15-letter words containing a, p, o, r
- pseudopregnancy — Pathology, Veterinary Pathology. false pregnancy.
- pseudotripteral — having an arrangement of columns suggesting a tripteral structure but without the inner colonnades.
- psion organiser — (computer) A popular pocket computer from the UK Company Psion plc. The organiser uses a graphical user interface with windows, menus, icons and dialog boxes. There have been several versions so far: Series3a, Series3, HC, MC, OrgII.
- psychobiography — a biographical study focusing on psychological factors, as childhood traumas and unconscious motives.
- psychogeriatric — the psychology of old age.
- psychographical — relating to psychographics
- psychohistorian — a person who writes psychohistory
- psychotherapist — the treatment of psychological disorders or maladjustments by a professional technique, as psychoanalysis, group therapy, or behavioral therapy.
- public lavatory — a public toilet
- puerto ayacucho — a city in S Venezuela, on the Orinoco River.
- puerto vallarta — a city in W Mexico.
- pulmobranchiate — possessing a pulmobranch
- pulmonary valve — a semilunar valve between the pulmonary artery and the right ventricle of the heart that prevents the blood from flowing back into the right ventricle.
- put a damper on — To put a damper on something means to have an effect on it which stops it being as enjoyable or as successful as it should be.
- put years on sb — If you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has put years on someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much older.
- pyrocrystalline — crystallized from a molten magma or highly heated solution.
- pyrogallic acid — pyrogallol
- pyrogallic-acid — a white, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous, solid, phenolic compound, C 6 H 3 (OH) 3 , obtained by heating gallic acid and water: used chiefly as a developer in photography, as a mordant for wool, in dyeing, and in medicine in the treatment of certain skin conditions.
- pyrometric bead — (in a kiln) a ball of material that indicates by changing color that a certain temperature has been reached.
- pyrophotography — the production of pyrophotographs
- pyrotechnically — in a pyrotechnical manner
- quadripartition — A division into four parts.
- quadruplication — one of four copies or identical items, especially copies of typewritten material.
- quarter pounder — A quarter pounder is a hamburger that weighs four ounces before it is cooked. Four ounces is a quarter of a pound.
- query expansion — (information science) Adding search terms to a user's search. Query expansion is the process of a search engine adding search terms to a user's weighted search. The intent is to improve precision and/or recall. The additional terms may be taken from a thesaurus. For example a search for "car" may be expanded to: car cars auto autos automobile automobiles. The additional terms may also be taken from documents that the user has specified as being relevant; this is the basis for the "more like this" feature of some search engines. The extra terms can have positive or negative weights.
- rack-and-pinion — of or relating to a mechanism in which a rack engages a pinion: rack-and-pinion steering.
- radar telescope — (in radar astronomy) a very large radar antenna used to study planetary bodies in the solar system.
- radio programme — something that is broadcast on radio
- radio telephone — A radio telephone is a telephone which carries sound by sending radio signals rather than by using wires. Radio telephones are often used in cars.
- radio telescope — a system consisting of an antenna, either parabolic or dipolar, used to gather radio waves emitted by celestial sources and bring them to a receiver placed in the focus.
- radio-telephone — a telephone in which sound or speech is transmitted by means of radio waves instead of through wires or cables.
- radioautography — autoradiography.
- radiophosphorus — phosphorus 32.
- radiophotograph — a photograph or other image transmitted by radio.
- radioprotection — protection against radiation
- radioprotective — giving protection against the effects of radiation
- radiotelegraphy — the constructing or operating of radiotelegraphs.
- rake's progress — a series of paintings and engravings by William Hogarth.
- random sampling — a method of selecting a sample (random sample) from a statistical population in such a way that every possible sample that could be selected has a predetermined probability of being selected.
- rape of lucrece — a narrative poem (1594) by Shakespeare.
- raw-pack method — cold pack (def 2).
- re-presentation — the act of representing.
- real programmer — (job, humour) (From the book "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche") A variety of hacker possessed of a flippant attitude toward complexity that is arrogant even when justified by experience. The archetypal "Real Programmer" likes to program on the bare metal and is very good at it, remembers the binary op codes for every machine he has ever programmed, thinks that high-level languages are sissy, and uses a debugger to edit his code because full-screen editors are for wimps. Real Programmers aren't satisfied with code that hasn't been bummed into a state of tenseness just short of rupture. Real Programmers never use comments or write documentation: "If it was hard to write", says the Real Programmer, "it should be hard to understand." Real Programmers can make machines do things that were never in their spec sheets; in fact, they are seldom really happy unless doing so. A Real Programmer's code can awe with its fiendish brilliance, even as its crockishness appals. Real Programmers live on junk food and coffee, hang line-printer art on their walls, and terrify the crap out of other programmers - because someday, somebody else might have to try to understand their code in order to change it. Their successors generally consider it a Good Thing that there aren't many Real Programmers around any more. For a famous (and somewhat more positive) portrait of a Real Programmer, see "The Story of Mel". The term itself was popularised by a 1983 Datamation article "Real Programmers Don't Use Pascal" by Ed Post, still circulating on Usenet and Internet in on-line form.
- reapportionment — the act of redistributing or changing the apportionment of something.
- reappropriation — the act of appropriating.
- rear projection — the projection of filmed action or stills on a translucent screen in front of which actors are lit and filmed: used to simulate an outdoor or location background in the studio.
- rear-projection — the projection of filmed action or stills on a translucent screen in front of which actors are lit and filmed: used to simulate an outdoor or location background in the studio.
- reception class — A reception class is a class that children go into when they first start school at the age of four or five.
- recoil-operated — employing the recoil force of an explosive projectile to prepare the firing mechanism for the next shot.
- reconceptualize — to form into a concept; make a concept of.