17-letter words containing e, s, m

non-thermoplastic — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
nonaccomplishment — Something that does not achieve the intended goal.
nonstoichiometric — (of a solid compound) having a composition in which the ratio of the atoms present is not a simple integer
not mince matters — to speak frankly
nuclear chemistry — the branch of chemistry concerned with nuclear reactions
nuclear isomerism — isomerism (def 2).
nuclear submarine — undersea vessel powered by atomic energy
nuclear-isomerism — Chemistry. the relation of two or more compounds, radicals, or ions that are composed of the same kinds and numbers of atoms but differ from each other in structural arrangement (structural isomerism) as CH 3 OCH 3 and CH 3 CH 2 OH, or in the arrangement of their atoms in space and therefore in one or more properties. Compare optical isomerism, stereoisomerism.
number seven iron — pitcher2 (def 3).
old contemptibles — the British expeditionary force to France in 1914
old people's home — An old people's home is a place where old people live and are cared for when they are too old to look after themselves.
old wives' summer — a period of fine, summerlike weather occurring in Europe in autumn.
olympic peninsula — a large peninsula of W Washington
omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
on one's lonesome — on one's own
on one's own time — the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another.
on someone's back — criticizing or pestering someone
on someone's mind — occupying someone's thoughts
on someone's tail — following or shadowing someone closely
on speaking terms — the act, utterance, or discourse of a person who speaks.
one-time password — (security) (OTP) A security system that requires a new password every time a user authenticates themselves, thus protecting against an intruder replaying an intercepted password. OTP generates passwords using either the MD4 or MD5 hashing algorithms. The equivalent term "S/Key", developed by Bellcore, is a trademark of Telcordia Technologies, so the name OTP is used increasingly. See RFC 1760 - "The S/KEY One-Time Password System" and RFC 1938 - "A One-Time Password System".
opening arguments — the statements or arguments provided by lawyers at the beginning of a trial
optical isomerism — stereoisomerism in which the isomers are identical in molecular weight and most chemical and physical properties but differ in their effect on the rotation of polarized light.
organic chemistry — the branch of chemistry, originally limited to substances found only in living organisms, dealing with the compounds of carbon.
out of one's mind — (in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind.
over-compensation — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
over-presumptuous — full of, characterized by, or showing presumption or readiness to presume in conduct or thought, as by saying or doing something without right or permission.
overhead camshaft — a camshaft in an automotive engine that is located in the cylinder head over the engine block rather than in the block. Abbreviation: OHC.
overstep the mark — If someone oversteps the mark, they behave in a way that is considered unacceptable.
pair of compasses — compass (def 7)
paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
parcplace systems — (company) A company spun-off from Xerox PARC that developed the original version of VisualWorks.
parents anonymous — (in Britain) an association of local voluntary self-help groups offering help through an anonymous telephone service to parents who fear they will injure their children, or who have other problems in managing their children
parmesan (cheese) — a very hard, dry cheese orig. of Italy, made from skimmed cow's milk and usually grated for sprinkling on pasta, soups, etc.
parts per million — the number of units (of a substance) present in a million units of another substance
pasteur treatment — Pasteur's method of preventing certain diseases, esp. rabies, by increasing the strength of successive inoculations with a specific weakened or attenuated virus
pay someone's way — to pay someone's share of the expenses
paymaster general — a government minister responsible for making payments by government departments
peaches and cream — If you say that a woman or a girl has a peaches and cream complexion, you mean that she has very clear, smooth, pale skin.
penitential psalm — any of the Psalms (the 6th, 32nd, 38th, 51st, 102nd, 130th, and 143rd) that give expression to feelings of penitence and that are used in various Christian liturgical services.
peppermint spirit — a green or colorless alcoholic solution of the volatile oil produced by the peppermint leaf, used as a carminative and flavoring agent.
performance bonus — a monetary bonus paid to staff who have performed well in their job
performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
permanent address — a fixed address
pernicious anemia — Pernicious anemia is a very severe blood disease.
persistent memory — non-volatile storage
personal computer — a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use, as by a person in an office or at home or school, for such applications as word processing, data management, financial analysis, or computer games. Abbreviation: PC.
personnel manager — head of Human Resources department
peterloo massacre — an incident at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, in 1819 in which a radical meeting was broken up by a cavalry charge, resulting in about 500 injuries and 11 deaths
phase of the moon — Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also heisenbug. True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine into a Lisp program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.

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