18-letter words containing l, e, c, t
- potassium chloride — a white or colorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers and mineral water, and as a source of other potassium compounds.
- pour cold water on — If someone pours cold water on a plan or idea, they criticize it so much that people lose their enthusiasm for it.
- precipitable water — the total water vapor contained in a unit vertical column of the atmosphere.
- predicate calculus — predicate logic
- preparatory school — a private or parochial secondary school, especially one boarding its students and providing a college-preparatory education.
- present participle — Grammar. a participle form, in English having the suffix -ing, denoting repetition or duration of an activity or event: used as an adjective, as in the growing weeds, and in forming progressive verb forms, as in The weeds are growing.
- principal argument — the radian measure of the argument between −π and π of a complex number. Compare argument (def 8c).
- product life cycle — the four stages (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) into one of which the sales of a product fall during its market life
- proprietary colony — any of certain colonies, as Maryland and Pennsylvania, that were granted to an individual or group by the British crown and that were granted full rights of self-government.
- protective colloid — a lyophilic colloid added to a lyophobic sol to lessen its sensitivity to the precipitating effect of an electrolyte.
- protocol converter — (networking) A device or program to translate between different protocols which serve similar functions (e.g. TCP and TP4). Some call this a "gateway", though others use that term for other kinds of internetworking device.
- provascular tissue — procambium.
- pseudo-socialistic — of or relating to socialists or socialism.
- pseudointellectual — a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
- pseudotuberculosis — an acute, sometimes fatal disease of rodents, birds, and other animals, including humans, caused by the bacterium Yersinia (Pasteurella) pseudotuberculosis, and characterized by the formation of nodules resembling those that result from tuberculosis.
- psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
- psychotechnologist — a specialist in psychotechnology
- public examination — an examination, such as a GCSE exam, that is set by a central examining board
- public expenditure — spending by central government, local authorities, and public corporations
- pulmonic airstream — a current of lung air set in motion by the respiratory muscles in the production of speech.
- pulp canal therapy — endodontics.
- put a bold face on — to seem bold or confident about
- put the clock back — to regress
- quality controller — a person responsible for checking that the goods or services produced by an organization are of an acceptable standard
- quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
- quarterlife crisis — a crisis that may be experienced in one's twenties, involving anxiety over the direction and quality of one's life
- quasi-metaphysical — pertaining to or of the nature of metaphysics.
- rabbit-foot clover — a plant, Trifolium arvense, having trifoliate leaves with narrow leaflets and fuzzy, cylindrical, grayish-pink flower heads.
- racial segregation — social policy: separation of races
- racially motivated — motivated by (the hate or prejudice of) someone's race
- real-estate office — the place where a real-estate agent works
- real-time computer — a computer that can process data or information almost immediately
- red cluster pepper — a tropical, woody plant, Capsicum annuum fasciculatum, having erect, very pungent, red fruit in small clusters.
- red-light district — an area or district in a city in which many houses of prostitution are located.
- reflection density — a measure of the extent to which a surface reflects light or other electromagnetic radiation, equal to the logarithm to base ten of the reciprocal of the reflectance
- reinforced plastic — plastic with fibrous matter, such as carbon fibre, embedded in it to confer additional strength
- relative frequency — the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the number of occasions on which it might occur in the same period.
- repayment schedule — a document detailing the specific terms of a borrower's loan, such as monthly payment, interest rate, due dates etc
- replacement engine — an engine used to replace or substitute an older or broken engine (in a vehicle, etc)
- reprocessing plant — a plant where materials are treated in order to make them reusable
- residential school — (in Canada) a boarding school maintained by the Canadian government for Indian and Inuit children from sparsely populated settlements
- resistance plasmid — any of a group of bacterial plasmids carrying genetic information that provide resistance to antibiotic drugs: some resistance plasmids are able to transfer themselves, and hence resistance, during conjugation
- resistance welding — welding utilizing pressure and heat that is generated in the pieces to be welded by resistance to an electric current.
- restraining circle — any of three circles on the floor of a basketball court used for jump balls: other players must remain outside the circle during a jump ball
- restrictive clause — a relative clause that identifies the antecedent and that is usually not set off by commas in English. In The year that just ended was bad for crops, the clause that just ended is a restrictive clause.
- resurrection plant — a desert plant, Selaginella lepidophylla, occurring from Texas to South America, having stems that curl inward when dry.
- retail price index — The retail price index is a list of the prices of typical goods which shows how much the cost of living changes from one month to the next.
- revolution counter — a device for counting or recording the number of revolutions made by a rotating shaft, as of a motor or engine.
- rolling resistance — The rolling resistance of a wheel or ball is its resistance to movement caused by friction between it and the surface it is rolling on.
- root canal therapy — endodontics.