20-letter words containing d, i, p
- public lending right — (in Britain) an act of Parliament that directs compensation to an author for the library loan of his or her book.
- public record office — an institution in which official records are stored and kept available for inspection by the public
- rapid reaction force — a force that can be deployed swiftly to a site of conflict or potential conflict
- rapid transit system — a rail or other system providing rapid public transport
- read-eval-print loop — (language, LISP, programming) (REPL) A programming structure within LISP which repeatedly reads a form from the user, evaluates it, and displays the result. A read-eval-print loop forms the basis of the Top-Level shell that programmers of the LISP family of languages interact with. In many dialects of LISP a very simple REPL could be implemented as: (loop (print (eval (read)))). (2003-06-23)
- red-legged partridge — a partridge, Alectoris rufa, having a reddish tail, red legs and bill, and flanks barred with chestnut, black, and white: common on farmlands and heaths in SW Europe, including Britain
- refuse disposal unit — a unit or part of a sink that disposes of waste food, etc, by grinding
- regional development — aid-giving to poorer areas or countries
- relative deprivation — the perception of an unfair disparity between one's situation and that of others.
- republic of maldives — a republic occupying an archipelago of 1087 coral islands in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Sri Lanka: came under British protection in 1887; became independent in 1965 and a republic in 1968; member of the Commonwealth (1982–2016). The economy and infrastructure were severely damaged in the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. Official language: Divehi. Official religion: (Sunni) Muslim. Currency: rufiyaa. Capital: Malé. Pop: 393 988 (2013 est). Area: 298 sq km (115 sq miles)
- revolving presidency — a form of presidency in which the president and vice-president, or countries or bodies acting as such, switch roles after a set period and then back again and so on
- rhineland-palatinate — a state in W Germany: formerly part of Rhine Province. 7655 sq. mi. (19,825 sq. km). Capital: Mainz.
- ring-necked parakeet — a small brightly coloured long-tailed tropical parrot, Psittacula krameri, often kept as a pet
- ring-necked pheasant — a gallinaceous Asian bird, Phasianus colchicus, having a white band around its neck, introduced into Great Britain, North America, and the Hawaiian Islands.
- schizoid personality — sb with identity disorder
- schwarzschild sphere — the sphere which surrounds a non-rotating uncharged black hole, from within which no information can escape because of gravitational forces
- send someone packing — to dismiss or get rid of (someone) peremptorily
- sharp-tailed sparrow — a sparrow, Ammospiza caudacuta, inhabiting salt marshes in North America, having narrow, sharply pointed tail feathers.
- societal development — the formation and transformation of social life, customs, institutions, etc.
- sound motion picture — a motion picture with a soundtrack.
- specific conductance — conductivity (def 2).
- specific-conductance — conductivity (def 2).
- spherical coordinate — Usually, spherical coordinates. any of three coordinates used to locate a point in space by the length of its radius vector and the angles this vector makes with two perpendicular polar planes.
- spiral of archimedes — a curve that is the locus of a point that moves outward with uniform speed along a vector, beginning at the origin, while the vector rotates about the origin with uniform angular velocity. Equation (in polar coordinates): r = aθ.
- split the difference — the state or relation of being different; dissimilarity: There is a great difference between the two.
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- spread like wildfire — If something, especially news or a rumour, spreads like wildfire, it spreads extremely quickly.
- spuyten duyvil creek — a channel in New York City at the north end of Manhattan Island, connecting the Hudson and Harlem rivers.
- st.-germain-des-pres — an area in Paris, on the Left Bank.
- steak and kidney pie — meat pastry
- string correspondent — stringer (def 6).
- subscription edition — an edition of one or more volumes for which a number of prospective purchasers place orders, usually in advance of publication.
- swan's neck pediment — a broken pediment, the outline of which consists of a pair of S -curves tangent to the cornice level at the ends of the pediment, rising to a pair of scrolls on either side of the center, where a finial often rises between the scrolls.
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- temperature gradient — rate of change of temperature with distance.
- the (great) pyramids — the three large pyramids at Gîza, Egypt: the largest is the Pyramid of Khufu
- the hearing impaired — people whose hearing is partially defective
- third-party software — software created by programmers or publishers independent of the manufacturer of the hardware for which it is intended.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to keep your hand in — If you do something to keep your hand in, you practise a skill or hobby occasionally in order to remain fairly good at it.
- to make up your mind — If you make up your mind or make your mind up, you decide which of a number of possible things you will have or do.
- to spread your wings — If you spread your wings, you do something new and rather difficult or move to a new place, because you feel more confident in your abilities than you used to and you want to gain wider experience.
- triphenylmethane dye — any of a great number of dyes, as gentian violet, fuchsin, and rosaniline, produced from triphenylmethane by replacement of the ring hydrogen atoms with hydroxy, amino, sulfo, or other atoms or groups.
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- tubing head pressure — The tubing head pressure is the pressure on the tubing, which is measured at the wellhead.
- turnip-rooted celery — celeriac.
- under the impression — If you are under the impression that something is the case, you believe that it is the case, usually when it is not actually the case.
- under the microscope — If you say that something is under the microscope, you mean that it is being studied very closely, usually because it is believed that something is wrong with it.
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- video graphics array — (hardware) (VGA) A display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colours and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is also a text mode with 720 x 400 pixels. IBM technical references define the *product name* of their original VGA display board as "Video Graphics Array", in contrast to the preceding boards, the "Color Graphics Adapter" (CGA) and "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" (EGA). See also Super Video Graphics Adapter.