20-letter words containing e, p, i, s, t, a
- primary spermatocyte — a male germ cell (primary spermatocyte) that gives rise by meiosis to a pair of haploid cells (secondary spermatocytes) that give rise in turn to spermatids.
- private investigator — private detective. Abbreviation: PI, p.i., P.I.
- prohibited substance — a substance, such as a drug, etc, that is banned or forbidden by law or other authority
- property speculation — the buying or selling of property in the hope of deriving capital gains
- prosecuting attorney — the public officer in a county, district, or other jurisdiction charged with carrying on the prosecution in criminal proceedings.
- psychological moment — the proper or critical time for achieving a desired result: She found the right psychological moment to make her request.
- pyrenees-atlantiques — a department in SW France. 2978 sq. mi. (7710 sq. km). Capital: Pau.
- rapid transit system — a rail or other system providing rapid public transport
- rattlesnake plantain — any of several low, terrestrial orchids, as Goodyera repens, of northern temperate regions, having a basal rosette of leaves with white veins and a one-sided spike of white flowers.
- real-time processing — data-processing by a computer which receives constantly changing data, such as information relating to air-traffic control, travel booking systems, etc, and processes it sufficiently rapidly to be able to control the source of the data
- refracting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.
- refuse disposal unit — a unit or part of a sink that disposes of waste food, etc, by grinding
- requiescat (in pace) — may he or she rest (in peace)
- respiratory quotient — the ratio of the amount of carbon dioxide released by the lungs to the amount of oxygen taken in during a given period.
- restrictive practice — Restrictive practices are ways in which people involved in an industry, trade, or profession protect their own interests, rather than having a system which is fair to the public, employers, and other workers.
- retinitis pigmentosa — degeneration of the retina manifested by night blindness and gradual loss of peripheral vision, eventually resulting in tunnel vision or total blindness.
- 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.
- rocky mountain sheep — bighorn.
- rotations per minute — revolutions per minute
- royal leamington spa — a city in Warwickshire, central England: health resort.
- sailor's breastplate — a knot consisting of three overlapping loops formed by a single rope passed alternately over and under itself at crossings.
- saint james's palace — a palace in London, England: the royal residence from the time of Henry VIII until the accession of Victoria.
- sales representative — a person or organization designated by a company to solicit business on its behalf in a specified territory or foreign country: I suggest you contact our Chicago sales representative.
- santa cruz operation — (SCO) A supplier of Unix systems for Intel microprocessors. They supply Xenix and Open Desktop. Founded in 1979, SCO became a public company in May, 1993 and trades on the Nasdaq National Market System under the symbol SCOC. SCO maintains its world headquarters in Santa Cruz, California, USA; a European headquarters in Watford, England; a Government Systems Group in Reston, Virginia; and offices in Asia, Australia, Canada, Latin America, and throughout Europe and the United States. In February 1993, SCO acquired IXI Limited of Cambridge, England, the leading supplier of Unix System windowing software.
- satellite photograph — a photograph taken by an artificial satellite from space
- schizoid personality — sb with identity disorder
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- separation allowance — an allowance paid to a member of the military when they are forced to be apart from their family due to their military duties
- separation of powers — the principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government.
- serve a person right — to pay a person back, esp for wrongful or foolish treatment or behaviour
- service access point — (networking) (SAP) The OSI term for the component of a network address which identifies the individual application on a host which is sending or receiving a packet. Different SAPs distinguish between different services or applications on a host, e.g. electronic mail, FTP, HTTP.
- sex change operation — a surgical operation designed to change a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex
- 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.
- soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- space-time continuum — Also called space-time continuum. the four-dimensional continuum, having three spatial coordinates and one temporal coordinate, in which all physical quantities may be located.
- spanish oyster plant — a composite plant, Scolymus hispanicus, of southern Europe, having spiny, thistlelike leaf margins, small yellow flowers, and an edible root.
- spanish west african — of or relating to the former Spanish overseas territory of Spanish West Africa (now the overseas provinces of Ifni and Spanish Sahara) or its inhabitants
- spatial technologies — (company) Distributors of the ACIS solid modelling engine.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- special patrol group — a former police unit tasked with counter terrorism in the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- special relationship — the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom
- specialist registrar — a hospital doctor senior to a house officer but junior to a consultant, specializing in medicine (medical specialist registrar), surgery (surgical specialist registrar), or some subspeciality of either
- specific conductance — conductivity (def 2).
- specific-conductance — conductivity (def 2).
- spectroscopic binary — a binary star having components that are not sufficiently separated to be resolved by a telescope, known to be a binary only bythe variations in wavelength of emitted light that are detected by a spectroscope.
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- 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.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits