26-letter words containing a, l, m, o, r, t
- mecklenburg-west pomerania — a state of NE Germany, along the Baltic coast: consists of the former state of Mecklenburg and those parts of W Pomerania not incorporated into Poland after World War II: part of East Germany until 1990. Pop: 1 732 000 (2003 est)
- metropolitan museum of art — the principal museum in New York City: founded in 1870 and housed in its present premises in Central Park since 1880
- michigan algorithm decoder — (language) (MAD) An early programming language, based on IAL, developed at the University of Michigan by R. Graham, Bruce Arden, and Bernard Galler in 1959. MAD was one of the first extensible languages: the user could define his own operators and data types. MAD ran on the IBM 704, IBM 709 and IBM 7090. It was ported to the IBM 7040 at the City College of New York by Robert Teitel and also to Philco, Univac and CDC computers.
- micro channel architecture — (architecture) (MCA) IBM's proprietary 32-bit bus, used in high-end PS/2 personal computers. Micro Channel is designed for multiprocessing. It eliminates potential conflicts that arise when installing new peripheral devices. MCA is *not* compatible with either EISA or XT bus architecture so older cards cannot be used with it. As with the ROM BIOS in the first IBM PCs, figuring out the Micro Channel's secrets has been an arduous task of reverse engineering ever since the PS/2 line was announced. Consequently, the MCA has never become as wide spread as the competing EISA standard.
- microcrystalline cellulose — Microcrystalline cellulose is a polymer used as a binder in tablets because it is stable, compressible, and disintegrates quickly.
- money market (mutual) fund — a mutual fund which invests in short-term financial instruments, as treasury bills and commercial paper
- mongolian hordes technique — (programming, jargon) (Or "Chinese Army technique") Assigning a large number of inexperienced programmers to a job which would better performed by a few skilled ones. The term was first used by Dr. Fred Brooks in his book "The Mythical Man-Month", Chapter 3. According to Dr. Brooks, he had in mind the vision of the Mongol Hordes sweeping across Asia and Europe when he created the term.
- monochrome display adapter — (hardware, graphics) (MDA) One of IBM's earliest hardware video display standards for use in IBM PC. MDA can display only monochrome 80*25 text (IBM PC video mode 7). It is now obsolete.
- most-favored-nation clause — a clause in a commercial treaty or contract by which each signatory agrees to give the other the same treatment that is or will be accorded any other nation.
- multi-color graphics array — (hardware, graphics) (MCGA) One of IBM's less popular hardware video display standards for use in the IBM PS/2. MCGA can display 80*25 text in monochrome, 40*25 text in 256 colours or 320*200 pixel graphics in 256 colors. It is now obsolete.
- multifactorial inheritance — polygenic inheritance.
- mushroom slab construction — beamless reinforced-concrete floor and roof construction employing columns with widely flaring heads having horizontal rings of reinforcement to support the floor or roof slab.
- mutual assured destruction — a U.S. doctrine of reciprocal deterrence resting on the U.S. and Soviet Union each being able to inflict unacceptable damage on the other in retaliation for a nuclear attack.
- national merit scholarship — one of some 6000 college scholarships awarded annually since 1956, by the nonprofit, grant-supported National Merit Scholarship Corporation, to high-school students (National Merit Scholars) on the basis of scholastic record, personal character, and score on a test administered nationally.
- neither more nor less than — simply
- newfoundland standard time — one of the standard times used in Canada, three and a half hours behind Greenwich Mean Time
- nuclear magnetic resonance — the selective absorption of electromagnetic radiation by an atomic nucleus in the presence of a strong, static, magnetic field: used in research and in medicine to monitor tissue metabolism and to distinguish between normal and abnormal cells. Abbreviation: NMR.
- official production system — (language) (OPS) The first production system (i.e. rule based) programming language, developed at CMU in 1970 and used for building expert systems. OPS was originally written in Franz Lisp and later ported to other LISP dialects.
- period-luminosity relation — the relationship between the period of light variation and of the absolute magnitude of Cepheid variable stars.
