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17-letter words containing a, p, r, s

  • organic psychosis — a severe mental illness produced by damage to the brain, as a result of poisoning, alcoholism, disease, etc
  • organophosphorous — Misspelling of organophosphorus.
  • over-compensation — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
  • overstep the mark — If someone oversteps the mark, they behave in a way that is considered unacceptable.
  • pacific northwest — the region of North America lying north of the Columbia River and west of the Rockies
  • pair of compasses — compass (def 7)
  • paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
  • paleoconservative — a person advocating an older, traditional type of conservatism, especially in politics.
  • paradise regained — an epic poem (1671) by John Milton.
  • paradoxical sleep — REM sleep.
  • parallel universe — Physics. any of a hypothetical collection of undetectable universes that are like our known universe but have branched off from our universe due to a quantum-level event. See also multiverse.
  • paralysis agitans — Parkinson's disease
  • paratungstic acid — an oxyacid acid of tungsten. Formula: H10W12O14
  • parcplace systems — (company)   A company spun-off from Xerox PARC that developed the original version of VisualWorks.
  • parents anonymous — (in Britain) an association of local voluntary self-help groups offering help through an anonymous telephone service to parents who fear they will injure their children, or who have other problems in managing their children
  • parker house roll — a soft dinner roll made by folding a flat disk of dough in half.
  • parmesan (cheese) — a very hard, dry cheese orig. of Italy, made from skimmed cow's milk and usually grated for sprinkling on pasta, soups, etc.
  • partially sighted — unable to see properly so that even with corrective aids normal activities are prevented or seriously hindered
  • particle kinetics — Particle kinetics is the study of the movement of particles and the forces that cause this movement.
  • parts of kesteven — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
  • parts per million — the number of units (of a substance) present in a million units of another substance
  • pascal's triangle — a triangular arrangement of the binomial coefficients of the expansion (x + y) n for positive integral values of n.
  • passenger station — a station used by passengers
  • passenger traffic — number of passengers
  • passive restraint — a safety device, as an air bag or special seat belt, that is activated automatically to protect an automobile passenger at the moment of impact when a collision occurs.
  • past life therapy — a form of hypnosis or meditation based on the belief that an individual's present problems are rooted in events that occurred before birth in this life
  • pasteur institute — an organization in Paris that was founded in 1887. It does research on micro-organisms and diseases
  • pasteur treatment — Pasteur's method of preventing certain diseases, esp. rabies, by increasing the strength of successive inoculations with a specific weakened or attenuated virus
  • pastoral symphony — the Symphony No. 6 in F major (1807–08) by Ludwig van Beethoven.
  • pastoral theology — the branch of theology dealing with the responsibilities of members of the clergy to the people under their care.
  • pate de foie gras — See under foie gras.
  • paternalistically — the system, principle, or practice of managing or governing individuals, businesses, nations, etc., in the manner of a father dealing benevolently and often intrusively with his children: The employees objected to the paternalism of the old president.
  • patriarchal cross — a Latin cross having a shorter crosspiece above the customary one.
  • paymaster general — a government minister responsible for making payments by government departments
  • 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.
  • peloponnesian war — a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of hegemony in Greece from Athens to Sparta.
  • 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 bonus — a monetary bonus paid to staff who have performed well in their job
  • performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
  • peripheral vision — all that is visible to the eye outside the central area of focus; side vision.
  • permanent address — a fixed address
  • pernicious anemia — Pernicious anemia is a very severe blood disease.
  • perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
  • persona non grata — a person who is not welcome: He has become persona non grata in our club since his angry outburst.
  • personal computer — a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use, as by a person in an office or at home or school, for such applications as word processing, data management, financial analysis, or computer games. Abbreviation: PC.
  • personal distance — personal space.
  • personal equation — the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.
  • personal property — an estate or property consisting of movable articles both corporeal, as furniture or jewelry, or incorporeal, as stocks or bonds (distinguished from real property).
  • personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
  • personnel carrier — a vehicle used for transporting troops
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