19-letter words containing a, c, n, t
- fixed-wing aircraft — a heavier-than-air aircraft capable of flight whose lift is generated not by wing motion relative to the aircraft, but by forward motion through the air
- flannelmouth sucker — a sucker, Catostomus latipinnis, of the Colorado River and its tributaries.
- focal plane shutter — an opaque shield in a camera, lying in the focal plane of the lens, that, when tripped, admits light to expose the film or plate for a predetermined period, usually a fraction of a second
- focal-plane shutter — a camera shutter situated directly in front of the film.
- forensic accountant — an accountant who specializes in applying accountancy skills to the purposes of the law
- forensic psychiatry — the use of psychiatric knowledge and techniques in questions of law, as in determining legal insanity.
- fortification agate — an agate, used as a gem, having polygonal banding such that it suggests the plan of a bastion.
- foundation subjects — the subjects studied as part of the National Curriculum, including the compulsory core subjects
- fractal compression — (algorithm) A technique for encoding images using fractals.
- fractional currency — coins or paper money of a smaller denomination than the basic monetary unit.
- fraternal insurance — insurance underwritten by a fraternal society, under either a legal reserve plan or an assessment plan.
- free-market economy — an economy based on the free market system
- freezer compartment — in a refrigerator, an enclosed area kept at a temperature low enough to store frozen foods or freeze non-frozen foods
- french north africa — the former French possessions of Algeria, French Morocco, and Tunisia
- front-end financing — money or costs required or incurred in advance of a project in order to get it under way
- functional analysis — the branch of mathematics that deals with the theory of vector spaces and linear functionals.
- functional calculus — the branch of symbolic logic that includes the sentential calculus and that deals with sentential functions and quantifiers and with logical relations between sentences containing quantifiers.
- functional currency — Functional currency is the main currency used by a business.
- functional database — (database, language) A database which uses a functional language as its query language. Databases would seem to be an inappropriate application for functional languages since, a purely functional language would have to return a new copy of the entire database every time (part of) it was updated. To be practically scalable, the update mechanism must clearly be destructive rather than functional; however it is quite feasible for the query language to be purely functional so long as the database is considered as an argument. One approach to the update problem would use a monad to encapsulate database access and ensure it was single threaded. Alternative approaches have been suggested by Trinder, who suggests non-destructive updating with shared data structures, and Sutton who uses a variant of a Phil Wadler's linear type system. There are two main classes of functional database languages. The first is based upon Backus' FP language, of which FQL is probably the best known example. Adaplan is a more recent language which falls into this category. More recently, people have been working on languages which are syntactically very similar to modern functional programming languages, but which also provide all of the features of a database language, e.g. bulk data structures which can be incrementally updated, type systems which can be incrementally updated, and all data persisting in a database. Examples are PFL [Poulovassilis&Small, VLDB-91], and Machiavelli [Ohori et al, ACM SIGMOD Conference, 1998].
- functional language — (language) A language that supports and encourages functional programming.
- functional medicine — individualized medical care that recognizes the interactions between genetic and environmental factors and between the body's interconnected systems.
- galactic coordinate — Usually, galactic coordinates. a member of a system of coordinates that define the position of a celestial body with reference to the Milky Way.
- gas central heating — a system of central heating fuelled by combustible gas
- gastrocolic omentum — the peritoneal fold attached to the stomach and the colon and hanging over the small intestine.
- gastroenterocolitis — (medicine) inflammation of the stomach, small intestines, and colon.
- gastroenterological — Of or pertaining to gastroenterology.
- general anaesthetic — sth administered to induce unconsciousness
- general linguistics — the study of the characteristics of language in general rather than of a particular language; theoretical, rather than applied, linguistics.
- general post office — (in the U.S. postal system) the main post office of a city, county, etc., that also has branch post offices. Abbreviation: G.P.O., GPO.
- genetic programming — (programming) (GP) A programming technique which extends the genetic algorithm to the domain of whole computer programs. In GP, populations of programs are genetically bred to solve problems. Genetic programming can solve problems of system identification, classification, control, robotics, optimisation, game playing, and pattern recognition. Starting with a primordial ooze of hundreds or thousands of randomly created programs composed of functions and terminals appropriate to the problem, the population is progressively evolved over a series of generations by applying the operations of Darwinian fitness proportionate reproduction and crossover (sexual recombination).
- geneva nomenclature — an internationally accepted system for naming organic carbon compounds.
- geocentric parallax — the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
- geomagnetic equator — an imaginary line on the earth's surface, the plane of which passes through the center and is midway between the geomagnetic poles.
- gestational carrier — surrogate mother (def 3).
- gigabits per second — (unit) (Gbps) A unit of information transfer rate equal to one billion bits per second. Note that, while a gigabit is defined as a power of two (2^30 bits), a gigabit per second is defined as a power of ten (10^9 bits per second, which is slightly less) than 2^30).
- glottochronological — Of or pertaining to glottochronology.
- glyceryl trinitrate — nitroglycerin.
- go to rack and ruin — If you say that a place is going to rack and ruin, you are emphasizing that it is slowly becoming less attractive or less pleasant because no-one is bothering to look after it.
- goldbach conjecture — an unproved theorem that every even integer greater than 2 can be written as the sum of two prime numbers.
- grammatical meaning — the meaning of an inflectional morpheme or of some other syntactic device, as word order.
- grandfather's chair — wing chair.
- grandfather's clock — a pendulum floor clock having a case as tall as or taller than a person; tall-case clock; long-case clock.
- grandmother's clock — a pendulum clock similar to a grandfather's clock but shorter.
- graphic workstation — (graphics, computer) A workstation specifically configured for graphics works such as image manipulation, bitmap graphics ("paint"), and vector graphics ("draw") type applications. Such work requires a powerful CPU and a high resolution display. A graphic workstation is very similar to a CAD workstation and, given the typical specifications of personal computers currently available in 1999, the distinctions are very blurred and are more likely to depend on availability of specific software than any detailed hardware requirements.
- gratuitous contract — a contract for the benefit of only one of the parties, the other party receiving nothing as consideration.
- great wall of china — a system of fortified walls with a roadway along the top, constructed as a defense for China against the nomads of the regions that are now Mongolia and Manchuria: completed in the 3rd century b.c., but later repeatedly modified and rebuilt. 2000 miles (3220 km) long.
- great-grandchildren — a grandchild of one's son or daughter.
- greenstick fracture — an incomplete fracture of a long bone, in which one side is broken and the other side is still intact.
- greenwich mean time — the time as measured on the prime meridian running through Greenwich, England: used in England and as a standard of calculation elsewhere.
- gregorian telescope — a telescope similar in design to the Cassegrainian telescope but less widely used.