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25-letter words containing a, n, t, i, f

  • electronic funds transfer — (application, communications)   (EFT, EFTS, - system) Transfer of money initiated through electronic terminal, automated teller machine, computer, telephone, or magnetic tape. In the late 1990s, this increasingly includes transfer initiated via the web. The term also applies to credit card and automated bill payments.
  • equine infectious anaemia — a viral disease of horses, donkeys, and mules characterized by fever, anaemia, jaundice, depression, and weight loss
  • european court of justice — law: international court
  • examination for discovery — a pretrial meeting to disclose evidence that will be presented later
  • fallacy of many questions — the rhetorical trick of asking a question that cannot be answered without admitting a presupposition that may be false, as have you stopped beating your wife?
  • female genital mutilation — the practice observed in some cultures of removing part or all of a woman's or girl's genitalia
  • fifth generation language — (language, artificial intelligence)   A myth the Japanese spent a lot of money on. In about 1982, MITI decided it would spend ten years and a lot of money applying artificial intelligence to programming, thus solving the software crisis. The project spent its money and its ten years and in 1992 closed down with a wimper.
  • first and second manassas — two battles fought at Manassas Junction near a stream named Bull Run, during the American Civil War (July, 1861 and August, 1862), in both of which the Federal army was routed by the Confederates
  • first generation computer — (architecture)   A prototype computer based on vacuum tubes and other esoteric technologies. Chronologically, any computer designed before the mid-1950s. Examples include Howard Aiken's Mark 1 (1944), Maunchly and Eckert's ENIAC (1946), and the IAS computer.
  • first generation language — Raw machine code. When computers were first "programmed" from an input device, rather than by being rewired, they were fed input in the form of numbers, which they then interpreted as commands. This was really low level, and a program fragment might look like "010307 010307". Almost no one programs in machine language anymore, because translators are nearly trivial to write.
  • five nations championship — a former annual competition involving the national sides of England, France, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales; replaced by the Six Nations Championship in 2000
  • flexible spending account — an account to which an employee contributes a portion of earnings to pay for certain expenses such as medical and dependent care: contributions are exempt from payroll taxes. Abbreviation: FSA.
  • flight management systems — a suite of computer programs in a computer on board an aircraft used to calculate the most economical flying speeds and altitudes during a flight and to identify possible choices in emergencies
  • franked investment income — (formerly) dividends from one UK company received by another on which the paying company had paid corporation tax so that the receiving company had no corporation tax to pay: discontinued from 1999
  • free central placentation — a type of placenta structure in an ovary, in which the ovules cluster freely around a columnlike central placenta which is attached at the base of the ovary
  • frequently asked question — (convention)   (FAQ, or rarely FAQL, FAQ list) A document provided for many Usenet newsgroups (and, more recently, web services) which attempts to answer questions which new readers often ask. These are maintained by volunteers and posted regularly to the newsgroup. You should always consult the FAQ list for a group before posting to it in case your question or point is common knowledge. The collection of all FAQ lists is one of the most precious and remarkable resources on the Internet. It contains a huge wealth of up-to-date expert knowledge on many subjects of common interest. Accuracy of the information is greatly assisted by its frequent exposure to criticism by an interested, and occasionally well-informed, audience (the readers of the relevant newsgroup). The main FTP archive for FAQs is on a computer called RTFM at MIT, where they can be accessed either by group or by hierarchy. There is another archive at Imperial College, London, UK and a web archive in Ohio, USA. The FAQs are also posted to Usenet newsgroups: news:comp.answers, news:news.answers and news:alt.answers.
  • fully lazy lambda lifting — John Hughes's optimisation of lambda lifting to give full laziness. Maximal free expressions are shared to minimise the amount of recalculation. Each inner sub-expression is replaced by a function of its maximal free expressions (expressions not containing any bound variable) applied to those expressions. E.g. f = \ x . (\ y . (+) (sqrt x) y) ((+) (sqrt x)) is a maximal free expression in (\ y . (+) (sqrt x) y) so this inner abstraction is replaced with (\ g . \ y . g y) ((+) (sqrt x)) Now, if a partial application of f is shared, the result of evaluating (sqrt x) will also be shared rather than re-evaluated on each application of f. As Chin notes, the same benefit could be achieved without introducing the new higher-order function, g, if we just extracted out (sqrt x). This is similar to the code motion optimisation in procedural languages where constant expressions are moved outside a loop or procedure.
  • functional representation — representation in a governing body on the basis of social class or occupation.
  • further education college — (in Britain) an establishment that offers formal education beyond school and which is not a university or polytechnic
  • gabriel daniel fahrenheit — Gabriel Daniel [German gah-bree-el dah-nee-el] /German ˈgɑ briˌɛl ˈdɑ niˌɛl/ (Show IPA), 1686–1736, German physicist: devised a temperature scale and introduced the use of mercury in thermometers.
