17-letter words containing p, a, b, o
- disposable income — the part of a person's income remaining after deducting personal income taxes.
- doberman pinscher — one of a German breed of medium-sized, short-haired dogs having a black, brown, or blue coat with rusty brown markings.
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- get one's back up — the rear part of the human body, extending from the neck to the lower end of the spine.
- go back to the pa — to abandon city life in favour of rural life
- golf ball printer — IBM 2741
- gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
- haemoglobinopathy — (medicine) Any of a group of inherited disorders in which haemoglobin does not function properly.
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- i beg your pardon — You say 'Pardon?' or 'I beg your pardon?' or, in American English, 'Pardon me?' when you want someone to repeat what they have just said because you have not heard or understood it.
- impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- incompatibilities — not compatible; unable to exist together in harmony: She asked for a divorce because they were utterly incompatible.
- incubation period — the period between infection and the appearance of signs of a disease.
- insupportableness — The state of being insupportable; insufferableness.
- job specification — a detailed description of the qualifications, skills, and experience required for a particular post of employment
- keep your balance — If you keep your balance, for example when standing in a moving vehicle, you remain steady and do not fall over. If you lose your balance, you become unsteady and fall over.
- lambda expression — (mathematics) A term in the lambda-calculus denoting an unnamed function (a "lambda abstraction"), a variable or a constant. The pure lambda-calculus has only functions and no constants.
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- metabolic pathway — biochemistry: sequence of reactions within a cell or organism
- modular sb-prolog — Modular Prolog
- mount robson park — a national park in the Rocky Mountains of E British Columbia, Canada.
- neath port talbot — a county borough in S Wales, created from part of West Glamorgan in 1996. Administrative centre: Port Talbot. Pop: 135 300 (2003 est). Area: 439 sq km (169 sq miles)
- not a happy bunny — deeply dissatisfied or discontented
- office by example — (language) (OBE) A sequel to QBE, described in publications by Moshe Zloof of IBM in the early 1980s but apparently never implemented.
- on the pig's back — successful; established
- opisthobranchiate — (zoology) Of or pertaining to the Opisthobranchiata.
- oregon crab apple — a shrub or small tree, Malus fusca, of the rose family, of the northwestern coast of North America, having hairy leaves, white flowers, and yellow or green oblong fruit.
- palaeoethnobotany — the study of fossil seeds and grains to further archaeological knowledge, esp of the domestication of cereals
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- paleobiogeography — the study of the distribution of ancient plants and animals and their relation to ancient geographic features.
- passamaquoddy bay — an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between Maine and New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River.
- passive obedience — unquestioning obedience to authority
- peacock butterfly — a European nymphalid butterfly, Inachis io, having reddish-brown wings each marked with a purple eyespot
- pebbleweave cloth — an irregularly textured material made from twisted yarn
- performance bonus — a monetary bonus paid to staff who have performed well in their job
- 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.
- phonetic alphabet — an alphabet containing a separate character for each distinguishable speech sound.
- pitot-static tube — a device combining a Pitot tube with a static tube: used to measure airspeed.
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- plateau's problem — the problem in the calculus of variations of finding the surface with the least area bounded by a given closed curve in space.
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- political liberty — the right to express oneself freely and effectually regarding the conduct, makeup, and principles of the government under which one lives.
- polyvinyl butyral — a white, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal made with butyraldehyde, used chiefly as an interlayer in the manufacture of safety glass.
- portable computer — (computer) (Commonly, "laptop") A portable personal computer you can carry with one hand. Some laptops run so hot that it would be quite uncomforable to actually use them on your lap for long. The term "notebook" is often used to describe these, though it also implies a low weight (less than 2kg). A "luggable" is one you could carry in one hand but is so heavy you wouldn't want to. One that can by easily operated while held in one hand is a "palmtop". The computer considered by most historians to be the first true portable computer was the Osborne 1 but see the link below for other contenders.
- positive feedback — Electronics. the process of returning part of the output of a circuit, system, or device to the input, either to oppose the input (negative feedback) or to aid the input (positive feedback) acoustic feedback.
- postbaccalaureate — bachelor's degree.
- potassium bromate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KBrO 3 , used chiefly as an oxidizing agent and as an analytical reagent.
- potassium bromide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KBr, having a bitter saline taste: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic papers and plates, in engraving, and in medicine as a sedative.
- prior probability — the probability assigned to a parameter or to an event in advance of any empirical evidence, often subjectively or on the assumption of the principle of indifference