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26-letter words containing l, u, s, t, r

  • microcrystalline cellulose — Microcrystalline cellulose is a polymer used as a binder in tablets because it is stable, compressible, and disintegrates quickly.
  • minister without portfolio — a minister of state who is not appointed to any specific department in a government.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • nature conservancy council — (in Britain) a body set up by act of parliament in 1973 to establish and manage nature reserves, identify SSSIs, and provide information and advice about nature conservation. In 1991–92 it was replaced by English Nature, Scottish Natural Heritage, and the Countryside Council for Wales
  • 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.
  • object constraint language — (language)   (OCL) A formal specification language extension to UML. The Object Constraint Language is a precise text language that provides constraint and object query expressions on an object-oriented model that cannot otherwise be expressed by diagrammatic notation. OCL supplements UML by providing expressions that have neither the ambiguities of natural language nor the inherent difficulty of using complex mathematics. OCL is a descendent of Syntropy, a second-generation object-oriented analysis and design method. The OCL 1.4 definition specified a constraint language. In OCL 2.0, the definition has been extended to include general object query language definitions.
  • 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.
  • orthogonal instruction set — (architecture)   An instruction set where all (or most) instructions have the same format and all registers and addressing modes can be used interchangeably - the choices of op code, register, and addressing mode are mutually independent (loosely speaking, the choices are "orthogonal"). This contrasts with some early Intel microprocessors where only certain registers could be used by certain instructions. Examples include the PDP-11, 680x0, ARM, VAX.
  • period-luminosity relation — the relationship between the period of light variation and of the absolute magnitude of Cepheid variable stars.
  • permanent health insurance — a form of insurance that provides up to 75 per cent of a person's salary, until retirement, in case of prolonged illness or disability
  • pour encourager les autres — in order to encourage the others: often used ironically
  • principle of superposition — any of several physical laws that the resultant of similar vector quantities at a point is a function of the sum of the individual quantities, especially the law that the displacement at a point in a medium undergoing simple harmonic motion is equal to the sum of the displacements of each individual wave.
  • provence-alpes-côte d'azur — metropolitan region of SE France: 12,124 sq mi (31,401 sq km); pop. 4,258,000; chief city, Marseille
  • public prosecutor's office — the legal department that is responsible for putting people on trial on behalf of the government and people of a particular country
  • public-liability insurance — insurance covering the insured against risks involving liability to the public for damages arising from negligence.
  • public-service corporation — a private or quasi-private corporation chartered to provide an essential commodity or service to the public.
  • pulse repetition frequency — the number of pulses per second in a system of pulse transmission. Abbreviation: PRF.
  • quasi-stellar radio source — a quasar having detectable radio emission. Abbreviation: QSS.
  • register transfer language — (RTL) 1. A kind of hardware description language (HDL) used in describing the registers of a computer or digital electronic system, and the way in which data is transferred between them. 2. An intermediate code for a machine with an infinite number of registers, used for machine-independent optimisation. RTL was developed by Chris Fraser <[email protected]> and J. Davidson <[email protected]> at the University of Arizona in the early 1980s. RTL is used by the GNU C compiler, gcc and by Davidson's VPCC (Very Portable C compiler).
  • replacement cost insurance — Replacement cost insurance is insurance in which the cost of replacing property is calculated without a reduction for depreciation.
  • 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.
  • richthofen's flying circus — the German 11th Chasing Squadron of World War I, commanded by Baron Richthofen
  • scares the life out of you — If you want to emphasize that something scares you a lot, you can say that it scares the hell out of you or scares the life out of you.
  • sixty-four-dollar question — the critical or basic question or problem: Whether the measure will get through Congress this session or not is the sixty-four-dollar question.
  • slip through one's fingers — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
  • software writer's language — (language)   (SWL) /swil/ An industrial strength dialect of Pascal that allowed multiple source code files, originally developed at Control Data Corporation (CDC) prior to 1973. Development continued at the Integrated Systems Laboratory. SWL was adopted by NCR as its corporate operating system and compiler implementation language (1978-1982+). The NCR SWL dialect was renamed NCRL (NCR Language) in 1981 and continued development [until ?].
  • st andrews static language — (language)   (SASL) A functional programming language designed by Professor David Turner in 1976 whilst at St. Andrews University. SASL is a derivative of ISWIM with infinite data structures. It is fully lazy but weakly typed. It was designed for teaching functional programming, with very simple syntax. Example syntax: def fac n = n = 0 -> 1 ; n x fac(n-1) A version of the expert system EMYCIN has been written in SASL. SASL was originally known as "St Andrews Standard Language". Not to be confused with SISAL.
  • staffordshire bull terrier — one of an English breed of strong, stocky, muscular dogs having a broad skull and a smooth coat, in combinations of red, white, black, or blue, originally raised for bullbaiting and later dogfighting, but now bred as a companion dog.
  • straight from the shoulder — direct, honest, and forceful in expression; outspoken.
  • straight-from-the-shoulder — direct, honest, and forceful in expression; outspoken.
  • string processing language — (language)   (SPRING)
  • strong nuclear interaction — an interaction between elementary particles responsible for the forces between nucleons in the nucleus. It operates at distances less than about 10–15 metres, and is about a hundred times more powerful than the electromagnetic interaction
  • subscriber identity module — (telecommunications, wireless)   (SIM or "SIM card") A component, usually in the form of a miniature smart-card, that is theoretically tamper-proof and is used to associate a mobile subscriber with a mobile network subscription. The SIM holds the subscriber's unique MSISDN along with secret information such as a private encryption key and encryption and digital signature algorithms. Most SIMs also contain non-volatile storage for network and device management, contact lists, text messages sent and received, logos and in some cases even small Java programs.
  • take the bull by the horns — the male of a bovine animal, especially of the genus Bos, with sexual organs intact and capable of reproduction.
  • tennessee valley authority — TVA.
  • the fruits of your labours — the profits or gains achieved as a result of hard work
  • the inland revenue service — (in the US) a government board that administers and collects major direct taxes
  • the single european market — the free trade policy that operates between members of the European Union
  • 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 do sth by the rule book — to do something in the normal, accepted way
  • to rub salt into the wound — If someone or something rubs salt into the wound, they make the unpleasant situation that you are in even worse, often by reminding you of your failures or faults.
  • 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.
  • turn the tables on someone — to cause a complete reversal of circumstances, esp to defeat or get the better of someone who was previously in a stronger position
  • udmurt autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation in Europe. 16,250 sq. mi. (42,088 sq. km). Capital: Izhevsk.
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