18-letter words containing d, s, p
- mucopolysaccharide — (formerly) glycosaminoglycan.
- muscular dystrophy — a hereditary disease characterized by gradual wasting of the muscles with replacement by scar tissue and fat, sometimes also affecting the heart.
- my lips are sealed — If you tell someone that your lips are sealed, you are promising them that you will keep a secret that they have told you.
- needle-nose pliers — long thin pliers
- neuropsychodynamic — Of or pertaining to neuropsychodynamics.
- non-correspondence — communication by exchange of letters.
- nord-pas-de-calais — a region of N France, on the Straits of Dover (the Pas de Calais): coal-mining, textile, and metallurgical industries
- normally aspirated — A normally aspirated or naturally aspirated engine breathes air at atmospheric pressure.
- oedipus at colonus — a tragedy by Sophocles, written toward the end of his life and produced posthumously in 401? b.c.
- old curiosity shop — a novel (1840–41) by Dickens.
- open pandora's box — If someone or something opens Pandora's box or opens a Pandora's box, they do something that causes a lot of problems to appear that did not exist or were not known about before.
- optical disc drive — optical disk drive
- optical disk drive — (hardware) (Or "optical disc drive", "optical storage") A generic term for any device that reads and/or writes optical media, i.e. compact discs, DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs or future media that uses light (from a small laser) to read data off a removable, rotating disk. At least one such drive is commonly installed in most personal computers to allow them to play and/or record audio and video media and load and store data such as program installers. The floppy disk has been replaced by optical media due to its vastly greater capacity, e.g. 50,000 megabytes for a dual-layer blu-ray disc compared with 1.5 megabytes for a floppy (over 30,000 times as much).
- 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.
- orthopedic surgery — corrective operation on bones or joints
- out of one's depth — a dimension taken through an object or body of material, usually downward from an upper surface, horizontally inward from an outer surface, or from top to bottom of something regarded as one of several layers.
- packet switch node — (PSN) A dedicated computer whose purpose is to accept, route and forward packets in a packet-switched network.
- paediatric nursing — the branch of nursing concerned with the care of children
- palm beach gardens — a city in SE Florida, near North Palm Beach.
- parathyroid glands — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
- pass the hat round — to collect money, as for a cause
- passing modulation — a modulation of a temporary nature.
- passing-out parade — a ceremonial parade of cadets who have completed their training
- payload specialist — an astronaut trained to handle highly complex or classified equipment carried aboard a space shuttle and to conduct experiments in space.
- 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
- pennsylvania dutch — the descendants of 17th- and 18th-century settlers in Pennsylvania from southwest Germany and Switzerland.
- 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
- percussion welding — a form of resistance welding in which the required pressure is provided by a hammerlike blow.
- 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
- personal bodyguard — a person employed to protect a particular person
- pescadores-islands — (used with a plural verb) Penghu.
- phosphatidylserine — any of a class of phospholipids occurring in biological membranes and fats
- phosphonium iodide — a colorless to slightly yellowish, crystalline, water-soluble solid, PH 4 I, used in chemical synthesis.
- photodecomposition — the breaking down of molecules by radiant energy.
- physical education — systematic instruction in sports, exercises, and hygiene given as part of a school or college program.
- pitch-and-run shot — chip shot.
- plate-glass window — a window that has glass which has been formed by rolling
- play cat and mouse — Also called cat and rat. a children's game in which players in a circle keep a player from moving into or out of the circle and permit a second player to move into or out of the circle to escape the pursuing first player.
- play second fiddle — be considered less important
- population density — ratio: inhabitants to area
- 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.
- pre-filled syringe — A pre-filled syringe is a disposable syringe that is supplied already loaded with the substance to be injected.
- 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.