18-letter words containing e, a, t, u, p
- construction paper — Construction paper is a type of stiff, colored paper that children use for drawing and for making things.
- cornucopian thesis — the belief that, as long as science and technology continue to advance, growth can continue for ever because these new advances create new resources
- corpuscular theory — the theory, originally proposed by Newton, and revived with the development of the quantum theory, that light consists of a stream of particles
- costume department — the department in a theatre or television company that is responsible for actors' costumes
- counter-adaptation — the act of adapting.
- counterprogramming — the practice of scheduling a program opposite another program, esp. a popular one, that appeals to a different kind of audience, as in placing a romantic film directed at women opposite a sports program mainly watched by men
- countertherapeutic — Working against a therapy.
- creeping featurism — (jargon) /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance.
- cumberland plateau — division of the W Appalachians, extending from S W.Va. to N Ala.
- curvature of space — (in relativity) a property of space near massive bodies in which their gravitational field causes light to travel along curved paths.
- definitive plumage — the plumage of a bird that, once attained, does not change significantly in color or pattern for the rest of the bird's life.
- departure platform — a raised area at a railway station from which passengers can board trains prior to their departing
- descriptive clause — a relative clause that describes or supplements but is not essential in establishing the identity of the antecedent and is usually set off by commas in English. In This year, which has been dry, is bad for crops the clause which has been dry is a nonrestrictive clause.
- devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
- diabetes insipidus — a disorder of the pituitary gland causing excessive thirst and excretion of large quantities of dilute urine
- dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
- digital audio tape — a cassette containing magnetic tape used for high-fidelity digital recording or playback of audio. Abbreviation: DAT.
- diplomatic shuttle — a series of diplomatic visits to other states made by an official, such as an ambassador or envoy
- disodium phosphate — sodium phosphate (def 2).
- dispatch documents — documents sent with a parcel, etc, detailing information such as contents, delivery address, etc
- drainpipe trousers — trousers with very narrow legs
- ejaculatio praecox — premature ejaculation during sexual intercourse
- electroacupuncture — the insertion into the body of one or more needles through which an electric current is passed
- electrotherapeutic — Relating to electrotherapeutics.
- entrepreneurialism — The spirit or state of acting in an entrepreneurial manner.
- epstein-barr virus — a virus belonging to the herpes family that causes infectious mononucleosis; it is also implicated in the development of Burkitt's lymphoma and Hodgkin's disease
- equinoctial spring — either of the two highest spring tides that occur at the equinoxes
- european community — an economic and political association of European States that came into being in 1967, when the legislative and executive bodies of the European Economic Community merged with those of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community: subsumed into the European Union in 1993
- extemporaneousness — The degree or property of being extemporaneous.
- feeping creaturism — /fee'ping kree"ch*r-izm/ A deliberate spoonerism for creeping featurism, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks. This term isn"t really well defined, but it sounds so neat that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their customary noises.
- football supporter — a person who supports a particular football team
- free-range poultry — poultry kept in natural nonintensive conditions
- fulminating powder — powder that explodes by percussion.
- funding operations — the conversion of government floating stock or short-term debt into holdings of long-term bonds
- gainful employment — an occupation that pays an income
- get the upper hand — gain advantage
- hyper-intellectual — appealing to or engaging the intellect: intellectual pursuits.
- hypersexualisation — Alternative spelling of hypersexualization.
- hypersexualization — The act or process of hypersexualizing.
- incremental backup — (operating system) A kind of backup that copies all files which have changed since the date of the previous backup. The first backup of a file system should include all files - a "full backup". Call this level 0. The next backup could also be a full level 0 backup but it is usually much quicker to do a level 1 backup which will include only those files which have changed since the level 0 backup. Together the level 0 and level 1 backups will include the latest version of every file. Level 1 backups can be made until, say, the backup tape is nearly full, after which we can switch to level 2. Each level includes those files which have changed since the last backup at a lower level. The more levels you use, the longer it will take to restore the latest version of a file (or all files) if you don't know when it was last modified. Compare differential backup.
- independent clause — a clause that can stand alone as a sentence, containing a subject and a predicate with a finite verb, as I was there in the sentence I was there when he arrived.
- industrial dispute — disagreement between workers and managers
- inner automorphism — an automorphism that maps an element x into an element of the form axa −1 where a −1 is the inverse of a.
- input/output table — a table of all the inputs and outputs of the industries of an economy
- iron (ii) sulphate — an iron salt with a saline taste, usually obtained as greenish crystals of the heptahydrate, which are converted to the white monohydrate above 100°C: used in inks, tanning, water purification, and in the treatment of anaemia. Formula: FeSO4
- jack-in-the-pulpit — A North American plant, Arisaema triphyllum, of the arum family, having an upright spadix arched over by a green or striped purplish-brown spathe.
- justice department — the United States federal department for enforcing federal laws
- laurentian plateau — (in Canada) the wide area of Precambrian rock extending west from the Labrador coast to the basin of the Mackenzie and north from the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay and the Arctic: rich in minerals
- lenticular process — a method for producing images with a three-dimensional effect by photographing on lenticulated film.
- magnetic tape unit — a computer device that moves reels of magnetic tape past read-write heads so that data can be transferred to or from the computer