- portable forth environment — (language) (PFE) A highly portable Forth development system based on the ANSI standard for Forth, by Dirk-Uwe Zoller of FHT, Mannheim, Germany. PFE aims to be correct, complete, usable, and simple but it isn't optimised for speed. It supports all dpANS word sets. It runs on Linux, RS/6000, and HP-UX. E-mail: Guido Draheim <[email protected]>.
- postprandial thermogenesis — the rate at which food is broken down after a meal and used by your body
- powerpc reference platform — PowerPC Platform
- professional office system — (messaging) (PROFS) An office messaging system from IBM, used worldwide, mainly on IBM mainframes.
- real-time operating system — (operating system) (RTOS) Any operating system where interrupts are guaranteed to be handled within a certain specified maximum time, thereby making it suitable for control of hardware in embedded systems and other time-critical applications. RTOS is not a specific product but a class of operating systems.
- recombinant dna technology — any of various techniques for separating and recombining segments of DNA or genes, often employing a restriction enzyme to cut a gene from a donor organism and inserting it into a plasmid or viral DNA for transplantation into a host organism, where the gene causes the production of a desired substance either for harvesting or for the benefit of the host organism itself.
- recreation room (or hall) — a room, as in a home (or a public hall), equipped for amusement and relaxation or for social activities
- renegotiable-rate mortgage — a type of home mortgage for which monthly payments stay constant for a term, usually of three to five years, and the interest rate is renegotiated at the end of every such term until the loan is paid off. Abbreviation: RRM.
- replacement cost insurance — Replacement cost insurance is insurance in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
- retained object complement — an object complement that is kept in its predicative position following the verb when the verb is transformed into the passive voice, as genius in He was considered a genius from (They) considered him a genius.
- reticuloendothelial system — the aggregate of the phagocytic cells, including certain cells of the bone marrow, lymphatic system, liver, and spleen, that have reticular and endothelial characteristics and function in the immune system's defense against foreign bodies. Abbreviation: RES.
- ritz combination principle — the principle that the frequencies of lines in atomic spectra can be represented as differences of a smaller number of terms, all characteristic of the emitting system, interpreted in quantum theory as the emission of exactly one photon in a transition between energy levels.
- scintillation spectrometer — a scintillation counter adapted for measuring the energy distribution of particles emitted in radioactive processes.
- simple algebraic extension — a simple extension in which the specified element is a root of an algebraic equation in the given field.
- stamped addressed envelope — A stamped addressed envelope is an envelope with a stamp on it and your own name and address, which you send to someone so that something can be sent back to you. The abbreviation s.a.e. is also used.
- statistical-thermodynamics — the science that deals with average properties of the molecules, atoms, or elementary particles in random motion in a system of many such particles and relates these properties to the thermodynamic and other macroscopic properties of the system.
- straight from the shoulder — direct, honest, and forceful in expression; outspoken.
- straight-from-the-shoulder — direct, honest, and forceful in expression; outspoken.
- symbionese liberation army — a group of urban guerrillas, active in the early 1970s in the U.S.
- terminal access controller — (hardware, networking) (TAC) A device which connects terminals to the Internet, usually using dial-up modem connections and the TACACS protocol.
- the liberal democrat party — a political party in Britain which was formed from a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party
- the single european market — the free trade policy that operates between members of the European Union
- three-dimensional printing — the creation of solid objects by building up multiple layers, each layer corresponding to a plan held in a digital file
- to be made public property — to become known to everyone
- to call something your own — If you have something you can call your own, it belongs only to you, rather than being controlled by or shared with someone else.
- to come to a grinding halt — If you say that something comes to a grinding halt, you are emphasizing that it stops very suddenly, especially before it was meant to.
- to hold someone for ransom — If a kidnapper is holding a person for ransom, they keep that person prisoner until they are given what they want.
- to lay a finger on someone — If you say that someone did not lay a finger on a particular person or thing, you are emphasizing that they did not touch or harm them at all.
- to set alarm bells ringing — to make someone feel worried or concerned about something
- to spare someone's blushes — If you spare someone's blushes or save someone's blushes, you avoid doing or saying something that will embarrass them.
- to steal someone's thunder — If you steal someone's thunder, you get the attention or praise that they thought they would get, usually by saying or doing what they had intended to say or do.