  • gas desulfurization plant — A gas desulfurization plant is a place with equipment that removes sulfur dioxide from flue gas before it is released into the atmosphere.
  • general accounting office — an independent auditing and accounting agency that assists Congress and government departments and agencies and settles claims for the federal government. Abbreviation: GAO.
  • genetically modified food — a food that contains ingredients made from genetically modified plants or animals
  • gensym standard interface — (programming)   (GSI) A set of C libraries and programming tools used to interface G2 to external systems. Commercially available bridges are available to SCADA systems and PLCs.
  • go through fire and water — to undergo great difficulties or dangers
  • graphic display interface — (hardware)   (GDI) graphics adaptor.
  • graphics interface format — (spelling)   You mean "Graphics Interchange Format".
  • greatest-integer function — the function that assigns to each real number the greatest integer less than or equal to the number. Symbol: [ x ].
  • hailsham of st marylebone — Baron, title of Quintin (McGarel) Hogg (ˈkwɪntɪn). 1907–2001, British Conservative politician; Lord Chancellor (1970–74; 1979–87). He renounced his viscountcy in 1963 when he made an unsuccessful bid for the Conservative Party leadership; he became a life peer in 1970
  • hardening of the arteries — medical condition: arteriosclerosis
  • have an eye for something — If you say that someone has an eye for something, you mean that they are good at noticing it or making judgments about it.
  • have bats in one's belfry — any of numerous flying mammals of the order Chiroptera, of worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions, having modified forelimbs that serve as wings and are covered with a membranous skin extending to the hind limbs.
  • high voltage differential — (hardware)   (HVD) Differential SCSI scheme that has been in use for years. The terminators run on 5 Volts DC. See also LVD.
  • homothetic transformation — similarity transformation (def 1).
  • homothetic-transformation — Also called homothetic transformation. a mapping of a set by which each element in the set is mapped into a positive constant multiple of itself, the same constant being used for all elements.
  • human-factors engineering — an applied science that coordinates the design of devices, systems, and physical working conditions with the capacities and requirements of the worker.
  • in (or out of) character — consistent with (or inconsistent with) the role or general character
  • in (or out of) mothballs — put into (or taken from) a condition of being stored or in reserve
  • in the foreseeable future — If you say that something will happen in the foreseeable future you mean that you think it will happen fairly soon.
  • in the heat of the moment — without pausing to think
  • in the palm of one's hand — If you have someone or something in the palm of your hand, you have control over them.
  • industrial injury benefit — money paid to an employee who has been injured or who has developed a disease because of their job, and who is consequently unable to work
  • industrial life insurance — life insurance having a relatively low face value in which premiums are paid weekly or monthly to an agent.
  • infantry fighting vehicle — a heavily armored combat vehicle, as a tank, used to carry infantry into battle and provide support. Abbreviation: IFV.
  • infrared data association — (standard, body)   (IrDA) A non-profit trade association providing standards to ensure the quality and interoperability of infrared (IR) hardware. The association currently has a membership of over 160 companies from around the world, representing computer and telecommunications hardware, software, components and adapters. IrDA typically uses direct infrared i.e. point-to-point, line-of-sight, one-to-one communications. The standards include: IrDA Data (SIR, FIR, VFIR), IrDA Control, and AIR. Ports built to the above standards can be found in products such as PDAs, Palm devices, printers, desktop adapters, notebooks, and digital cameras.
  • internal field separators — (operating system)   ($IFS) A predefined environment variable in the Unix Bourne shell whose default value is the three-character string containing space, tab and line feed. Any string of one or more of these characters separates the command and each of its arguments in a command line. $IFS also tells the shell's built-in read command where to split an input line when reading into multiple variables. E.g. setting IFS=: would be appropriate for reading a file with ':'-separated fields, such as /etc/passwd.
  • land of the little sticks — the part of the north of Canada that lies south of the tree line but contains only stunted evergreens or dwarf deciduous trees.
  • leaf distribution limited — A UK connectivity software supplier which also provides SERVELAN, a country-wide Internet access service. E-mail: <[email protected]>. Address: 7 Elmwood, Chineham Business Park, Crockford Lane, BASINGSTOKE RG24 0WG. Telephone: +44 (1256) 707 777. Fax: +44 (1256) 707 555.
  • letters of administration — a formal document nominating a specified person to take over, administer, and dispose of an estate when there is no executor to carry out the testator's will
  • limited-slip differential — an automotive differential that can transfer power from a wheel that has lost traction to one that has not.
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