17-letter words containing o, p, h, t
- paratyphoid fever — Also called paratyphoid fever. an infectious disease, similar in some of its symptoms to typhoid fever but usually milder, caused by any of several bacilli of the genus Salmonella other than S. typhi.
- pashmina politics — the adoption of political policies immediately after they have gone out of fashion
- pastoral symphony — the Symphony No. 6 in F major (1807–08) by Ludwig van Beethoven.
- pastoral theology — the branch of theology dealing with the responsibilities of members of the clergy to the people under their care.
- pathological liar — a person who tells lies frequently, with no rational motive for doing so.
- patriarchal cross — a Latin cross having a shorter crosspiece above the customary one.
- pebbleweave cloth — an irregularly textured material made from twisted yarn
- peer of the realm — any of a class of peers in Great Britain and Ireland entitled by heredity to sit in the House of Lords.
- penalty shoot-out — In football, a penalty shoot-out is a way of deciding the result of a game that has ended in a draw. Players from each team try to score a goal in turn until one player fails to score and their team loses the game.
- pentachlorophenol — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble powder, C 6 Cl 5 OH, used chiefly in fungicides, disinfectants, and wood preservatives.
- perchloroethylene — tetrachloroethylene.
- personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
- perth and kinross — a council area of N central Scotland, corresponding mainly to the historical counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire: part of Tayside Region from 1975 until 1996: chiefly mountainous, with agriculture, tourism, and forestry. Administrative centre: Perth. Pop: 135 990 (2003 est). Area: 5321 sq km (2019 sq miles)
- petrarchan sonnet — a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
- phantom limb pain — a phenomenon characterized by the experience of pain, discomfort, or other sensation in the area of a missing limb or other body part, as a breast.
- phantom pregnancy — the occurrence of signs of pregnancy, such as enlarged abdomen and absence of menstruation, when no embryo is present, due to hormonal imbalance
- phase of the moon — Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also heisenbug. True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine into a Lisp program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.
- phenethyl alcohol — a colorless, viscous, slightly water-soluble liquid, C 8 H 1 0 O, having a faint roselike odor: used chiefly in perfumery.
- phenyl isocyanate — a liquid reagent, C 7 H 5 NO, having an unpleasant, irritating odor: used chiefly for identifying alcohols and amines.
- philanthropically — of, pertaining to, engaged in, or characterized by philanthropy; benevolent: a philanthropic foundation.
- phlebotomus fever — sandfly fever.
- phonetic alphabet — an alphabet containing a separate character for each distinguishable speech sound.
- photo opportunity — a brief period set aside for the media to take photographs of a high government official or celebrity, usually immediately before or after a newsworthy event.
- photo-composition — any method of composition using photography, as composition by means of a photocomposer.
- photo-respiration — the oxidation of carbohydrates in many higher plants in which they get oxygen from light and then release carbon dioxide, somewhat different from photosynthesis.
- photoconductivity — the increase in the electrical conductivity of a substance, often nonmetallic, caused by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation.
- photodissociation — the dissociation or breakdown of a chemical compound by radiant energy.
- photofluorography — photography of images produced by a fluoroscopic examination, used in x-ray examination of the lungs of large groups of people.
- photoluminescence — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
- photoreactivation — a process that repairs DNA damaged by ultraviolet light using an enzyme that requires visible light.
- phototherapeutics — the branch of therapeutics that deals with the curative use of light rays.
- photovoltaic cell — a photocell in which an electromotive force is generated by a photovoltaic effect.
- phumiphon aduldet — (Phumiphon Aduldet; Bhumibol Adulyadej) born 1927, king of Thailand since 1946.
- pick the eyes out — to select the best parts or pieces (of)
- pile on the agony — to exaggerate one's distress for sympathy or greater effect
- pincushion cactus — any of various low-growing, spiny cacti of the genus Mammillaria.
- pitching rotation — the regular, scheduled succession of starting pitchers designated by a manager: a four-man pitching rotation in September.
- platinic chloride — chloroplatinic acid.
- play along (with) — to join in or cooperate (with)
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- plymouth brethren — a religious sect founded c. 1827, strongly Puritanical in outlook and prohibiting many secular occupations for its members. It combines elements of Calvinism, Pietism, and millenarianism, and has no organized ministry
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- point of purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- point-of-purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- police helicopter — a helicopter used in police operations, for example in traffic control, or for observation
- polioencephalitis — a disease characterized by inflammation of the gray matter of the brain.
- polystyrene chips — small pieces of polystyrene used for insulating or packing
- porterhouse steak — large cut of beef loin
- portmanteau morph — a phonological unit of more than one morpheme, as French au to (him) from a to + le masculine article, which realizes a preposition and the definite article; a single morph that is analyzed as representing two underlying morphemes.
- positive theology — a theological approach or tradition in which the nature of God is thought to be knowable and is understood through positive statements. See also cataphasis (def 2).