17-letter words containing e, u, r
- order of business — a task assigned or to be dealt with: Our first order of business is to reduce expenses.
- orfeo ed euridice — an opera (1762), with music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck.
- organ-pipe cactus — a treelike or columnar cactus, Lemaireocereus marginatus, of Mexico, having a central, erect spine surrounded by spreading spines in clusters of five to eight, and funnel-shaped, brownish-purple flowers.
- osculating circle — circle of curvature.
- out for the count — If someone is out for the count, they are unconscious or very deeply asleep.
- out of all reason — unreasonable
- outline agreement — a contract, etc, setting out the preliminary terms or guidelines for an agreement; a preliminary agreement
- outside broadcast — An outside broadcast is a radio or television programme that is not recorded or filmed in a studio, but in another building or in the open air.
- 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.
- overconscientious — Excessively conscientious.
- overnight success — sth or sb suddenly popular
- oversquare engine — An oversquare engine is an engine which has a cylinder bore that is larger than its stroke.
- palace revolution — a challenge to or overthrow of a sovereign or other leader by members of the ruling family or group.
- parachute payment — a payment made to alleviate hardship resulting from a sudden loss of income
- parallel computer — parallel processor
- parallel universe — Physics. any of a hypothetical collection of undetectable universes that are like our known universe but have branched off from our universe due to a quantum-level event. See also multiverse.
- 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
- parker house roll — a soft dinner roll made by folding a flat disk of dough in half.
- pasteur institute — an organization in Paris that was founded in 1887. It does research on micro-organisms and diseases
- 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
- pauline privilege — (in canon law) the privilege given to converts to dissolve a marriage with an unbaptized spouse if either obstructs the religious practices of the other.
- peacock butterfly — a European nymphalid butterfly, Inachis io, having reddish-brown wings each marked with a purple eyespot
- per procurationem — by one acting as an agent; by proxy.
- percussion bullet — a bullet that is exploded by percussion
- perforation gauge — a marked ruler used to measure the number of perforations per unit length along the borders of a stamp.
- 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
- period-revolution — a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social unrest in Germany.
- periodic function — a function of a real or complex variable that is periodic.
- permanent account — A permanent account is an account which carries its balance and is kept open from year to year.
- permutation group — a mathematical group whose elements are permutations and in which the product of two permutations is the same permutation as is obtained by performing them in succession.
- pernicious anemia — Pernicious anemia is a very severe blood disease.
- perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
- 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.
- personal equation — the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.
- perspicaciousness — having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning: to exhibit perspicacious judgment.
- petit bourgeoisie — The petit bourgeoisie are people in the lower middle class.
- petite bourgeoise — a woman who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.
- petty bourgeoisie — the section of the middle class with the lowest social status, generally composed of shopkeepers, lower clerical staff, etc
- phlebotomus fever — sandfly fever.
- phonological rule — an operation in generative phonology that substitutes one sound or class of sounds for another in a phonological derivation.
- phototherapeutics — the branch of therapeutics that deals with the curative use of light rays.
- picture messaging — Picture messaging is the sending of photographs or pictures from one mobile phone to another.
- pincushion flower — scabious2 (def 1).
- pituitary extract — a preparation of the pituitary gland, used in medicine for the therapeutic effects of its hormones
- plateau's problem — the problem in the calculus of variations of finding the surface with the least area bounded by a given closed curve in space.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- plumbing fixtures — things such as pipes, sinks, toilets that are fixed in position in a building
- pluvius insurance — insurance against rain
- plymouth brethren — a religious sect founded c. 1827, strongly Puritanical in outlook and prohibiting many secular occupations for its members. It combines elements of Calvinism, Pietism, and millenarianism, and has no organized ministry