9-letter words containing a, p, t, e
- leaf spot — a limited, often circular, discolored, diseased area on a leaf, usually including a central region of necrosis.
- leetspeak — a coded spelling system and language used in very informal communications on the Internet, featuring letters combined with numbers or special characters in place of letters that they may resemble, and including inventive misspellings, jargon, and slang.
- live trap — a trap for capturing a wild animal alive and without injury.
- m-payment — a point-of-sale payment made through a wireless device such as a mobile phone or PDA
- macrotape — (storage) /mak'roh-tayp/ An industry-standard reel of magnetic tape, as opposed to a microtape. See also round tape.
- magstripe — Magnetic stripe.
- mancipate — (obsolete) To enslave.
- martemper — (transitive) To subject (steel) to a heat treatment involving austenitization followed by step quenching (at a rate fast enough to avoid the formation of ferrite, pearlite or bainite), used to produce martensite under relatively low stress.
- mastopexy — fixation of a pendulous breast.
- meatspace — The physical world, as opposed to cyberspace or a virtual environment.
- mercaptan — any of a class of sulfur-containing compounds having the type formula RSH, in which R represents a radical, and having an extremely offensive, garlicky odor.
- mercapto- — (in chemical compounds) indicating the presence of an HS- group
- merit pay — an additional sum paid to an employee, as a schoolteacher, whose work is superior and whose services are valued.
- merneptah — king of ancient Egypt c1225–c1215 b.c. (son of Ramses II).
- metacarpi — Plural form of metacarpus.
- metamorph — (biology) An organism that has undergone metamorphosis.
- metapelet — a woman who cares for children, especially on kibbutzim in Israel; foster mother.
- metaphase — the stage in mitosis or meiosis in which the duplicated chromosomes line up along the equatorial plate of the spindle.
- metaphone — (algorithm, text) An algorithm for encoding a word so that similar sounding words encode the same. It's similar to soundex in purpose, but as it knows the basic rules of English pronunciation it's more accurate. The higher accuracy doesn't come free, though, metaphone requires more computational power as well as more storage capacity, but neither of these requirements are usually prohibitive. It is in the public domain so it can be freely implemented. Metaphone was developed by Lawrence Philips <[email protected]>. It is described in ["Practical Algorithms for Programmers", Binstock & Rex, Addison Wesley, 1995].
- metaphore — Misspelling of metaphor.
- metaphors — a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.”. Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def 1).
- metaphyte — a multicellular plant.
- metaplasm — Cell Biology. the nonliving matter or inclusions, as starch or pigments, within a cell.
- metascope — a device for converting infrared radiation into visible light.
- microtape — (hardware, storage) /mi:'kroh-tayp/ Occasionally used to mean a DECtape, as opposed to a macrotape. Apparently the term "microtape" was actually the official term used within DEC for these tapes until someone coined the word "DECtape", which, of course, sounded sexier to the marketroids. Another version of the story holds that someone discovered a conflict with another company's "microtape" trademark.
- misrepeat — (transitive) To repeat wrongly; to give a wrong version of.
- mixer tap — a tap in which hot and cold water supplies have a joint outlet but are controlled separately
- montespan — Marquise de (Françoise Athénaïs de Rochechouart) 1641–1707, mistress of Louis XIV of France.
- mousetrap — a trap for mice, especially one consisting of a rectangular wooden base on which a metal spring is mounted.
- multipage — Including or containing multiple pages.
- name tape — a fabric tape on which a person's name is written, woven, or printed: for affixing to garments and other personal belongings to identify ownership.
- nameplate — a flat, usually rectangular piece of metal, wood, or plastic on which the name of a person, company, etc., is printed or engraved: She has a large office with her nameplate on the door.
- naphthene — any of a group of hydrocarbon ring compounds of the general formula, C n H 2n , derivatives of cyclopentane and cyclohexane, found in certain petroleums.
- neap tide — either of the two tides that occur at the first or last quarter of the moon when the tide-generating forces of the sun and moon oppose each other and produce the smallest rise and fall in tidal level
- neoplasty — the surgical formation of new tissue structures or repair of damaged structures
- nephalist — (obsolete, Temperance movement) One who practises nephalism; a teetotaller.
- neptunian — pertaining to Neptune or the sea.
- neuropath — A person affected by nervous disease, or with an abnormally sensitive nervous system.
- nonparent — a person who is not a parent
- nonstaple — not staple
- notepaper — writing paper, especially that used in writing notes or personal correspondence and usually less than 8½ × 11 inches (21.6 × 27.9 cm) in size.
- nuncupate — to state or asseverate in a serious, official, or openly acknowledged manner
- nyctalope — a person or animal affected by nyctalopia
- objectpal — Object-oriented database language, part of Borland's MS-Windows version of Paradox.
- omphacite — a pale-green variety of pyroxene similar to olivine, found in eclogite.
- onomatope — (linguistics) A word formed by onomatopoeia or mimesis.
- opacities — the state or quality of being opaque.
- open-cast — open-cut.
- opera hat — a man's tall, collapsible top hat, held open or in shape by springs and usually covered with a black, silky fabric. Also called gibus. Compare beaver1 (def 4), silk hat, top hat.
- operantly — In an operant manner.