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23-letter words containing o, p, e, n, t, r

  • participant observation — a technique of field research, used in anthropology and sociology, by which an investigator (participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in its activities.
  • 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.
  • pentachloronitrobenzene — a crystalline compound, C 6 Cl 5 NO 2 , used as an herbicide and insecticide. Abbreviation: PCNB.
  • pentagonal dodecahedron — pyritohedron.
  • percentage distribution — a frequency distribution is which individual frequencies are shown as a percentage of the total frequencies
  • performance-related pay — salary based on individual assessment
  • pest control department — the local government department responsible for controlling such pests as rats and mice
  • pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
  • photoelectric magnitude — the magnitude of a star determined using a photometer plus a filter to select light or other radiation of the desired wavelength
  • pithecanthropus erectus — Java man
  • 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.
  • political incorrectness — Political incorrectness is the attitude or policy shown by someone who does not care if they offend or upset any group of people in society who have a disadvantage, or who have been treated differently because of their sex, race, or disability.
  • polybrominated biphenyl — PBB.
  • polytetrafluoroethylene — any polymer, plastic, or resin having the formula (C 2 F 4) n , prepared from tetrafluoroethylene, noted for its slippery, nonsticking properties, and used in the manufacture of gaskets, electrical insulation, tubing, candy molds, container linings, frying-pan coatings, etc.
  • portable tool interface — (programming, standard)   (PTI) A standard such as PCTE, allowing interworking between different software tools via defined interfaces to the user and to the repository or object management system.
  • positive discrimination — special opportunities
  • postcode discrimination — discrimination on the basis of the area where someone lives, with relation to employment, credit rating, etc
  • power factor correction — Power factor correction is the process of increasing the power factor to near unity without altering the original load.
  • precautionary principle — the precept that an action should not be taken if the consequences are uncertain and potentially dangerous
  • precipitation hardening — a process in which alloys are strengthened by the formation, in their lattice, of a fine dispersion of one component when the metal is quenched from a high temperature and aged at an intermediate temperature
  • presidential government — a system of government in which the powers of the president are constitutionally separate from those of the legislature.
  • price escalation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to raise prices if the cost of inputs increases
  • printer access protocol — (networking, protocol, printer)   (PAP) A protocol used in Mac OS Appletalk to provide bi-directional communication between PostScript printers and the client computer.
  • private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
  • process intensification — Process intensification is a change made to a process to make it work in a smaller volume for the same performance.
  • product differentiation — the real or illusory distinction between competing products in a market
  • professional misconduct — a violation of the rules or boundaries set by the governing body of a profession
  • provocative maintenance — [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
  • psychomotor retardation — a generalized slowing of psychological and physical activity, frequently occurring as a symptom of severe depression.
  • public sector borrowing — government borrowing to fund the public sector
  • 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.
  • put one's finger on sth — If you put your finger on something, for example a reason or problem, you see and identify exactly what it is.
  • put through one's paces — a rate of movement, especially in stepping, walking, etc.: to walk at a brisk pace of five miles an hour.
  • quote chapter and verse — [by analogy with the mainstream phrase] To cite a relevant excerpt from an appropriate bible. "I don't care if "rn" gets it wrong; "Followup-To: poster" is explicitly permitted by RFC 1036. I'll quote chapter and verse if you don't believe me." See also legalese, language lawyer, RTFS (sense 2).
  • real simple syndication — (spelling)   Illiterate form of Really Simple Syndication.
  • refinery waste disposal — Refinery waste disposal is the system for dealing with waste materials, especially hazardous ones, in a refinery.
  • relative sunspot number — a number indicating the degree of sunspot activity on the sun as a factor of observer idiosyncrasies, the number of sunspot groups, and the number of individual sunspots.
  • respondent conditioning — conditioning (def 2).
  • response generalization — generalization (def 4b).
  • response-generalization — the act or process of generalizing.
  • retrolental fibroplasia — an unusual eye disease occurring in premature infants, usually from being given high concentrations of oxygen, which causes abnormal formation of fibrous tissue behind the lens and often results in blindness.
  • reverse polish notation — postfix notation
  • 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.
  • rub sb up the wrong way — If you rub someone up the wrong way in British English, or rub someone the wrong way in American English, you offend or annoy them without intending to.
  • saint christopher-nevis — St. Kitts-Nevis.
  • 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.
  • separation of variables — a grouping of the terms of an ordinary differential equation so that associated with each differential is a factor consisting entirely of functions of the independent variable appearing in the differential.
  • silicone breast implant — silicone filled bags that are implanted into a woman in order to increase the size of her breasts
  • social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
  • somaliland protectorate — official name of the former British Somaliland.
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