19-letter words containing o, r, c, a, s
- post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
- postsynchronization — the process of adding sound, such as dubbing, to a film or video after shooting or videotaping is completed
- posttranscriptional — Genetics, Biochemistry. occurring after the formation of RNA from DNA but before the RNA strand leaves the nucleus.
- potassium carbonate — a white, granular, water-soluble powder, K 2 CO 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of soap, glass, and potassium salts.
- prescription charge — a charge, set by the government, to be paid by a patient for medicines
- presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
- prick up one's ears — a puncture made by a needle, thorn, or the like.
- prismatic telescope — a telescope having an eyepiece at the side or top equipped with a reflecting prism, used for taking sights at steep angles.
- private prosecution — a prosecution started by a private individual rather than by the police
- process performance — Process performance is a measure of how efficient or effective a process is.
- 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
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- property speculator — a person who takes part in property speculation
- 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.
- pseudo-aristocratic — of or relating to government by an aristocracy.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudo-conservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- psychrometric chart — a chart for calculating values of relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew point from psychrometer readings.
- puerperal psychosis — a mental disorder sometimes occurring in women after childbirth, characterized by deep depression, delusions of the child's death, and homicidal feelings towards the child
- 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)
- pyrophosphoric acid — a crystalline, water-soluble powder, H 4 P 2 O 7 , formed by the union of one molecule of phosphorus pentoxide with two molecules of water.
- quantum electronics — the application of quantum mechanics and quantum optics to the study and design of electronic devices
- quartermaster corps — the branch of the U.S. Army responsible for supplying food, clothing, fuel, and equipment and for the operation of commissaries, laundries, etc.
- radius of curvature — the absolute value of the reciprocal of the curvature at a point on a curve.
- 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.
- rake over the coals — a black or dark-brown combustible mineral substance consisting of carbonized vegetable matter, used as a fuel. Compare anthracite, bituminous coal, lignite.
- rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- 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.
- recording secretary — an officer charged with keeping the minutes of meetings and responsible for the records.
- 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.
- regular icosahedron — an icosahedron in which each of the faces is an equilateral triangle
- relational calculus — (database) An operational methodolgy, founded on predicate calculus, dealing with descripitive expressions that are equivalent to the operations of relational algebra. Codd's reduction algorithm can convert from relational calculus to relational algebra. Two forms of the relational calculus exist: the tuple calculus and the domain calculus.
- religious education — religion as school subject
- relocation expenses — Relocation expenses are a sum of money that a company pays to someone who moves to a new area in order to work for the company. The money is to help them pay for moving house.
- repeat prescription — A repeat prescription is a prescription for a medicine that you have taken before or that you use regularly.
- research fellowship — the position or office of someone who conducts academic research into a subject at a university, etc
- research laboratory — place for scientific experimentation
- reserved occupation — in time of war, an occupation from which one will not be called up for military service
- resistance movement — a movement fighting (for freedom, etc), often secretly or illegally, against an invader in an occupied country or against the country's government, etc
- resonance radiation — radiation emitted by an atom or molecule, having the same frequency as that of an incident particle, as a photon, and usually involving a transition to the lowest energy level of the atom or molecule.
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- restorative justice — a theory and method in criminal justice in which it is arranged that the victim and the community receive restitution from the offender.
- reversible reaction — a reaction that, depending on ambient conditions, can proceed in either of two directions: the production of the reaction products from the reactants, or the production of the original reactants from the formed reaction products. Compare equilibrium (def 4).
- rhetorical question — a question asked solely to produce an effect or to make an assertion and not to elicit a reply, as “What is so rare as a day in June?”.
- rhodesian ridgeback — a large short-haired breed of dog characterized by a ridge of hair growing along the back in the opposite direction to the rest of the coat. It was originally a hunting dog from South Africa
- rock-paper-scissors — a method of selecting, for example, which of two people perform a task: each person simultaneously makes one of three hand gestures representing a rock, a sheet of paper, and a pair of scissors respectively. Each gesture defeats one and is defeated by one of the other two: rock defeats scissors but is defeated by paper; paper defeats rock but is defeated by scissors. The person whose gesture defeats the other is selected
- roosevelt corollary — a corollary (1904) to the Monroe Doctrine, asserting that the U.S. might intervene in the affairs of an American republic threatened with seizure or intervention by a European country.