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23-letter words containing p, a, i, n, e

  • program design language — Any of a large class of formal and profoundly useless pseudo-languages in which management forces one to design programs. Too often, management expects PDL descriptions to be maintained in parallel with the code, imposing massive overhead of little or no benefit. See also flow chart.
  • programmer brain damage — (humour)   (PBD) A classification of a bug which was obviously introduced by an incompetent or short-sighted programmer. Compare UBD. See also brain-damaged.
  • provocative maintenance — [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
  • psychomotor retardation — a generalized slowing of psychological and physical activity, frequently occurring as a symptom of severe depression.
  • publicly-quoted company — a company whose shares are traded on a stock exchange
  • puerto rican royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea borinquena, of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, having leaves about 10 feet (3 meters) long and egg-shaped, yellowish-brown fruit.
  • put in a false position — to cause misunderstanding of the intentions, opinions, etc. of
  • real simple syndication — (spelling)   Illiterate form of Really Simple Syndication.
  • refinery waste disposal — Refinery waste disposal is the system for dealing with waste materials, especially hazardous ones, in a refinery.
  • relative sunspot number — a number indicating the degree of sunspot activity on the sun as a factor of observer idiosyncrasies, the number of sunspot groups, and the number of individual sunspots.
  • response generalization — generalization (def 4b).
  • response-generalization — the act or process of generalizing.
  • retrolental fibroplasia — an unusual eye disease occurring in premature infants, usually from being given high concentrations of oxygen, which causes abnormal formation of fibrous tissue behind the lens and often results in blindness.
  • reverse polish notation — postfix notation
  • rocky mountain beeplant — a rank-smelling plant, Cleome serrulata, of the caper family, native to the western U.S., having showy, dense clusters of pink or white flowers, frequented by bees.
  • saint christopher-nevis — St. Kitts-Nevis.
  • schizotypal personality — a personality disorder characterized by a group of symptoms similar to but less severe than schizophrenia, as odd behavior, peculiar thinking, and social isolation.
  • separation of variables — a grouping of the terms of an ordinary differential equation so that associated with each differential is a factor consisting entirely of functions of the independent variable appearing in the differential.
  • sidewalk superintendent — a bystander who watches the building, demolition, repair, or other work being done at a construction site.
  • silicone breast implant — silicone filled bags that are implanted into a woman in order to increase the size of her breasts
  • slip between the cracks — to break without complete separation of parts; become fissured: The plate cracked when I dropped it, but it was still usable.
  • slum clearance campaign — a campaign to rehouse those people who live in a slum area, and to prepare the area for demolition and rebuilding
  • social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
  • somaliland protectorate — official name of the former British Somaliland.
  • sparkling mineral water — Sparkling mineral water is mineral water that is slightly carbonated.
  • specialite de la maison — the specialty of the house (used in referring to the most important dish served by a restaurant).
  • spigot and socket joint — a joint between two pipes using male and female parts
  • split-fingered fastball — a pitch, similar to the forkball but thrown with the same arm speed as a fastball, that drops suddenly as it nears the batter.
  • st. pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
  • statutory maternity pay — the maternity pay a woman is legally entitled to
  • sub specie aeternitatis — from the standpoint of eternity; from a universal perspective
  • supplementary insurance — Supplementary insurance is insurance coverage that is purchased in addition to an insurance policy to provide additional benefits or coverage.
  • sustainable development — supporting economy via renewable resources
  • the data protection act — a United Kingdom act of parliament designed to ensure the proper handling of information stored about individuals on computers and entitling individuals to find out what information is stored about them
  • the metropolitan police — the police organization that is responsible for Greater London, excluding the City of London
  • the scottish parliament — the devolved national legislature of Scotland, located in Edinburgh
  • the teaching profession — the profession of a teacher
  • thompson submachine gun — a portable, .45-caliber, automatic weapon designed to be fired from the shoulder or hip.
  • to keep a tight rein on — If you keep a tight rein on someone, you control them firmly.
  • to send someone packing — If you send someone packing, you make them go away.
  • to win the popular vote — to get a majority as regards the votes cast by individual voters
  • to wipe the slate clean — If you wipe the slate clean, you decide to forget previous mistakes, failures, or debts and to start again.
  • topological equivalence — the property of two topological spaces such that there is a homeomorphism from one to the other.
  • trans-new guinea phylum — the largest grouping of the non-Austronesian languages of Papua and New Guinea and the surrounding regions
  • transplantation antigen — a histocompatibility antigen identified by its effect on the rejection of transplanted cells or tissues.
  • transverse presentation — presentation in which the fetus is turned with its long axis across the mouth of the uterus, at right angles to the axis of the birth canal.
  • triple expansion engine — (formerly) a steam engine in which the steam is expanded in three stages in cylinders of increasing diameter to accommodate the increasing volume of the steam
  • unincorporated business — a privately owned business, often owned by one person who has unlimited liability as the business is not legally registered as a company
  • unipress software, inc. — (company)   A developer and distributor of Unix software. They produce PC-UNIX connectivity software, development tools and applications and provide technical support and maintenance, porting services, training and consulting.
  • variable contrast paper — printing paper in which the contrast of the image is controlled by the color of the printing light.
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