20-letter words containing o, t, r, h, i
- potassium dichromate — an orange-red crystalline soluble solid substance that is a good oxidizing agent and is used in making chrome pigments and as a bleaching agent. Formula: K2Cr2O7
- prepositional phrase — a phrase consisting of a preposition, its object, which is usually a noun or a pronoun, and any modifiers of the object, as in the gray desk I use.
- pride of the morning — light mist or precipitation observed at sea in the morning and regarded as indicating a fine day.
- prime number theorem — the theorem that the number of prime numbers less than or equal to a given number is approximately equal to the given number divided by its natural logarithm.
- 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
- proof of the pudding — the true value or quality of something, as seen when it is experienced, tried, or put to use: The proof of the pudding for a business is what customers say about it.
- prosthetic dentistry — prosthodontics.
- psychiatric hospital — institution treating mental disorders
- psychometric testing — the use of psychometric tests, often as a selection method
- psychomotor epilepsy — temporal-lobe epilepsy.
- quaker meeting house — a place where Quakers gather for worship
- quantum field theory — any theory in which fields are treated by the methods of quantum mechanics; each field can then be regarded as consisting of particles of a particular kind, which may be created and annihilated.
- quarantine anchorage — an anchorage for ships awaiting a pratique.
- queen of the prairie — a tall plant, Filipendula rubra, of the rose family, having branching clusters of pink flowers, growing in meadows and prairies.
- quick on the trigger — quick to fire a gun
- read the riot act to — to command to stop doing something regarded as wrong, under threat of punishment
- recreational therapy — therapy by means of recreational activities engaged in by the patient
- recreational vehicle — a van or utility vehicle used for recreational purposes, as camping, and often equipped with living facilities. Abbreviation: RV.
- return of the native — a novel (1878) by Thomas Hardy.
- rheumatoid arthritis — a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation of the joints, frequently accompanied by marked deformities, and ordinarily associated with manifestations of a general, or systemic, affliction.
- ring of the nibelung — Richard Wagner's tetralogy of music dramas: Das Rheingold (completed 1869), Die Walküre (completed 1870), Siegfried (completed 1876), and Götterdämmerung (completed 1876): the cycle was first performed at Bayreuth, 1876.
- ringing off the hook — If your phone is ringing off the hook, so many people are trying to telephone you that it is ringing constantly.
- rise to the occasion — to have the courage, wit, etc, to meet the special demands of a situation
- rocky mountain sheep — bighorn.
- roller-blind shutter — curtain shutter.
- royal british legion — an organization founded in 1921 to provide services and assistance for former members of the armed forces
- rub sb's nose in sth — To rub someone's nose in something that they do not want to think about, such as a failing or a mistake they have made, means to remind them repeatedly about it.
- saint anthony's fire — any of certain skin conditions that are of an inflammatory or gangrenous nature, as erysipelas, hospital gangrene, or ergotism.
- satellite chromosome — a type of densely staining chromosome of uncertain biological function, found in many plant and animal species.
- satellite photograph — a photograph taken by an artificial satellite from space
- scatter site housing — public housing, especially for low-income families, built throughout an urban area rather than being concentrated in a single neighborhood.
- schizoid personality — sb with identity disorder
- schrodinger equation — the wave equation of nonrelativistic quantum mechanics. Also called Schrödinger wave equation. Compare wave equation (def 2).
- season ticket holder — a person who has a season ticket
- 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
- set the ball rolling — to open or initiate (an action, discussion, movement, etc)
- sex change operation — a surgical operation designed to change a person's physical sexual characteristics to those of the opposite sex
- shareholders' equity — Shareholders' equity is the total amount of ownership investment in a company.
- sharp-tailed sparrow — a sparrow, Ammospiza caudacuta, inhabiting salt marshes in North America, having narrow, sharply pointed tail feathers.
- shear transformation — a map of a coordinate space in which one coordinate is held fixed and the other coordinate or coordinates are shifted.
- short back and sides — If a man has a short back and sides, his hair is cut very short at the back and sides with slightly thicker, longer hair on the top of the head.
- shoulder-length hair — hair that reaches a person's shoulders
- silicon tetrahydride — silane (def 1).
- slip through the net — If criminals slip through the net, they avoid being caught by the system or trap that was meant to catch them.
- 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 orkney islands — an uninhabited group of islands in the S Atlantic, southeast of Cape Horn: formerly a dependency of the Falkland Islands; part of the British Antarctic Territory since 1962 (claims are suspended under the Antarctic Treaty). Area: 621 sq km (240 sq miles)
- southern oscillation — a low-latitude fluctuation of atmospheric pressure closely linked with El Niño events, specifically the periods of El Niño warming and La Niña cooling.