.
have got to do sth — You use have got to when you are saying that something is necessary or must happen in the way stated. In informal American English, the 'have' is sometimes omitted.
headquarters staff — the people who work at the headquarters of an organization
heat of combustion — the heat evolved when one mole of a substance is burnt in oxygen at constant volume
helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
herringbone stitch — a type of cross-stitch in embroidery similar to the catch stitch in sewing, consisting of an overlapped V -shaped stitch that when worked in a continuous pattern produces a twill-weave effect.

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