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19-letter words containing c, d

  • polycarboxylic acid — a type of carboxylic acid containing two or more carboxyl groups
  • polyclonal antibody — a mixture of antibodies of different specificities, as in the serum of a person immunized to various antigens.
  • polyphosphoric acid — any one of a series of oxyacids of phosphorus with the general formula Hn+2PnO3n+1. The first member is pyrophosphoric acid (n = 2) and the series includes the highly polymeric metaphosphoric acid. The higher acids exist in an equilibrium mixture
  • post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
  • postage and packing — the cost of packing and mailing an item bought by post
  • predicate adjective — an adjective used in the predicate, especially with a copulative verb and attributive to the subject, as in He is dead, or attributive to the direct object, as in It made him sick.
  • predicate objective — objective complement.
  • preproduction model — a prototype of a product before the product goes into full-scale production
  • preproduction trial — a trial to test a prototype of a product before the product goes into full-scale production
  • pretty good privacy — (tool, cryptography)   (PGP) A high security RSA public-key encryption application for MS-DOS, Unix, VAX/VMS, and other computers. It was written by Philip R. Zimmermann <[email protected]> of Phil's Pretty Good(tm) Software and later augmented by a cast of thousands, especially including Hal Finney, Branko Lankester, and Peter Gutmann. PGP was distributed as "guerrilla freeware". The authors don't mind if it is distributed widely, just don't ask Philip Zimmermann to send you a copy. PGP uses a public-key encryption algorithm claimed by US patent #4,405,829. The exclusive rights to this patent are held by a California company called Public Key Partners, and you may be infringing this patent if you use PGP in the USA. This is explained in the PGP User's Guide, Volume II. PGP allows people to exchange files or messages with privacy and authentication. Privacy and authentication are provided without managing the keys associated with conventional cryptographic software. No secure channels are needed to exchange keys between users, which makes PGP much easier to use. This is because PGP is based on public-key cryptography. PGP encrypts data using the International Data Encryption Algorithm with a random session key, and uses the RSA algorithm to encrypt the session key. In December 1994 Philip Zimmermann faced prosecution for "exporting" PGP out of the United States but in January 1996 the US Goverment dropped the case. A US law prohibits the export of encryption software out of the country. Zimmermann did not do this, but the US government hoped to establish the proposition that posting an encryption program on a BBS or on the Internet constitutes exporting it - in effect, stretching export control into domestic censorship. If the government had won it would have had a chilling effect on the free flow of information on the global network, as well as on everyone's privacy from government snooping.
  • preventive medicine — the branch of medical science that deals with prevention of disease.
  • pride and prejudice — a novel (1813) by Jane Austen (written 1796–97).
  • pride-of-california — a shrubby plant, Lathyrus splendens, of the legume family, native to southern California, having showy clusters of pale rose-pink, violet, or magenta flowers and large, smooth, beaked pods.
  • printing discussion — [XEROX PARC] A protracted, low-level, time-consuming, generally pointless discussion of something only peripherally interesting to all.
  • priority scheduling — (operating system)   Processes scheduling in which the scheduler selects tasks to run based on their priority as opposed to, say, a simple round-robin. Priorities may be static or dynamic. Static priorities are assigned at the time of creation, while dynamic priorities are based on the processes' behaviour while in the system. For example, the scheduler may favour I/O-intensive tasks so that expensive requests can be issued as early as possible. A danger of priority scheduling is starvation, in which processes with lower priorities are not given the opportunity to run. In order to avoid starvation, in preemptive scheduling, the priority of a process is gradually reduced while it is running. Eventually, the priority of the running process will no longer be the highest, and the next process will start running. This method is called aging.
  • procedural language — (language)   Any programming language in which the programmer specifies an explicit sequences of steps to follow to produce a result (an algorithm). The term should not be confused with "imperative language" - a language that specifies explicit manipulation of state. An example (non-imperative) procedural language is LOGO, which specifies sequences of steps to perform but does not have an internal state. Other procedural languages include Basic, Pascal, C, and Modula-2. Both procedural and imperative languages are in contrast to declarative languages, in which the programmer specifies neither explicit steps nor explicit state manipulation.
  • proctosigmoidoscope — sigmoidoscope.
  • proctosigmoidoscopy — sigmoidoscopy.
  • production platform — offshore power station
  • professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job
  • promotions director — someone in charge of encouraging the sale of (a product) by advertising or securing financial support
  • pseudo-aristocratic — of or relating to government by an aristocracy.
  • pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
  • pseudo-conservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
  • pseudo-hieroglyphic — noting or pertaining to a script dating from the second millennium b.c. that appears to be syllabic and to represent the Phoenician language and that is inscribed on objects found at Byblos.
  • pseudo-intellectual — a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
  • pseudopsychological — of or relating to psychology.
  • psychic determinism — the theory that all aspects of a person's psychological makeup arise from specific causes or forces, as previous experiences or instinctual drives, which may be conscious or unconscious.
  • psychoendocrinology — the study of the relationship between the endocrine system and various symptoms or types of mental illness.
  • punch and judy show — A Punch and Judy show is a puppet show for children, often performed at fairs or at the seaside. Punch and Judy, the two main characters, are always fighting.
  • punch-and-judy show — a puppet show having a conventional plot consisting chiefly of slapstick humor and the tragicomic misadventures of the grotesque, hook-nosed, humpback buffoon Punch and his wife Judy.
  • pyrophosphoric acid — a crystalline, water-soluble powder, H 4 P 2 O 7 , formed by the union of one molecule of phosphorus pentoxide with two molecules of water.
  • radiational cooling — the cooling of the earth's surface and adjacent air, primarily at night, caused by a loss of heat due to surface emission of infrared radiation.
  • radioactive fallout — the settling to the ground of airborne particles ejected into the atmosphere from the earth by explosions, eruptions, forest fires, etc., especially such settling from nuclear explosions (radioactive fallout) Compare rainout.
  • radiochromatography — chromatography in which radiolabeled substances on the chromatogram are determined quantitatively or qualitatively by measuring their radioactivity.
  • radiopharmaceutical — any of a number of radioactive drugs used diagnostically or therapeutically.
  • radius of curvature — the absolute value of the reciprocal of the curvature at a point on a curve.
  • rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
  • reactive depression — depression occurring in response to some situational stress, as loss of one's job.
  • recording equipment — devices used for sound reproduction
  • recording secretary — an officer charged with keeping the minutes of meetings and responsible for the records.
  • redbrick university — any new or little-known university, especially one built since World War II to educate students in industrial regions, emphasizing technical subjects rather than the classics, and often partially supported by government funds.
  • redress the balance — to make a fair adjustment; see that justice is done
  • reduction potential — (in a galvanic cell) the potential of the electrode at which reduction occurs.
  • reference electrode — an electrode of known oxidation potential used in determining the electromotive force of a galvanic cell.
  • regular icosahedron — an icosahedron in which each of the faces is an equilateral triangle
  • reinforced concrete — concrete containing steel bars, strands, mesh, etc., to absorb tensile and shearing stresses.
  • religious education — religion as school subject
  • removable cartridge — a hard disk enclosed in a case that can be removed from the disk drive, having more storage than floppy disks.
  • republic of ireland — John, 1838–1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888–1918.
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