23-letter words containing o, c, t, y, l
- object relations theory — a form of psychoanalytic theory postulating that people relate to others in order to develop themselves
- occupational psychology — the study of human behaviour at work, including ergonomics, selection procedures, and the effects of stress
- off the back of a lorry — If someone says that something has fallen off the back of a lorry, or that they got something off the back of a lorry, they mean that they bought something that they knew was stolen.
- on-line computer system — (OLC) A predecessor of the Culler-Fried System from UCSB ca. 1966.
- out of a clear blue sky — the region of the clouds or the upper air; the upper atmosphere of the earth: airplanes in the sky; cloudy skies.
- parametric polymorphism — Polymorphism was first identified by Christopher Strachey in 1967 and developed by Hindley and Milner. For example we could specify that the argument of the "head" function was a list without specifying a type for the elements of the list. In Haskell we would write: head :: [a] -> a meaning head has type function from "list of a" to "a" where "a" is a type variable). This is known as parametric polymorphism. Polymorphic typing allows strong type checking as well as generic functions. ML in 1976 was the first language with polymorphic typing. See also generic type variable.
- parliamentary democracy — a system of government in which people elect representatives to a parliament to make laws, for example Canada and the UK
- patient confidentiality — the law that a doctor or medical practitioner cannot reveal anything said to them by their patients during consultation or treatment
- pay one's last respects — If you pay your last respects to someone who has just died, you show your respect or affection for them by coming to see their body or their grave.
- performance-related pay — salary based on individual assessment
- pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
- phyletic classification — classification of organisms based on their assumed evolutionary histories and relationships.
- physiological phonetics — the branch of phonetics that deals with the motive processes, anatomical measurements, spirometric properties, muscle and membrane tone, and kinetic aspects of the production of speech and with related aspects of the reception of speech.
- play by electronic mail — (games) A kind of game where the players use electronic mail to communicate. This may be done via a human moderator or an automatic mailing list exploder on some central machine or it may be fully distributed with each player just addressing his mail to all other players. This is a natural extension of "play by mail" games conducted via snail mail.
- polymethyl methacrylate — polymerized methyl methacrylate.
- precautionary principle — the precept that an action should not be taken if the consequences are uncertain and potentially dangerous
- private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
- public-key cryptography — public-key encryption
- publicly-quoted company — a company whose shares are traded on a stock exchange
- puerto rican royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea borinquena, of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, having leaves about 10 feet (3 meters) long and egg-shaped, yellowish-brown fruit.
- quantum electrodynamics — the quantum field theory that deals with the electromagnetic field and its interaction with electrons and positrons. Abbreviation: QED.
- quantum flavourdynamics — a gauge theory of the electromagnetic and weak interactions
- quay financial software — CSK Software
- real simple syndication — (spelling) Illiterate form of Really Simple Syndication.
- reincarnation, cycle of — cycle of reincarnation
- respectability politics — the set of beliefs holding that conformity to socially acceptable or mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a member of a marginalized or minority group from prejudices and systemic injustices: Black respectability politics perpetuate the fiction of a meritocracy in public education.
- revision control system — (software, tool) (RCS) A version control system that automates the storing, retrieval, logging, identification, and merging of revisions. RCS is useful for text that is revised frequently, for example programs, documentation, graphics, papers, and form letters.
- rocky mountain beeplant — a rank-smelling plant, Cleome serrulata, of the caper family, native to the western U.S., having showy, dense clusters of pink or white flowers, frequented by bees.
- schizotypal personality — a personality disorder characterized by a group of symptoms similar to but less severe than schizophrenia, as odd behavior, peculiar thinking, and social isolation.
- scottish national party — a political party advocating the independence of Scotland, founded in 1934
- social democratic party — History/Historical. a political party in Germany advocating a form of social organization based on the economic and political ideology of Karl Marx.
- social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
- stereospecific catalyst — a catalyst for stereospecific chemical reactions
- structural anthropology — a school of anthropology founded by Claude Lévi-Strauss and based loosely on the principles of structural linguistics.
- structural unemployment — unemployment caused by basic changes in the overall economy, as in demographics, technology, or industrial organization.
- symbolic interactionism — a theory that human interaction and communication is facilitated by words, gestures, and other symbols that have acquired conventionalized meanings.
- system control language — (language) (SCL) The command language for the VME/B operating system on the ICL2900. SCL was block structured and supported strings, lists of strings ("superstrings"), integer, Boolean, and array types. You could trigger a block whenever a condition on a variable value occured. It supported macros and default arguments. Commands were treated like procedure calls.
- text processing utility — (language) (TPU) A DEC language for creation of text-processing interfaces, used to implement DEC's Extensible VAX Editor (EVE).
- thank one's lucky stars — any of the heavenly bodies, except the moon, appearing as fixed luminous points in the sky at night.
- the library of congress — the official library of the United States in Washington, DC. It houses extensive collections in all subject areas and formats, important historical documents, and is also a depository for copyrighted materials.
- throttle-body injection — a fuel-injection system in which an injector (throttle-body injector) delivers fuel to a central location within the intake manifold of the engine. Abbreviation: TBI.
- to carry all before you — If a person or team carries all before them, they succeed very easily.
- to clap eyes on someone — To clap eyes on someone or something, or set or lay eyes on them, means to see them.
- to count your blessings — If you tell someone to count their blessings, you are saying that they should think about how lucky they are instead of complaining.
- to keep your nose clean — If you keep your nose clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble.
- to make your skin crawl — If something makes your skin crawl or makes your flesh crawl, it makes you feel shocked or disgusted.
- to outstay your welcome — If you say that someone outstays their welcome or overstays their welcome, you mean that they stay somewhere longer than they are wanted or expected to.
- velocity of circulation — the frequency with which a single unit of currency or the total money supply turns over within the economy in a given year.