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16-letter words containing a, r, n, d

  • pencil and paper — An archaic information storage and transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent developments in paper-based technology include improved "write-once" update devices which use tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to deposit coloured pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled at so-called "handwriting" technique. These technologies are ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.
  • performance bond — contract bond.
  • periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
  • permanganic acid — an acid, HMnO 4 , known only in solution.
  • perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
  • personal details — details about a person such as their name and address
  • pharmacodynamics — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the course of action, effect, and breakdown of drugs within the body.
  • phase difference — the difference between two sinusoidally varying quantities that have the same frequency, measured either as an angle or a time
  • phonocardiograph — an instrument for graphically recording the sound of the heartbeat.
  • phytoremediation — a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants.
  • pinot chardonnay — Chardonnay.
  • pithecanthropoid — of, relating to, or resembling the former genus Pithecanthropus or one of its members.
  • platinum-iridium — (standard)   A standard, against which all others of the same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris, as the bar defining the standard metre once was. "This garbage collection algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare golden.
  • play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
  • polar coordinate — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
  • polyhedral angle — a configuration consisting of the lateral faces of a polyhedron around one of its vertices. The portion of a pyramid including one of its points is such a configuration.
  • ponderosa (pine) — a yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) of W North America, valued for its timber
  • portmanteau word — a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
  • portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
  • praetorian guard — the bodyguard of a military commander, especially the imperial guard stationed in Rome.
  • predetermination — to settle or decide in advance: He had predetermined his answer to the offer.
  • predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
  • prescription pad — a pad of prescriptions used by doctors, etc
  • prestidigitation — sleight of hand; legerdemain.
  • preunderstanding — to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.
  • pribilof islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, off SW Alaska, belonging to the US: the breeding ground of the northern fur seal. Area: about 168 sq km (65 sq miles)
  • primary deviance — the violation of a norm or rule that does not result in the violator's being stigmatized as deviant.
  • primary industry — an industry, as agriculture, forestry, or fishing, that deals in obtaining natural materials.
  • printer's reader — a person employed to read proofs and indicate errors
  • private judgment — personal opinion formed independently of the expressed position of an institution, as in matters of religion or politics.
  • privet andromeda — a spreading shrub, Lyonia ligustrina, of the eastern U.S., having leafless, white flowers in terminal clusters.
  • project guardian — (project, security)   A project which grew out of the ARPA support for Multics and the sale of Multics systems to the US Air Force. The USAF wanted a system that could be used to handle more than one security classification of data at a time. They contracted with Honeywell and MITRE Corporation to figure out how to do this. Project Guardian led to the creation of the Access Isolation Mechanism, the forerunner of the B2 labeling and star property support in Multics. The DoD Orange Book was influenced by the experience in building secure systems gained in Project Guardian.
  • prolonged-action — sustained-release.
  • promotional code — A promotional code is a code offered by retailers to customers who can use it to receive a discounted price when buying products online.
  • pseudo-isidorian — of or relating to the collection of documents of the 9th century a.d. that consist chiefly of the Decretals, attributed to Isidore, archbishop of Seville, a.d. 600–36, and that were rejected as spurious in the 15th century.
  • pseudoparenchyma — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
  • puddling-furnace — the act of a person or thing that puddles.
  • purple sandpiper — a sandpiper, Calidris maritima, of arctic regions of the New and Old World, having in winter a slate-gray back with purplish reflections.
  • pyrovanadic acid — an oxyacid of vanadium, known chiefly in the form of its vanadate salts; Formula: H4V2O7
  • quadricentennial — of, relating to, or marking the completion of a period of four hundred years.
  • quadrimillennial — Occurring every four thousand years.
  • queen maud range — a mountain range in Antarctica, in Ross Dependency, S of the Ross Sea.
  • radiant exitance — the ability of a surface to emit radiation expressed as the radiant flux emitted per unit area at a specified point on the surface
  • radiation levels — the levels of the emission or transfer of radiant energy or the levels of the particles emitted in the transfer of radiant energy, esp the particles and gamma rays emitted in nuclear decay
  • radio evangelist — a Christian minister who devotes time to preaching on the radio
  • radio microphone — a microphone incorporating a radio transmitter so that the user can move around freely
  • radio-controlled — A radio-controlled device works by receiving radio signals which operate it.
  • radio-phonograph — a radio and phonograph combined in one unit and sharing some components, as the amplifier and speaker(s)
  • radioimmunoassay — a test procedure that integrates immunologic and radiolabeling techniques to measure minute quantities of a substance, as a protein, hormone, or drug, in a given sample of body fluid or tissue.
  • radiotransparent — transparent to radiation; invisible in x-ray photographs and under fluoroscopy (opposed to radiopaque).
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