17-letter words containing a, s, e, p
- meissen porcelain — Dresden china.
- melissopalynology — The study of honey and its composition.
- merchant shipping — shipping which is involved in commerce (rather than defence, etc)
- metalloproteinase — (enzyme) Any of several proteinases that have a metal atom (often zinc) at their active centre.
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- middle-age spread — an increase in bulk, especially in the waist and buttocks, associated with the onset of middle age and the body's decreasing ability to metabolize calories efficiently.
- midsagittal plane — a plane passing through the nasion when the skull is oriented in the Frankfurt horizontal.
- misinterpretation — An instance of misinterpreting.
- misrepresentation — to represent incorrectly, improperly, or falsely.
- misrepresentative — to represent incorrectly, improperly, or falsely.
- mississippi delta — an area between the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers in the northwest of the state of Mississippi; it is very flat and fertile
- mode of transport — means of travel
- mom and pop store — a small retail business, typically family-operated
- moon and sixpence — a novel (1919) by W. Somerset Maugham.
- morphic resonance — the idea that, through a telepathic effect or sympathetic vibration, an event or act can lead to similar events or acts in the future or an idea conceived in one mind can then arise in another
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- net present value — an assessment of the long-term profitability of a project made by adding together all the revenue it can be expected to achieve over its whole life and deducting all the costs involved, discounting both future costs and revenue at an appropriate rate
- neuropsychiatrist — A medical doctor specializing in neuropsychiatry; a medical doctor dealing with disorders that have both neurological and psychiatric features.
- newspaper cutting — clipping from a news publication
- non-stereotypical — a process, now often replaced by more advanced methods, for making metal printing plates by taking a mold of composed type or the like in papier-mâché or other material and then taking from this mold a cast in type metal.
- non-thermoplastic — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
- nonaccomplishment — Something that does not achieve the intended goal.
- nonrepresentative — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- northeast passage — a ship route along the N coast of Europe and Asia, between the North Sea and the Pacific.
- northern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, lying northeast of Euboea
- northwest passage — a ship route along the Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- not spare oneself — to exert oneself to the full
- old age pensioner — An old age pensioner is a person who is old enough to receive an pension from their employer or the government.
- olympic peninsula — a large peninsula of W Washington
- omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
- on speaking terms — the act, utterance, or discourse of a person who speaks.
- on the pig's back — successful; established
- on-street parking — parking (of a car, vehicle, etc) that is or is allowed to be done on a street
- one-time password — (security) (OTP) A security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. OTP generates passwords using either the MD4 or MD5 hashing algorithms. The equivalent term "S/Key", developed by Bellcore, is a trademark of Telcordia Technologies, so the name OTP is used increasingly. See RFC 1760 - "The S/KEY One-Time Password System" and RFC 1938 - "A One-Time Password System".
- opening arguments — the statements or arguments provided by lawyers at the beginning of a trial
- operation sealion — the codename for Hitler's proposed invasion (1940) of Great Britain
- operations centre — a centre where activities of a business, organization, etc, are administrated and take place
- opisthobranchiate — (zoology) Of or pertaining to the Opisthobranchiata.
- optical isomerism — stereoisomerism in which the isomers are identical in molecular weight and most chemical and physical properties but differ in their effect on the rotation of polarized light.
- organ-pipe cactus — a treelike or columnar cactus, Lemaireocereus marginatus, of Mexico, having a central, erect spine surrounded by spreading spines in clusters of five to eight, and funnel-shaped, brownish-purple flowers.
- 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.
- papanicolaou test — Pap test.
- 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.