18-letter words containing o
- overcapitalization — The state of being overcapitalized.
- overdraft facility — a facility (of a bank or building-society cheque account) that allows a withdrawal of money in excess of the account's credit balance
- overdraft interest — interest charged on money withdrawn in excess of the credit balance of a bank or building society account
- overgeneralization — the act or process of overgeneralizing.
- overhead projector — over one's head; aloft; up in the air or sky, especially near the zenith: There was a cloud overhead.
- overidentification — an act or instance of identifying; the state of being identified.
- overinterpretation — the act of interpreting; elucidation; explication: This writer's work demands interpretation.
- overnight telegram — a type of domestic telegram sent at a reduced rate with a minimum charge for 10 words or less and accepted until midnight for delivery the following day.
- overpressurization — pressure in excess of normal atmospheric pressure, as that caused by an explosion's shock wave or created in an accelerating airplane.
- overprotectiveness — unduly protective.
- overrepresentation — to give too much representation to; represent in numbers that are disproportionately high.
- overspecialization — excessive specialization, as in a field of study.
- overtime work(ing) — work at a regular job done in addition to regular working hours
- owen stanley range — a mountain range in SE New Guinea. Highest peak: Mount Victoria, 4073 m (13 363 ft)
- ox-tongue partisan — a shafted weapon having a long, wide, tapering blade.
- oxalosuccinic acid — an organic acid, C 6 H 6 O 7 , that is an intermediate formed by the dehydrogenation of isocitric acid in fat and carbohydrate metabolism.
- pacinian corpuscle — (sometimes lowercase) a microscopic, onionlike body consisting of layers of connective tissue wrapped around a nerve ending, located in the deep layers of skin, tendons, etc., and functioning as a sensory receptor of pressure and vibration.
- packet switch node — (PSN) A dedicated computer whose purpose is to accept, route and forward packets in a packet-switched network.
- paint the town red — a substance composed of solid coloring matter suspended in a liquid medium and applied as a protective or decorative coating to various surfaces, or to canvas or other materials in producing a work of art.
- pair of spectacles — a score of 0 in each innings of a match
- pairs championship — an event in a sport such as tennis or darts open to pairs of competitors
- palaeoanthropology — the branch of anthropology concerned with primitive man
- paleoclimatologist — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.
- palmer archipelago — a group of islands in the South Atlantic Ocean, off the NW coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.
- pan american union — a former organization of American republics dedicated to furthering understanding and peace: replaced in 1970 by the secretariat of the Organization of American States.
- par for the course — an equality in value or standing; a level of equality: The gains and the losses are on a par.
- parallactic motion — the apparent motion of stars due to the earth's orbital motion.
- parallel computing — parallel processing
- parallel evolution — the independent development of closely corresponding adaptive features in two or more groups of organisms that occupy different but equivalent habitats, as marsupial mammals in Australia and placental mammals on other continents.
- parallel importing — the importing of certain goods, esp pharmaceutical drugs, by dealers who undersell local manufacturers
- parallel processor — (parallel) A computer with more than one central processing unit, used for parallel processing.
- parallel reduction — A form of applicative order reduction in which all redexes in an expression are reduced simultaneously. Variants include parallel outermost reduction and lenient reduction. See normal order reduction.
- parallel resonance — the resonance that results when circuit elements are connected with their inductance and capacitance in parallel, so that the impedance of the combination rises to a maximum at the resonant frequency
- parallelogram rule — a rule for finding the resultant of two vectors by constructing a parallelogram with two adjacent sides representing the magnitudes and directions of the vectors, the diagonal through the point of intersection of the vectors representing their resultant
- parathyroid glands — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
- partial evaluation — (compiler, algorithm) (Or "specialisation") An optimisation technique where the compiler evaluates some subexpressions at compile-time. For example, Partial evaluation might change the termination properties of the program if, for example, the expression (x * 0) was reduced to 0 it would terminate even if x (and thus x * 0) did not. It may be necessary to reorder an expression to partially evaluate it, e.g. f x y = (x + y) + 1 g z = f 3 z If we rewrite f: f x y = (x + 1) + y then the expression x+1 becomes a constant for the function g and we can say g z = f 3 z = (3 + 1) + z = 4 + z Partial evaluation of built-in functions applied to constant arguments is known as constant folding. See also full laziness.
- pass the hat round — to collect money, as for a cause
- passing modulation — a modulation of a temporary nature.
- passing-out parade — a ceremonial parade of cadets who have completed their training
- passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
- pathname separator — (file system) The character used to separate elements of a path or pathname. Under Unix and POSIX.1 compliant systems the pathname separator is the (forward) slash, in MS-DOS backslash serves the same purpose. For obvious reasons the no directory or file name can contain this character.
- pathologic anatomy — the branch of pathology dealing with the morphologic changes in tissues.
- patron of the arts — someone who acts as a patron to or supports charities, organizations, and individuals that work in or concern the arts
- pave the way (for) — to prepare the way (for); facilitate the introduction (of)
- pay one's respects — a particular, detail, or point (usually preceded by in): to differ in some respect.
- payload specialist — an astronaut trained to handle highly complex or classified equipment carried aboard a space shuttle and to conduct experiments in space.
- peacekeeping force — a force designated to the maintenance of peace, esp the prevention of further fighting between hostile forces in an area
- peak-to-peak value — Peak-to-peak value is the maximum voltage change occurring during one cycle of alternating voltage or current.
- peano's postulates — a collection of axioms concerning the properties of the set of all positive integers, including the principle of mathematical induction.
- peasant proprietor — a peasant who owns land, especially the land he or she tills.