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18-letter words containing d, p, a, r

  • optical soundtrack — the final soundtrack on a motion picture, which appears as a band of black and white serrations along a strip of film to the left of the composite print. Light is shined through the serrations and is converted to audible sound.
  • orthophthalic acid — Chemistry. any of three isomeric acids having the formula C 8 H 6 O 4 , especially the ortho isomer (orthophthalic acid) a colorless, crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid used chiefly in the manufacture of dyes, medicine, and perfume.
  • overhead projector — over one's head; aloft; up in the air or sky, especially near the zenith: There was a cloud overhead.
  • paediatric nursing — the branch of nursing concerned with the care of children
  • paint the town red — a substance composed of solid coloring matter suspended in a liquid medium and applied as a protective or decorative coating to various surfaces, or to canvas or other materials in producing a work of art.
  • palm beach gardens — a city in SE Florida, near North Palm Beach.
  • paper handkerchief — a handkerchief made from tissue paper
  • parallel reduction — A form of applicative order reduction in which all redexes in an expression are reduced simultaneously. Variants include parallel outermost reduction and lenient reduction. See normal order reduction.
  • parathyroid glands — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
  • paraurethral gland — any of a group of vestigial glands located in the posterior wall of the urethra in women.
  • partial derivative — the derivative of a function with respect to one of its variables with all other variables held constant.
  • pass the hat round — to collect money, as for a cause
  • passing-out parade — a ceremonial parade of cadets who have completed their training
  • pci mezzanine card — (hardware)   (PMC) A family of low profile mezzanine cards for VMEbus, Futurebus+, desktop computers and other computer systems with logical and electrical layers based on the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) specification. PMC is defined in IEEE P1386.1 and follows the Common Mezzanine Card (CMC) mechanical specification. PCI2.0 defines a 4.2 inch by 12.3 inch board that plugs perpendicularly into a mother board.
  • pectoral sandpiper — an American sandpiper, Calidris melanotos, the male of which, when courting, inflates its chest conspicuously.
  • pedal steel guitar — an oblong, floor-mounted electrified guitar, usually having ten strings, fretted with a steel bar and producing a wailing sound that is modulated by use of a foot pedal.
  • pedestrian traffic — the people coming and going on foot in a street, town, etc
  • people's democracy — (in Communist ideology) a country or form of government in transition from bourgeois democracy to socialism. In this stage there is more than one class, the largest being the proletariat, led by the Communist Party, which is therefore the dominant power
  • per ardua ad astra — through difficulties to the stars: the motto of the RAF
  • perceptual defence — the process by which it is thought that certain stimuli are either not perceived or are distorted due to their offensive, unpleasant, or threatening nature
  • perforated tracery — tracery, as in early Gothic architecture, formed of cut or pierced slabs of stone set on edge with the flat side outward.
  • permanent hardness — hardness of water that cannot be removed by boiling as it results mainly from the presence of calcium and magnesium chlorides and sulphates
  • permanent resident — an immigrant who has been given official residential status, often prior to being granted citizenship
  • perpetual calendar — a calendar devised to be used for many years, as in determining the day of the week on which a given date falls.
  • personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
  • pescadores-islands — (used with a plural verb) Penghu.
  • peter and the wolf — a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936. It is a children's story with both music and text, spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra
  • phantom withdrawal — the unauthorized removal of funds from a bank account using an automated teller machine
  • phosphatidylserine — any of a class of phospholipids occurring in biological membranes and fats
  • phthalic anhydride — a white, crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid, C 8 H 4 O 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of dyes, alkyd resins, and plasticizers.
  • pileolated warbler — either of two western subspecies of Wilson's warbler.
  • pitch-and-run shot — chip shot.
  • planned parenthood — an organization that gives out information on the planning of the number and spacing of the births of one's children, as through the use of birth-control measures
  • play the race card — to introduce the subject of race into a public discussion, esp to gain a strategic advantage
  • plenary indulgence — a remission of the total temporal punishment that is still due to sin after absolution. Compare indulgence (def 6).
  • point d'angleterre — a bobbin lace in which the design is worked out with either a needle or bobbin.
  • point of departure — Nautical. the precise location of a vessel, established in order to set a course, especially in beginning a voyage in open water.
  • population pyramid — a graph showing the distribution of a population by sex, age, etc.
  • portrait of a lady — a novel (1881) by Henry James.
  • positively charged — having a positive charge
  • postviral syndrome — debilitating condition occurring as a sequel to viral illness
  • potassium chloride — a white or colorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers and mineral water, and as a source of other potassium compounds.
  • potassium fluoride — a white, crystalline, hygroscopic, toxic powder, KF, used chiefly as an insecticide, a disinfectant, and in etching glass.
  • potential gradient — the rate of change of potential with respect to distance in the direction of greatest change.
  • pour cold water on — If someone pours cold water on a plan or idea, they criticize it so much that people lose their enthusiasm for it.
  • precedence lossage — /pre's*-dens los'*j/ A misunderstanding of operator precedence resulting in unintended grouping of arithmetic or logical operators when coding an expression. Used especially of mistakes in C code due to the nonintuitively low precedence of "&", "|", "^", "<<" and ">>". For example, the following C expression, intended to test the least significant bit of x, x & 1 == 0 is parsed as x & (1 == 0) which is always zero (false). Some lazy programmers ignore precedence and parenthesise everything. Lisp fans enjoy pointing out that this can't happen in *their* favourite language, which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit parentheses everywhere.
  • predation pressure — the effect of predation upon a population, resulting in the decrease in size of that population.
  • predicate calculus — predicate logic
  • prepare the ground — make conditions ready
  • presenile dementia — a form of dementia, of unknown cause, starting before a person is old
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