17-letter words containing a, d, s, p
- indicator species — See at indicator (def 6).
- indispensableness — The characteristic of being indispensable; indispensability.
- integrated optics — an assembly of miniature optical elements of a size comparable to those used in electronic integrated circuits.
- interdisciplinary — combining or involving two or more academic disciplines or fields of study: The economics and history departments are offering an interdisciplinary seminar on Asia.
- japanese knotweed — Mexican bamboo.
- judgment of paris — the decision by Paris to award Aphrodite the golden apple of discord competed for by Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera.
- jurisprudentially — In terms of jurisprudence.
- kaleidoscopically — of, relating to, or created by a kaleidoscope.
- kastor and pollux — Castor and Pollux.
- kidney transplant — surgery to replace a kidney
- lambda expression — (mathematics) A term in the lambda-calculus denoting an unnamed function (a "lambda abstraction"), a variable or a constant. The pure lambda-calculus has only functions and no constants.
- landscape painter — artist who depicts natural scenery
- landscaped garden — a garden that has been artistically designed
- lares and penates — household gods
- least fixed point — (mathematics) A function f may have many fixed points (x such that f x = x). For example, any value is a fixed point of the identity function, (\ x . x). If f is recursive, we can represent it as f = fix F where F is some higher-order function and fix F = F (fix F). The standard denotational semantics of f is then given by the least fixed point of F. This is the least upper bound of the infinite sequence (the ascending Kleene chain) obtained by repeatedly applying F to the totally undefined value, bottom. I.e. fix F = LUB {bottom, F bottom, F (F bottom), ...}. The least fixed point is guaranteed to exist for a continuous function over a cpo.
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- legal proceedings — court case
- lipopolysaccaride — a molecule, consisting of lipid and polysaccharide components, that is the main constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria
- load displacement — the weight, in long tons, of a cargo vessel loaded so that the summer load line touches the surface of the water.
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- mean piston speed — The mean piston speed is the distance traveled by a piston in a specified amount of time.
- mean-spiritedness — the quality of being mean-spirited
- meat and potatoes — If you refer to the meat and potatoes of something, you mean its most basic, simple, and essential parts.
- meat-and-potatoes — fundamental; down-to-earth; basic: What are the meat-and-potatoes issues of the election?
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- middle-age spread — an increase in bulk, especially in the waist and buttocks, associated with the onset of middle age and the body's decreasing ability to metabolize calories efficiently.
- midsagittal plane — a plane passing through the nasion when the skull is oriented in the Frankfurt horizontal.
- mississippi delta — an area between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers in the northwest of the state of Mississippi; it is very flat and fertile
- mode of transport — means of travel
- modular sb-prolog — Modular Prolog
- mom and pop store — a small retail business, typically family-operated
- moon and sixpence — a novel (1919) by W. Somerset Maugham.
- multidisciplinary — composed of or combining several usually separate branches of learning or fields of expertise: a multidisciplinary study of the 18th century.
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- northern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, lying northeast of Euboea
- old age pensioner — An old age pensioner is a person who is old enough to receive an pension from their employer or the government.
- old spanish trail — an overland route from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to Los Angeles, Calif., first marked out in 1776 by Spanish explorers and missionaries.
- one-time password — (security) (OTP) A security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. OTP generates passwords using either the MD4 or MD5 hashing algorithms. The equivalent term "S/Key", developed by Bellcore, is a trademark of Telcordia Technologies, so the name OTP is used increasingly. See RFC 1760 - "The S/KEY One-Time Password System" and RFC 1938 - "A One-Time Password System".
- paradise regained — an epic poem (1671) by John Milton.
- paradoxical sleep — REM sleep.
- paratungstic acid — an oxyacid acid of tungsten. Formula: H10W12O14
- partially sighted — unable to see properly so that even with corrective aids normal activities are prevented or seriously hindered
- passamaquoddy bay — an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between Maine and New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River.
- passive obedience — unquestioning obedience to authority
- pate de foie gras — See under foie gras.
- peaches and cream — If you say that a woman or a girl has a peaches and cream complexion, you mean that she has very clear, smooth, pale skin.
- pere david's deer — a medium-sized, reddish-gray deer, Elaphurus davidianus, of which stocks were obtained in Peking in 1865 and brought to parks in Europe before the remaining Chinese deer were killed in 1900: the species is sustained in captivity.
- performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
- permanent address — a fixed address
- personal distance — personal space.