17-letter words containing p, a, n, f
- impersonification — (archaic) the act of impersonating; impersonation.
- improper fraction — a fraction having the numerator greater than the denominator.
- in a fit of pique — If someone does something in a fit of pique, they do it suddenly because they are annoyed at being not treated properly.
- in forma pauperis — as a poor person; i.e. without paying court costs
- inertial platform — self-contained navigational devices used in inertial guidance, along with their mounting.
- infralapsarianism — the doctrine, held by Augustinians and by many Calvinists, that God planned the Creation, permitted the Fall, elected a chosen number, planned their redemption, and suffered the remainder to be eternally punished (opposed to supralapsarianism).
- interprofessional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- intraspecifically — Between individuals of the same species.
- isthmus of panama — an isthmus linking North and South America, between the Pacific and the Caribbean. Length: 676 km (420 miles). Width (at its narrowest point): 50 km (31 miles)
- job specification — a detailed description of the qualifications, skills, and experience required for a particular post of employment
- judgment of paris — the decision by Paris to award Aphrodite the golden apple of discord competed for by Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera.
- jumping-off place — a place for use as a starting point: Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.
- laplace transform — a map of a function, as a signal, defined especially for positive real values, as time greater than zero, into another domain where the function is represented as a sum of exponentials.
- least fixed point — (mathematics) A function f may have many fixed points (x such that f x = x). For example, any value is a fixed point of the identity function, (\ x . x). If f is recursive, we can represent it as f = fix F where F is some higher-order function and fix F = F (fix F). The standard denotational semantics of f is then given by the least fixed point of F. This is the least upper bound of the infinite sequence (the ascending Kleene chain) obtained by repeatedly applying F to the totally undefined value, bottom. I.e. fix F = LUB {bottom, F bottom, F (F bottom), ...}. The least fixed point is guaranteed to exist for a continuous function over a cpo.
- matter of opinion — a point open to question; a debatable statement
- method of payment — cash, credit card, cheque, etc.
- mode of transport — means of travel
- native frangipani — an Australian evergreen tree, Hymenosporum flavum, with large fragrant yellow flowers: family Pittosporaceae
- non-profit-making — A non-profit-making organization or charity is not run with the intention of making a profit.
- non-proliferation — Non-proliferation is the limiting of the production and spread of something such as nuclear or chemical weapons.
- not spare oneself — to exert oneself to the full
- one-parent family — A one-parent family is a family that consists of one parent and his or her children living together.
- open-channel flow — Open-channel flow is a liquid flow in a channel, which has a free liquid surface.
- pacific northwest — the region of North America lying north of the Columbia River and west of the Rockies
- palette of narmer — a king of Egypt identified by modern scholars as the Menes of tradition and depicted as the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt on an ancient slate tablet (Narmer Palette or Palette of Narmer) c3200 b.c. with relief carvings on both sides.
- parts of kesteven — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
- passenger traffic — number of passengers
- perforation gauge — a marked ruler used to measure the number of perforations per unit length along the borders of a stamp.
- performance bonus — a monetary bonus paid to staff who have performed well in their job
- performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
- phase of the moon — Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also heisenbug. True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine into a Lisp program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- 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.
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- point of purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- point-of-purchase — designating or in use at a retail outlet where an item can be purchased; point-of-sale: point-of-purchase displays to entice the buyer.
- poison-arrow frog — a small, bright-colored terrestrial frog of the family Dendrobatidae, of Central and South American rain forests, that secretes a virulent poison from its skin, once used on the tips of Indian hunting arrows.
- polarizing filter — a camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.
- portfolio manager — a person employed by others to make investments for them
- power of attorney — a written document given by one person or party to another authorizing the latter to act for the former.
- pre-configuration — the relative disposition or arrangement of the parts or elements of a thing.
- pre-manifestation — an act of manifesting.
- pre-modifications — an act or instance of modifying.
- pre-qualification — a quality, accomplishment, etc., that fits a person for some function, office, or the like.
- preference shares — a share of preferred stock.
- preferential shop — a shop in which union members are preferred, usually by agreement of an employer with a union.
- prelingually deaf — deaf from birth or having acquired deafness before learning to speak
- pro forma invoice — an invoice issued before an order is placed or before the goods are delivered giving all the details and the cost of the goods
- probation officer — an officer who investigates and reports on the conduct of offenders who are free on probation.