19-letter words containing e, c, h, o, a
- piece of the action — the process or state of acting or of being active: The machine is not in action now.
- pillars of hercules — the two promontories at the E end of the Strait of Gibraltar: the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and the Jebel Musa on the African side; according to legend, formed by Hercules
- pistachio ice cream — ice cream flavoured with pistachios
- pneumoencephalogram — an encephalogram made after the replacement of the cerebrospinal fluid by air or gas, rarely used since the development of the CAT scanner.
- pocket-handkerchief — handkerchief (def 1).
- police headquarters — building where police are stationed
- political geography — the branch of human geography that deals with the relationship between political processes and spatial structures (regions, territories, etc)
- preach to the choir — to express an opinion to someone who is already in agreement with it
- prescription charge — a charge, set by the government, to be paid by a patient for medicines
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudopsychological — of or relating to psychology.
- psychological novel — a novel that focuses on the complex mental and emotional lives of its characters and explores the various levels of mental activity.
- psychotechnological — of or relating to psychotechnology
- psychrometric chart — a chart for calculating values of relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew point from psychrometer readings.
- puerperal psychosis — a mental disorder sometimes occurring in women after childbirth, characterized by deep depression, delusions of the child's death, and homicidal feelings towards the child
- pugwash conferences — international peace conferences of scientists held regularly to discuss world problems: Nobel peace prize 1995 awarded to Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) , one of the founders of the conferences, secretary-general (1957–73), and president (1988–97)
- quick on the uptake — You say that someone is quick on the uptake when they understand things quickly. You say that someone is slow on the uptake when they have difficulty understanding simple or obvious things.
- radiopharmaceutical — any of a number of radioactive drugs used diagnostically or therapeutically.
- raise one's hackles — one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
- rake over the coals — a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as a fuel. Compare anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite.
- rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- rec room (or hall) — recreation room (or hall)
- reciprocal exchange — an unincorporated association formed so that its members can participate in reciprocal insurance.
- regular icosahedron — an icosahedron in which each of the faces is an equilateral triangle
- research fellowship — the position or office of someone who conducts academic research into a subject at a university, etc
- research laboratory — place for scientific experimentation
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- reticuloendothelial — pertaining to, resembling, or involving cells of the reticuloendothelial system.
- rhetorical question — a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.
- rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
- right circular cone — a cone whose surface is generated by lines joining a fixed point to the points of a circle, the fixed point lying on a perpendicular through the center of the circle.
- saccharofarinaceous — pertaining to or consisting of sugar and meal.
- sackcloth and ashes — a public display of extreme grief, remorse, or repentance
- salvage archaeology — the collection of archaeological data and materials from a site in danger of imminent destruction, as from new construction or flooding.
- sandwich generation — the generation of people still raising their children while having to care for their aging parents.
- scare the pants off — to scare extremely
- scattersite housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- school of the squad — an institution where instruction is given, especially to persons under college age: The children are at school.
- seleucia tracheotis — an ancient city in SE Asia Minor, on the River Calycadnus (modern Goksu Nehri): captured by the Turks in the 13th century; site of present-day Silifke (Turkey)
- sell like hot cakes — a pancake or griddlecake.
- seventh commandment — “Thou shalt not commit adultery”: seventh of the Ten Commandments.
- sharp-focus realism — photorealism.
- shopping facilities — shops or other retail services
- simple carbohydrate — a carbohydrate, as glucose, that consists of a single monosaccharide unit.
- sleepy hollow chair — an armchair of the mid-19th century, sometimes on rockers, having a single piece forming a high upholstered back and a concave upholstered seat.
- solid-state physics — the branch of physics that deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, especially solids; the study of the electromagnetic, structural, and thermodynamic properties of solids.
- son-of-a-bitch stew — (in the Old West) a stew often prepared by chuck-wagon cooks for working cowboys, containing tripe and often also the heart, liver, brains, kidney, etc., of a slaughtered steer.