17-letter words containing c, a, r, y, o
- polyacrylonitrile — a polymer of acrylonitrile used in the manufacture of Orlon and other synthetic textiles.
- polymorphonuclear — (of a leukocyte) having a lobulate nucleus.
- predatory pricing — If a company practises predatory pricing, it charges a much lower price for its products or services than its competitors in order to force them out of the market.
- presentation copy — a copy of a book given by the publisher or author
- primary education — junior, elementary schooling
- primary processes — the generally unorganized mental activity characteristic of the unconscious and occurring in dreams, fantasies, and related processes.
- probability curve — a curve that describes the distribution of probability over the values of a random variable.
- product liability — the responsibility of a manufacturer for injury or loss caused by its product.
- proficiency badge — an insignia or device granted by the Girl Scouts and worn especially on a uniform to indicate special achievement.
- protocol analyser — (communications, hardware, networking, testing, tool) Any device that captures and interprets the network traffic between two or more connected computer systems. The traffic can then be decoded so that it is possible to see what processes are occurring. By examining the flow of traffic, protocol analysers can be used to find out where problems (such as bottlenecks or the failure of a network device) are on a LAN. Advanced protocol analysers can also provide statistics on the traffic that can help to identify trends that may in future lead to further problems with the network.
- psychographically — Psychology. a graph indicating the relative strength of the personality traits of an individual.
- psychoprophylaxis — Lamaze method.
- psychotherapeutic — psychotherapy.
- pyroligneous acid — a yellowish, acidic, water-soluble liquid, containing about 10 percent acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood: used for smoking meats.
- pyrosulfuric acid — a strong, crystalline acid, H2S2O7, prepared commercially as a heavy, oily, fuming liquid: used in making explosives and dyes, as a sulfating agent, etc.
- pythagorean scale — the major scale as derived acoustically by Pythagoras from the perfect fifth.
- radioactive decay — decay (def 8).
- recrystallization — to become crystallized again.
- recursive acronym — (convention) A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support". See also mung.
- refractory period — a short period after a nerve or muscle cell fires during which the cell cannot respond to additional stimulation.
- repertory catalog — a catalog containing bibliographic records that indicate locations of materials in more than one library or in several units of one library.
- repertory company — repertory (def 2).
- respiratory chain — a series of mitochondrial proteins that transport electrons of hydrogen, released in the Krebs cycle, from acetyl coenzyme A to inhaled oxygen to form H 2 O: the energy released in the process is conserved as ATP.
- respiratory tract — the passages through which air enters and leaves the body
- reticulate python — a python, Python reticulatus, of southeastern Asia and the East Indies, sometimes growing to a length of 32 feet (10 meters): usually considered to be the largest snake in the world.
- ross and cromarty — a historic county in NW Scotland.
- rotary cultivator — a machine for breaking up and tilling soil, consisting of a series of blades mounted on a revolving power-driven shaft
- safety precaution — a precaution that is taken in order to ensure that something is safe and not dangerous
- san francisco bay — a bay in W California: the harbor of San Francisco; connected with the Pacific by the Golden Gate strait. 50 miles (80 km) long; 3–12 miles (5–19 km) wide.
- school playground — school's outdoor recreation area
- secondary battery — storage battery.
- secondary boycott — a boycott by union members against their employer in order to induce the employer to bring pressure on another company involved in a labor dispute with the union.
- secondary contact — communication or relationship between people characterized by impersonal and detached interest on the part of those involved.
- secondary glazing — insulation by means of a second pane of glass, or a sheet of plastic: a simple form of double glazing
- secondary process — the conscious mental activity and logical thinking controlled by the ego and influenced by environmental demands.
- secondary product — a product that is not the main product of an industry; a by-product
- secondary quality — one of the qualities attributed by the mind to an object perceived, such as color, temperature, or taste.
- secondary rainbow — a faint rainbow formed by light rays that undergo two internal reflections in drops of rain, appearing above the primary rainbow and having its colors in the opposite order.
- secondary sealing — Secondary sealing is a system of wiper seals used in floating roof tanks.
- secondary winding — A secondary winding is the winding of a transformer that receives its energy by electromagnetic induction from the primary winding.
- semimicroanalysis — any analytical method in which the weight of the sample is between 10 and 100 milligrams.
- shortcrust pastry — a basic type of pastry that is made with half the quantity of fat to flour, and has a crisp but crumbly texture
- shorthold tenancy — letting of a dwelling for between one and five years at a fair rent
- sister of charity — a member of one of several congregations of sisters founded in 1634 by St. Vincent de Paul.
- spectroscopically — an optical device for producing and observing a spectrum of light or radiation from any source, consisting essentially of a slit through which the radiation passes, a collimating lens, and an Amici prism.
- spherical polygon — a closed figure formed by arcs of great circles on a spherical surface.
- spongy parenchyma — the lower layer of the ground tissue of a leaf, characteristically containing irregularly shaped cells with relatively few chloroplasts and large intercellular spaces.
- stand on ceremony — to insist on or act with excessive formality
- sunday observance — the fact of keeping Sunday as a special day when people go to church
- superaerodynamics — the branch of aerodynamics that deals with gases at very low densities.