17-letter words containing a, n, g, o
- persona non grata — a person who is not welcome: He has become persona non grata in our club since his angry outburst.
- personnel manager — head of Human Resources department
- phantom pregnancy — the occurrence of signs of pregnancy, such as enlarged abdomen and absence of menstruation, when no embryo is present, due to hormonal imbalance
- phonological rule — an operation in generative phonology that substitutes one sound or class of sounds for another in a phonological derivation.
- pile on the agony — to exaggerate one's distress for sympathy or greater effect
- pillion passenger — a person who travels in a seat or place behind the rider of a motorcycle, scooter, horse, etc
- pitching rotation — the regular, scheduled succession of starting pitchers designated by a manager: a four-man pitching rotation in September.
- play along (with) — to join in or cooperate (with)
- ploughman's lunch — a light lunch consisting of bread and cheese, and sometimes pickled onions.
- poison-arrow frog — a small, bright-colored terrestrial frog of the family Dendrobatidae, of Central and South American rain forests, that secretes a virulent poison from its skin, once used on the tips of Indian hunting arrows.
- polarizing filter — a camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.
- poor man's orange — a grapefruit
- portfolio manager — a person employed by others to make investments for them
- portuguese guinea — former name of Guinea-Bissau.
- postural drainage — a therapy for clearing congested lungs by placing the patient in a position for drainage by gravity, often accompanied by percussion with hollowed hands.
- pre-configuration — the relative disposition or arrangement of the parts or elements of a thing.
- pre-investigation — the act or process of investigating or the condition of being investigated.
- pre-technological — of or relating to technology; relating to science and industry.
- precision casting — investment casting.
- predatory pricing — If a company practises predatory pricing, it charges a much lower price for its products or services than its competitors in order to force them out of the market.
- proficiency badge — an insignia or device granted by the Girl Scouts and worn especially on a uniform to indicate special achievement.
- program generator — a computer program that can be used to help to create other computer programs
- program statement — a single instruction in a computer program
- programme planner — someone who creates plans or schedules in regards to their line of work or occupation
- programming fluid — (jargon) (Or "wirewater") Coffee, unleaded coffee (decaffeinated), Cola, or any caffeinacious stimulant. Many hackers consider these essential for those all-night hacking runs.
- prolonged-release — A prolonged-release drug delivers a dose of a medication over an extended period of time.
- prothoracic gland — either of a pair of endocrine glands in the anterior thorax of some insects, functioning to promote the series of molts from hatching to adulthood.
- psychodiagnostics — the study and evaluation of character or personality in terms of behavioral and anatomical traits, as gesture, posture and physiognomy.
- pyroligneous acid — a yellowish, acidic, water-soluble liquid, containing about 10 percent acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood: used for smoking meats.
- pythagorean scale — the major scale as derived acoustically by Pythagoras from the perfect fifth.
- quantum computing — quantum computer
- railroad crossing — place for vehicles to cross train tracks
- rapid prototyping — (programming) The creation of a working model of a software module to demonstrate the feasibility and suitability of the function. The prototype is expected to be replaced or refined before inclusion in the final product. Rapid prototyping contrasts with a DIRFT approach which emphasises careful design and implementation to avoid the overheads of debugging and testing prototype code. Rapid prototyping is appropriate when the requirements are unclear or likely to change (which is most of the time).
- rattle one's dags — to hurry up
- reading knowledge — the ability to read a language, but not speak it
- receding forehead — a forehead which slopes backwards
- recreation ground — an open space for public recreation, esp one in a town, with swings and slides, etc, for children
- recreational drug — drug taken for pleasure
- regent honeyeater — a large brightly-coloured Australian honeyeater, Zanthomiza phrygia
- restraining order — a judicial order to forbid a particular act until a decision is reached on an application for an injunction.
- retarded ignition — late ignition, which may cause the engine to under-perform
- revealed religion — religion based chiefly on the revelations of God to humans, especially as described in Scripture.
- rio grande do sul — a state in S Brazil. 107,923 sq. mi. (279,520 sq. km). Capital: Pôrto Alegre.
- role-playing game — a game in which participants adopt the roles of imaginary characters in an adventure under the direction of a Game Master.
- rub the wrong way — to subject the surface of (a thing or person) to pressure and friction, as in cleaning, smoothing, polishing, coating, massaging, or soothing: to rub a table top with wax polish; to rub the entire back area.
- salt negotiations — international diplomatic discussions carried out in connection with SALT
- sanctions-busting — the deliberate disregarding of sanctions that are in force against a state, organization, etc
- sandringham house — a residence of the royal family, in Sandringham, a village in E England, in Norfolk near the E shore of the Wash
- saturation diving — a method of prolonged diving, using an underwater habitat to allow divers to remain in the high-pressure environment of the ocean depths long enough for their body tissues to become saturated with the inert components of the pressurized gas mixture that they breathe: when this condition is reached, the amount of time required for decompression remains the same, whether the dive lasts a day, a week, or a month.
- sawed-off shotgun — rifle with a short barrel