18-letter words containing h, p, a
- septic sore throat — an acute, toxic, streptococcus infection of the throat producing fever, tonsillitis, and other serious effects.
- shape-note singing — a traditional style of a capella singing using shape-note notation.
- sharp-shinned hawk — a North American hawk, Accipiter striatus, having extremely slender legs, a bluish-gray back, and a white, rusty-barred breast.
- shatterproof glass — glass designed to resist shattering
- shepherd satellite — a small moon orbiting near a planetary ring, whose gravitational pull helps confine the ring and the ring's extent.
- shipping container — a large, strong container, usually of metal, used to store goods in during shipment
- short, sharp shock — A short, sharp shock is a punishment that is fairly harsh and severe but only lasts for a short time.
- shunting operation — an operation in which rail coaches are manoeuvred
- slow on the uptake — slow to understand or learn
- sociopsychological — of, relating to, or characterized by interrelated social and psychological factors.
- something to spare — a surplus of something
- sound spectrograph — an electronic device for recording a sound spectogram.
- southampton island — an island in N Canada, in the Northwest Territories at the entrance to Hudson Bay. 19,100 sq. mi. (49,470 sq. km).
- spaghetti junction — an interchange, usually between motorways, in which there are a large number of underpasses and overpasses and intersecting roads used by a large volume of high-speed traffic
- spanish succession — War of thea war (1701-14) between European powers disputing the succession to the Spanish throne
- specialist teacher — a teacher with expertise in working with children with special educational needs, such as dyslexia
- spectroheliography — the process of obtaining an image of the sun in light of a particular wavelength, such as calcium or hydrogen, showing the distribution of the element over the surface and in the solar atmosphere, using a spectroheliograph
- spherical geometry — the branch of geometry that deals with figures on spherical surfaces.
- spherical triangle — a triangle formed by arcs of great circles of a sphere.
- spike-tooth harrow — a harrow equipped with straight teeth on horizontal bars, usually employed to smooth and level plowed soil or seedbeds for planting or sowing.
- spinal anaesthesia — anaesthesia of the lower half of the body produced by injecting an anaesthetic beneath the arachnoid membrane surrounding the spinal cord
- spotted flycatcher — a European woodland songbird, Muscicapa striata, with a greyish-brown streaked plumage: family Muscicapidae (Old World flycatchers)
- stratigraphic trap — A stratigraphic trap is a rock formation that contains hydrocarbons and is sealed by other rock formations.
- supportive therapy — any treatment, such as the intravenous administration of certain fluids, designed to reinforce or sustain the physiological well-being of a patient
- sympathetic strike — sympathy strike.
- sympathetic string — a thin wire string, as in various obsolete musical instruments, designed to vibrate sympathetically with the bowed or plucked strings to reinforce the sound.
- symphony orchestra — a large orchestra composed of wind, string, and percussion instruments and organized to perform symphonic compositions.
- systematic phoneme — a phonological unit in generative phonology representing an underlying form that takes into account the relationship between phonological patterns and morphological variation, as the unit underlying the second vowel in both derive and derivative.
- take a deep breath — If you say that you took a deep breath before doing something dangerous or frightening, you mean that you tried to make yourself feel strong and confident.
- take heed/pay heed — If you take heed of what someone says or if you pay heed to them, you pay attention to them and consider carefully what they say.
- take the wraps off — to reveal
- talk between ships — TBS (def 1).
- teaching equipment — teaching aids
- telephone exchange — a telecommunications facility to which subscribers' telephones connect, that switches calls among subscribers or to other exchanges for further routing.
- temporary hardness — hardness of water due to the presence of magnesium and calcium hydrogencarbonates, which can be precipitated as carbonates by boiling
- the baptist church — any of various Protestant churches that believe in the baptism of believers
- the better part of — a large part of
- the family compact — the ruling oligarchy in Upper Canada in the early 19th century
- the general public — the people in a society; people in general
- the heavens opened — it started pouring with rain
- the lords temporal — (in Britain) peers other than bishops in their capacity as members of the House of Lords
- the middle passage — the journey across the Atlantic Ocean from the W coast of Africa to the Caribbean: the longest part of the journey of the slave ships sailing to the Caribbean or the Americas
- the operative word — If you describe a word as the operative word, you want to draw attention to it because you think it is important or exactly true in a particular situation.
- the palmetto state — a nickname for South Carolina
- the passenger seat — the seat used by a passenger of a car, beside the driver
- the powers that be — You can refer to people in authority as the powers that be, especially when you want to say that you disagree with them or do not understand what they say or do.
- the practicalities — the real facts or details of a situation, as opposed to its theoretical aspects
- the-cocktail-party — a play in verse (1950) by T. S. Eliot.
- thiosulphuric acid — an unstable acid known only in solutions and in the form of its salts. Formula: H2S2O3
- thiruvananthapuram — a state in SW India: formerly the regions of Travancore and Cochin. 15,005 sq. mi. (38,836 sq. km). Capital: Thiruvananthapuram.