19-letter words containing c, h, o, n
- phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- phenylethyl alcohol — phenethyl alcohol.
- phenylthiocarbamide — a crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid, C 6 H 5 NHCSNH 2 , that is either tasteless or bitter, depending upon the heredity of the taster, and is used in medical genetics and as a diagnostic.
- photoreconnaissance — reconnaissance using aerial photography.
- phthalocyanine blue — a pigment used in painting, derived from copper phthalocyanine and characterized chiefly by its brilliant, dark-blue color and by permanence.
- piece of the action — the process or state of acting or of being active: The machine is not in action now.
- pied-de-biche spoon — a spoon having a handle with a trifid end.
- pneumoencephalogram — an encephalogram made after the replacement of the cerebrospinal fluid by air or gas, rarely used since the development of the CAT scanner.
- pocket-handkerchief — handkerchief (def 1).
- polyethylene glycol — any of a series of polymers of ethylene glycol, having a molecular weight of from about 200 to 6000, obtained by condensation of ethylene glycol or of ethylene oxide and water, used as an emulsifying agent and lubricant in ointments, creams, etc.
- polyphonic ringtone — (in mobile phones) a ringtone in which more than one musical note is played at the same time
- polytene chromosome — a giant, cross-banded chromosome that results from multiple replication of its genetic material with the duplicated chromatin strands remaining closely associated.
- postsynchronization — the process of adding sound, such as dubbing, to a film or video after shooting or videotaping is completed
- prescription charge — a charge, set by the government, to be paid by a patient for medicines
- 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.
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- proton-proton chain — a series of thermonuclear reactions, responsible for the energy production in stars like the sun, in which the nuclei of hydrogen atoms are transformed into helium nuclei by sequential addition of single hydrogen nuclei.
- psychoendocrinology — the study of the relationship between the endocrine system and various symptoms or types of mental illness.
- psychological novel — a novel that focuses on the complex mental and emotional lives of its characters and explores the various levels of mental activity.
- psychotechnological — of or relating to psychotechnology
- pugwash conferences — international peace conferences of scientists held regularly to discuss world problems: Nobel peace prize 1995 awarded to Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) , one of the founders of the conferences, secretary-general (1957–73), and president (1988–97)
- 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.
- put sth into action — If you put an idea or policy into action, you begin to use it or cause it to operate.
- quick on the uptake — You say that someone is quick on the uptake when they understand things quickly. You say that someone is slow on the uptake when they have difficulty understanding simple or obvious things.
- raise one's hackles — one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
- rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- reciprocal exchange — an unincorporated association formed so that its members can participate in reciprocal insurance.
- regular icosahedron — an icosahedron in which each of the faces is an equilateral triangle
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- reticuloendothelial — pertaining to, resembling, or involving cells of the reticuloendothelial system.
- rhetorical question — a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.
- rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
- right circular cone — a cone whose surface is generated by lines joining a fixed point to the points of a circle, the fixed point lying on a perpendicular through the center of the circle.
- run-length encoding — A kind of compression algorithm which replaces sequences ("runs") of consecutive repeated characters (or other units of data) with a single character and the length of the run. This can either be applied to all input characters, including runs of length one, or a special character can be used to introduce a run-length encoded group. The longer and more frequent the runs are, the greater the compression that will be achieved. This technique is particularly useful for encoding black and white images where the data units would be single bit pixels.
- saccharofarinaceous — pertaining to or consisting of sugar and meal.
- sackcloth and ashes — a public display of extreme grief, remorse, or repentance
- sandwich generation — the generation of people still raising their children while having to care for their aging parents.
- scare the pants off — to scare extremely
- scattersite housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- seventh commandment — “Thou shalt not commit adultery”: seventh of the Ten Commandments.
- shopping facilities — shops or other retail services
- social anthropology — study of human culture
- son-of-a-bitch stew — (in the Old West) a stew often prepared by chuck-wagon cooks for working cowboys, containing tripe and often also the heart, liver, brains, kidney, etc., of a slaughtered steer.
- south african dutch — the Boers.
- south pacific ocean — the part of the Pacific Ocean extending S from the Equator to the Antarctic continent.
- south san francisco — a city in central California.
- southern crab apple — a tree, Malus angustifolia, of the eastern U.S., having oblong leaves, fragrant, pink or rose-colored flowers, and small, round, yellow-green fruit.
- sphere of influence — any area in which one nation wields dominant power over another or others.