23-letter words containing s, i, m
- give something a rub-up — to smooth or polish something
- grant-maintained school — a school funded directly by central government
- graphical kernel system — (graphics, standard) (GKS) The widely recognised standard ANSI X3.124 for graphical input/output. GKS is worked on by the ISO/IEC group JTC1/SC24. It provides applications programmers with standard methods of creating, manipulating, and displaying or printing computer graphics on different types of computer graphics output devices. It provides an abstraction to save programmers from dealing with the detailed capabilities and interfaces of specific hardware. GKS defines a basic two-dimensional graphics system with: uniform input and output primitives; a uniform interface to and from a GKS metafile for storing and transferring graphics information. It supports a wide range of graphics output devices including such as printers, plotters, vector graphics devices, storage tubes, refresh displays, raster displays, and microfilm recorders.
- greatest common divisor — the largest number that is a common divisor of a given set of numbers. Abbreviation: G.C.D.
- grist to someone's mill — anything that someone can use profitably
- guanosine monophosphate — GMP.
- guest relations manager — A guest relations manager at a hotel is responsible for the relationships that the hotel has with its guests and the way in which it treats them.
- guillain-barre syndrome — an uncommon, usually self-limited form of polyneuritis, occurring after a viral illness or immunization and manifested by loss of muscle strength, loss of or altered sensation and sometimes paralysis.
- have the makings of sth — If you say that a person or thing has the makings of something, you mean it seems possible or likely that they will become that thing, as they have the necessary qualities.
- hermit of st. augustine — a member of an order of mendicant friars, founded in 1256.
- hire purchase agreement — an agreement between a seller and a buyer for the buyer to purchase something on hire purchase
- hold sb/sth in contempt — If you hold someone or something in contempt, you feel contempt for them.
- homonymous construction — a construction that consists of the same morphemes in the same order as those of another construction, as Flying planes can be dangerous, in which planes in one construction is the object of flying, and in another the subject of can; a terminal string of formatives having two or more structural descriptions.
- human rights campaigner — a person who campaigns for human rights
- hunter-killer submarine — a submarine designed and equipped to pursue and destroy enemy craft
- if worst comes to worst — bad or ill in the highest, greatest, or most extreme degree: the worst person.
- immigration authorities — the authorities or official government bodies who regulate laws regarding immigration and immigrants
- in a manner of speaking — a way of doing, being done, or happening; mode of action, occurrence, etc.: I don't like the manner in which he complained.
- in someone's bad graces — elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action: We watched her skate with effortless grace across the ice. Synonyms: attractiveness, charm, gracefulness, comeliness, ease, lissomeness, fluidity. Antonyms: stiffness, ugliness, awkwardness, clumsiness; klutziness.
- in someone's good books — regarded by someone with favour
- in the arms of morpheus — sleeping
- in the employ of sb/sth — If you are in the employ of someone or something, you work for them.
- in the fullness of time — eventually
- indirect discrimination — discrimination by means of rules, regulations or procedures that may appear to be neutral, but which actually discriminate against certain groups of people.
- informatics corporation — (company) Renamed to Sterling Software Corp.
- inland marine insurance — insurance chiefly covering risks to goods and means of transportation involved in the transporting of goods overland or by inland waterways.
- installable file system — (operating system) (IFS or "File System Driver", "FSD") An API that allows you to extend OS/2 to access files stored on disk in formats other than FAT and HPFS, and access files that are stored on a network file server. For example an IFS could provide programs running under OS/2 (including DOS and Windows programs) with access to files stored under Unix using the Berkeley fast file system. The other variety of IFS (a "remote file system" or "redirector") allows file sharing over a LAN, e.g. using Unix's Network File System protocol. In this case, the IFS passes a program's file access requests to a remote file server, possibly also translating between different file attributes used by OS/2 and the remote system. Documentation on the IFS API has been available only by special request from IBM. An IFS is structured as an ordinary 16-bit DLL with entry points for opening, closing, reading, and writing files, the swapper, file locking, and Universal Naming Convention. The main part of an IFS that runs in ring 0 is called by the OS/2 kernel in the context of the caller's process and thread. The other part that runs in ring 3 is a utility library with entry points for FORMAT, RECOVER, SYS, and CHKDSK.
- interfascicular cambium — cambium that develops between the vascular bundles.
- interference microscope — a microscope that utilizes light interference phenomena to create two superimposed images of an object, making possible the observation of transparent objects without using the staining technique.
- intrinsic semiconductor — an almost pure semiconductor to which no impurities have been added and in which the electron and hole densities are equal at thermal equilibrium
- islamic fundamentalists — Muslims who believe in, advocate or support a conservative adherence to literal or traditional interpretations of the Qu'ran and the Sunnah
- katmai new instructions — Streaming SIMD Extensions
- knight in shining armor — chivalrous man
- l'apres-midi d'un faune — L'Après-midi d'un Faune.
- last will and testament — law: instructions for after death
- lawrence livermore labs — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
- life on the mississippi — an autobiographical narrative (1883) by Mark Twain.
- light-emitting resistor — (electronics, humour) (LER, from "light-emitting diode") A resistor in the final stages of burning up. (Though intended as purely humorous, the term could sensibly describe the filament of a common incandescent electric light bulb). See also SED.
- liquefied petroleum gas — a mixture of various petroleum gases, esp propane and butane, stored as a liquid under pressure and used as an engine fuel
- look someone in the eye — to look at someone openly and without shame or embarrassment
- lossy audio compression — (audio, compression) Any audio compression algorithm which does not retain every bit of data but only reproduces a signal that sounds more or less like the original. Examples are MP1, MP2, MP3, AAC.
- lymphoblastic leukaemia — a severe blood disorder in which abnormal leukocytes are identified as immature forms of lymphocytes
- magnetic field strength — that part of the magnetic induction that is determined at any point in space by the current density and displacement current at that point independently of the magnetic or other physical properties of the surrounding medium. Symbol: H.
- magnetic resonance scan — MR scan.
- magnetic susceptibility — the coefficient or set of coefficients of the magnetic intensity in any expression giving the components of magnetization as linear combinations of the components of magnetic intensity.
- main distribution frame — (networking) (MDF) The network closet containing the main hub.
- make sb's life a misery — If someone makes your life a misery, they behave in an unpleasant way towards you over a period of time and make you very unhappy.
- martha washington chair — a chair of the 18th century having a high upholstered back, a low upholstered seat, and short arms resting on incurvate supports.
- martha washington table — a sewing table of the 18th century having an oval top that can be lifted and a central compartment of drawers with semicircular bins at each end.
- mass sociogenic illness — a condition in which a large group of people report similar physical symptoms that are traceable to social factors, as social interaction within an environment.