17-letter words containing c, o, y
- production system — (programming) A production system consists of a collection of productions (rules), a working memory of facts and an algorithm, known as forward chaining, for producing new facts from old. A rule becomes eligible to "fire" when its conditions match some set of elements currently in working memory. A conflict resolution strategy determines which of several eligible rules (the conflict set) fires next. A condition is a list of symbols which represent constants, which must be matched exactly; variables which bind to the thing they match and "<> symbol" which matches a field not equal to symbol. Example production systems are OPS5, CLIPS, flex.
- proficiency badge — an insignia or device granted by the Girl Scouts and worn especially on a uniform to indicate special achievement.
- protective system — protectionism (def 1).
- 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.
- psychodiagnostics — the study and evaluation of character or personality in terms of behavioral and anatomical traits, as gesture, posture and physiognomy.
- psychoeducational — designating or of psychological methods, as intelligence tests, used in evaluating learning ability
- psychographically — Psychology. a graph indicating the relative strength of the personality traits of an individual.
- psycholinguistics — the study of the relationship between language and the cognitive or behavioral characteristics of those who use it.
- psychometric test — a test designed to test a person's mental state, personality and thought processes
- psychoprophylaxis — Lamaze method.
- psychotherapeutic — psychotherapy.
- pterygoid process — either of two long bony plates extending downwards from each side of the sphenoid bone within the skull
- publicity officer — a person who is employed to get publicity for an organization, or to provide information about it
- purple chokeberry — See under chokeberry (def 1).
- 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.
- quantity discount — When you receive a quantity discount from a store or supplier, you pay less because you have bought a large quantity of goods. Also known as bulk buying discount.
- radioactive decay — decay (def 8).
- recorded delivery — If you send a letter or parcel recorded delivery, you send it using a Post Office service which gives you an official record of the fact that it has been posted and delivered.
- recovery position — a position in which an unconscious person can be lain on the floor, which minimises them from further risk
- 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).
- repertory society — a group that supports amateur performances of plays by its members
- republic of yemen — Republic of, a country in S Arabia, formed in 1990 by the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. 207,000 sq. mi. (536,130 sq. km). Capital: Aden.
- resource recovery — Resource recovery is when energy, a material, or a product is taken from waste and used.
- 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.
- rocket technology — the technology of the design, operation, maintenance, and launching of rockets
- 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 inspection — an inspection of a place carried out to ensure that it is safe and not dangerous
- 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.
- scheme repository — A collection of free Scheme programs.
- school playground — school's outdoor recreation area
- scientific theory — a coherent group of propositions formulated to explain a group of facts or phenomena in the natural world and repeatedly confirmed through experiment or observation: the scientific theory of evolution.
- 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.