20-letter words containing o, r, p, h, a
- priority inheritance — (parallel) A technique for avoiding priority inversion by temporarily raising the prioriry of all processes that want to access a shared resource to the highest priority level of any of them. Priority inversion occurs where a low priority process, L is holding a resource required by a high priority process, H, but L is not running because a medium priority process, M is running. Under priority inheritance, L temporarily inherits H's priority, allowing L to run and release the resource H is waiting for. For example, an ambulance (H) is stuck behind a lorry (L) waiting at a junction (the shared resource) for a gap in a line of cars (M) using the junction. Applying priority inheritance, the cars give way to the lorry as they would to the ambulance, thus allowing the lorry and then the ambulance to use the junction.
- proactive inhibition — the tendency for earlier memories to interfere with the retrieval of material learned later
- prohibited substance — a substance, such as a drug, etc, that is banned or forbidden by law or other authority
- propylphenyl acetate — phenylpropyl acetate.
- prothonotary warbler — a wood warbler, Protonotaria citrea, of the eastern U.S., having an orange-yellow head and underparts, and bluish-gray wings and tail.
- pseudoparenchymatous — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
- psychiatric hospital — institution treating mental disorders
- put the hard word on — to ask or demand something from
- pyroligneous alcohol — methyl alcohol.
- pythagoras's theorem — (mathematics) The theorem of geometry, named after Pythagoras, of Samos, Ionia, stating that, for a right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides. I.e. if the longest side has length A and the other sides have lengths B and C (in any units), A^2 = B^2 + C^2 (2004-02-12)
- quantum cryptography — a method of coding information based on quantum mechanics, which is said to be unbreakable
- queen of the prairie — a tall plant, Filipendula rubra, of the rose family, having branching clusters of pink flowers, growing in meadows and prairies.
- raynaud's phenomenon — a secondary circulatory disorder, often associated with a primary vascular disease, characterized by changes of blood flow resulting in white, bluish, or red hands and feet
- recreational therapy — therapy by means of recreational activities engaged in by the patient
- redheaded woodpecker — a North American woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), with a bright-red head and neck, black back, and white underparts
- rocky mountain sheep — bighorn.
- rub up the wrong way — to arouse anger (in); annoy
- satellite photograph — a photograph taken by an artificial satellite from space
- schizoid personality — sb with identity disorder
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- serve a person right — to pay a person back, esp for wrongful or foolish treatment or behaviour
- sex change operation — a surgical operation designed to change a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex
- shakespearean sonnet — a sonnet form used by Shakespeare and having the rhyme scheme abab, cdcd, efef, gg.
- sharp-tailed sparrow — a sparrow, Ammospiza caudacuta, inhabiting salt marshes in North America, having narrow, sharply pointed tail feathers.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- south temperate zone — the part of the earth's surface between the tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle.
- span of apprehension — the maximum number of objects that can be correctly assessed after a brief presentation
- spanish oyster plant — a composite plant, Scolymus hispanicus, of southern Europe, having spiny, thistlelike leaf margins, small yellow flowers, and an edible root.
- special relationship — the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- spherical coordinate — Usually, spherical coordinates. any of three coordinates used to locate a point in space by the length of its radius vector and the angles this vector makes with two perpendicular polar planes.
- spiral of archimedes — a curve that is the locus of a point that moves outward with uniform speed along a vector, beginning at the origin, while the vector rotates about the origin with uniform angular velocity. Equation (in polar coordinates): r = aθ.
- spirits of hartshorn — a colorless, pungent, suffocating, aqueous solution of about 28.5 percent ammonia gas: used chiefly as a detergent, for removing stains and extracting certain vegetable coloring agents, and in the manufacture of ammonium salts.
- state highway patrol — a state's road traffic police
- step into the breach — If you step into the breach, you do a job or task which someone else was supposed to do or has done in the past, because they are suddenly unable to do it.
- switchboard operator — a person who operates an installation in a telephone exchange, office, hotel, etc, at which the interconnection of telephone lines is manually controlled
- the legal profession — the profession of law
- therapeutic abortion — abortion performed when a woman's pregnancy endangers her health.
- third-party software — software created by programmers or publishers independent of the manufacturer of the hardware for which it is intended.
- throw up one's hands — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- to bring up the rear — If a person or vehicle is bringing up the rear, they are the last person or vehicle in a moving line of them.
- to disturb the peace — If someone is accused of disturbing the peace, they are accused of behaving in a noisy and offensive way in public.
- to keep your hand in — If you do something to keep your hand in, you practise a skill or hobby occasionally in order to remain fairly good at it.
- to overstep the mark — If someone oversteps the mark, they behave in a way that is considered unacceptable.
- to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
- transposition cipher — a cipher that rearranges the letters of the plain text in a different sequence.
- tropospheric scatter — transmission of radio frequency signals that have been scattered from irregularities in the troposphere to locations hundreds of kilometers distant.
- trumpet call for sth — a signal for something
- turn an honest penny — to earn money fairly and honestly
- video graphics array — (hardware) (VGA) A display standard for IBM PCs, with 640 x 480 pixels in 16 colours and a 4:3 aspect ratio. There is also a text mode with 720 x 400 pixels. IBM technical references define the *product name* of their original VGA display board as "Video Graphics Array", in contrast to the preceding boards, the "Color Graphics Adapter" (CGA) and "Enhanced Graphics Adapter" (EGA). See also Super Video Graphics Adapter.