19-letter words containing o, n, a
- professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- professionalization — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- programmed learning — a progressively monitored, step-by-step teaching method, employing small units of information or learning material and frequent testing, whereby the student must complete or pass one stage before moving on to the next.
- propositional logic — (logic) (or "propositional calculus") A system of symbolic logic using symbols to stand for whole propositions and logical connectives. Propositional logic only considers whether a proposition is true or false. In contrast to predicate logic, it does not consider the internal structure of propositions.
- protease inhibitors — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
- proto-indo-european — the unattested prehistoric parent language of the Indo-European languages; Indo-European.
- proton-proton chain — a series of thermonuclear reactions, responsible for the energy production in stars like the sun, in which the nuclei of hydrogen atoms are transformed into helium nuclei by sequential addition of single hydrogen nuclei.
- provably unsolvable — The set or property of problems for which no algorithm at all exists. E.g. the Halting Problem. See also provably difficult.
- pseudo-conservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- pseudo-experimental — pertaining to, derived from, or founded on experiment: an experimental science.
- pseudo-intellectual — a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
- pseudo-intransitive — denoting an occurrence of a normally transitive verb in which a direct object is not explicitly stated or forms the subject of the sentence, as in Margaret is cooking or these apples cook well
- pseudo-professional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- pseudorandom number — (programming) One of a sequence of numbers generated by some algorithm so as to have an even distribution over some range of values and minimal correlation between successive values. Pseudorandom numbers are used in simulation and encryption. They are pseudorandom not random because the sequence eventually repeats exactly and is entirely determined by the initial conditions. One of the simplest algorithms is x[i+1] = (a * x[i] + c) mod m but this repeats after at most m numbers and successive numbers are closely related. Better algorithms generally use more previous numbers to calculate the next number.
- psychological novel — a novel that focuses on the complex mental and emotional lives of its characters and explores the various levels of mental activity.
- psychotechnological — of or relating to psychotechnology
- pugwash conferences — international peace conferences of scientists held regularly to discuss world problems: Nobel peace prize 1995 awarded to Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) , one of the founders of the conferences, secretary-general (1957–73), and president (1988–97)
- punch and judy show — A Punch and Judy show is a puppet show for children, often performed at fairs or at the seaside. Punch and Judy, the two main characters, are always fighting.
- punch-and-judy show — a puppet show having a conventional plot consisting chiefly of slapstick humor and the tragicomic misadventures of the grotesque, hook-nosed, humpback buffoon Punch and his wife Judy.
- put a figure on sth — When you put a figure on an amount, you say exactly how much it is.
- put on the feed bag — Also called nose bag. a bag for feeding horses, placed before the mouth and fastened around the head with straps.
- put one's back into — to devote all one's strength to (a task)
- put one's skates on — ice skate (def 1).
- put sth into action — If you put an idea or policy into action, you begin to use it or cause it to operate.
- pyrenees-orientales — a department in S France. 1600 sq. mi. (4145 sq. km). Capital: Perpignan.
- pythagorean theorem — Pythagoras's Theorem
- quantum electronics — the application of quantum mechanics and quantum optics to the study and design of electronic devices
- queen anne's bounty — a fund formed by Queen Anne in 1704 for the augmentation of the livings of the poorer Anglican clergy. In 1948 the administrators of the fund were replaced by the Church Commissioners for England
- queen's regulations — (in Britain and certain other Commonwealth countries when the sovereign is female) the code of conduct for members of the armed forces
- quick on the uptake — You say that someone is quick on the uptake when they understand things quickly. You say that someone is slow on the uptake when they have difficulty understanding simple or obvious things.
- radiation potential — the potential in volts that must be applied to an atom or molecule to cause it to emit radiation at one of its characteristic frequencies.
- radiational cooling — the cooling of the earth's surface and adjacent air, primarily at night, caused by a loss of heat due to surface emission of infrared radiation.
- rag-tag and bobtail — the riffraff; rabble: The ragtag and bobtail of every nation poured into the frontier in search of gold.
- raise one's hackles — one of the long, slender feathers on the neck or saddle of certain birds, as the domestic rooster, much used in making artificial flies for anglers.
- ralph waldo emerson — Ralph Waldo [wawl-doh,, wol-] /ˈwɔl doʊ,, ˈwɒl-/ (Show IPA), 1803–82, U.S. essayist and poet.
- rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- rate of penetration — The rate of penetration is the speed with which a drill bit can break the rock under it.
- reactive depression — depression occurring in response to some situational stress, as loss of one's job.
- recessional moraine — a moraine marking a temporary halt in the general retreat of a glacier.
- reciprocal exchange — an unincorporated association formed so that its members can participate in reciprocal insurance.
- reciprocal leveling — leveling between two widely separated points in which observations are made in both directions to eliminate the effects of atmospheric refraction and the curvature of the earth.
- reconceptualization — to form into a concept; make a concept of.
- recording secretary — an officer charged with keeping the minutes of meetings and responsible for the records.
- recurrence relation — (mathematics) An equation that defines each element of a sequence in terms of one or more earlier elements. E.g. The Fibonacci sequence, X[1] = 1 X[2] = 1 X[n] = X[n-1] + X[n-2] Some recurrence relations can be converted to "closed form" where X[n] is defined purely in terms of n, without reference to earlier elements.
- reduction potential — (in a galvanic cell) the potential of the electrode at which reduction occurs.
- register allocation — (compiler, algorithm) The phase of a compiler that determines which values will be placed in registers. Register allocation may be combined with register assignment. This problem can be shown to be isomorphic to graph colouring by relating values to nodes in the graph and registers to colours. Values (nodes) which must be valid simultaneously are linked by edges and cannot be stored in the same register (coloured the same). See also register dancing and register spilling.
- registration number — number on vehicle licence plate
- regression analysis — Statistics. a procedure for determining a relationship between a dependent variable, as predicted success in college, and an independent variable, as a score on a scholastic aptitude test, for a given population. The relationship is expressed as an equation for a line (regres·sion·line) or curve (regres·sion·curve) in which any coefficient (regression coefficient) of the independent variable in the equation has been determined from a sample population.