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22-letter words containing a, s, p, o

  • reproductive isolation — the conditions, as physiological or behavioral differences or geographical barriers, that prevent potentially interbreeding populations from cross-fertilization.
  • resettlement programme — a scheme that helps refugees to be settled in another place
  • respond to a complaint — If you respond to a complaint, you answer a customer who expressed their dissatisfaction with something.
  • rheumatoid spondylitis — ankylosing spondylitis.
  • santiago de compostela — a city in and the capital of Chile, in the central part.
  • sapir-whorf hypothesis — a theory developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf that states that the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
  • sarcoplasmic reticulum — a system of membrane-bound tubules that surrounds muscle fibrils, releasing calcium ions during contraction and absorbing them during relaxation.
  • satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
  • schachter's hypothesis — (web)   The observation that "Given two unrelated technical terms, an Internet search engine will retrieve only résumés". This was first formulated by Joshua Eli Schachter in about 1998, while poring over the uniformly irrelevant pages that resulted from a search he'd run on "+Perl +MAPI" in Altavista.
  • school crossing patrol — the official name for lollipop man or lady
  • scissors-and-paste job — if you describe a piece of work as a scissors and paste job, you mean that it has been mechanically compiled, as if by simply cutting and pasting different parts to make a new whole
  • secondary spermatocyte — See under spermatocyte.
  • side-impact protection — a device that is intended to protect a car and its passengers in the event of a collision at the side
  • silicon graphics, inc. — (company)   (SGI) Manufacturer of workstations and software for graphics and image processing. SGI was founded by Dr. James H. Clark, who left some time before May 1994 to head Mosaic Communications Corporation. Quarterly sales $433M, profits $44M (Aug 1994).
  • simple harmonic motion — vibratory motion in a system in which the restoring force is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium. Abbreviation: S.H.M., s.h.m.
  • sing someone's praises — the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation.
  • sleeping accommodation — place where people can sleep
  • solomon islands pidgin — the variety of Neo-Melanesian spoken in the Solomon Islands and neighbouring islands
  • south african republic — former name of Transvaal.
  • special interest group — (SIG) One of several technical areas, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Well-known SIGs include SIGPLAN (the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages), SIGARCH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Architecture) and SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics).
  • special school teacher — a teacher who works in a school for children who are unable to benefit from ordinary schooling because they have learning difficulties, physical or mental handicaps, etc
  • special-interest group — Also called special interest. a body of persons, corporation, or industry that seeks or receives benefits or privileged treatment, especially through legislation.
  • spectrophotometrically — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
  • spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
  • speculative philosophy — philosophy embodying beliefs insusceptible of proof and attempting to gain insight into the nature of the ultimate by intuitive or a priori means.
  • spelling pronunciation — a pronunciation based on spelling, usually a variant of the traditional pronunciation. The spelling pronunciation of waistcoat is [weyst-koht] /ˈweɪstˌkoʊt/ (Show IPA) rather than [wes-kuh t] /ˈwɛs kət/ (Show IPA).
  • spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
  • spinal accessory nerve — accessory nerve.
  • split-dollar insurance — life insurance in which someone helps pay the premiums for another, as when an employer contributes to the premiums of an employee's policy.
  • spontaneous combustion — the ignition of a substance or body from the rapid oxidation of its own constituents without heat from any external source.
  • spontaneous generation — abiogenesis.
  • st-pierre and miquelon — group of islands in the Atlantic, south of Newfoundland, constituting a political unit of France: includes the islands of St-Pierre (c. 10 sq mi, 26 sq km) & Miquelon & several islets: 93 sq mi (241 sq km); pop. 6,000
  • structured programming — the design and coding of programs by a methodology (top-down) that successively breaks problems into smaller, nested subunits.
  • subjective probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined by subjective criteria
  • subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
  • supplementary question — a question asked in Parliament by an MP during Questions to the Prime Minister
  • supreme judicial court — (often initial capital letters) the highest court in some states, as Massachusetts and Maine.
  • sympathetic ophthalmia — inflammation of one eye due to injury or disease of the other eye.
  • targa graphics adaptor — (graphics, file format)   (TGA) The Truevision Targa Graphics Adaptor file format. The TGA format is a common bitmap file format for storage of 24-bit images. It supports colourmaps, alpha channels, compression and comments. More information is available from Truevision and The Graphics File Format Page.
  • temporal lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
  • temporal-lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
  • the (great) depression — the period of economic depression which began in 1929 and lasted through most of the 1930s
  • the atlantic provinces — certain of the Canadian provinces with coasts facing the Gulf of St Lawrence or the Atlantic: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador
  • the caring professions — professions such as nursing and social work that are involved with looking after people who are ill or who need help in coping with their lives
  • the houston ship canal — a canal linking Houston to the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway
  • the maritime provinces — another name for the Atlantic Provinces of Canada, but often excluding Newfoundland and Labrador
  • the medical profession — the occupation of working as a doctor of medicine
  • the-leaning-tower-pisa — a round, marble campanile in Pisa, Italy, begun in 1174 and now 17 feet (5.2 meters) out of the perpendicular in its height of 179 feet (54 meters).
  • there is no comparison — If you say there is no comparison between one thing and another, you mean that you think the first thing is much better than the second, or very different from it.
  • throw on the scrapheap — to discard or get rid of as useless
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