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18-letter words containing p, a, n

  • apparent magnitude — magnitude (sense 3)
  • apparent solar day — the period of time between two successive passages of the sun's center across the same meridian.
  • appellate division — the section of a court that hears appeals, sometimes existing as an intermediate court between a trial court and a court of last resort.
  • apple of one's eye — a person or thing that is very precious or much loved
  • application server — 1. A designer's or developer's suite of software that helps programmers isolate the business logic in their programs from the platform-related code. Application servers can handle all of the application logic and connectivity found in client-server applications. Many application servers also offer features such as transaction management, clustering and failover, and load balancing; nearly all offer ODBC support. 2. Production programs run on a mid-sized computer that handle all application operations between browser-based computers and an organisation's back-end business applications or databases. The application server works as a translator, allowing, for example, a customer with a browser to search an online retailer's database for pricing information. 3. The device on which application server software runs. Application Service Providers offer commercial access to such devices.
  • applied kinematics — kinematics (def 2).
  • appraisal drilling — (in the oil industry) drilling carried out once oil or gas has been discovered in order to assess the extent of the field, the reserves, the possible rate of production, and the properties of the oil or gas
  • apprentice plumber — a trainee plumber
  • appropriation bill — a bill to set apart money for a specific purpose
  • arkansas toothpick — a bowie knife or similar sharp knifelike implement.
  • arm's-length price — a price of a transaction agreed in accordance with market values, disregarding any connection such as common ownership of the companies involved
  • army of occupation — an army that goes into a defeated country to enforce peace terms, keep order, etc.
  • arrogance of power — presumption on the part of a nation that its power gives it the right to intervene in the affairs of less powerful nations.
  • aseptic meningitis — a mild form of meningitis usually caused by one of several viruses, characterized by headache, fever, and neck stiffness.
  • assessment process — a series of steps that constitute a method of assessing students or workers
  • assignment problem — (mathematics, algorithm)   (Or "linear assignment") Any problem involving minimising the sum of C(a, b) over a set P of pairs (a, b) where a is an element of some set A and b is an element of set B, and C is some function, under constraints such as "each element of A must appear exactly once in P" or similarly for B, or both. For example, the a's could be workers and the b's projects. The problem is "linear" because the "cost function" C() depends only on the particular pairing (a, b) and is independent of all other pairings.
  • associated company — a company which is largely controlled by its parent company because the latter owns anything up to 50% of the shares
  • assumption of risk — Assumption of risk is the practice of paying for minor losses yourself, but protecting against catastrophic losses by buying insurance cover.
  • at your fingertips — If you say that something is at your fingertips, you approve of the fact that you can reach it easily or that it is easily available to you.
  • atmospheric engine — an early form of single-acting engine in which the power stroke is provided by atmospheric pressure acting upon a piston in an exhausted cylinder.
  • atmospheric window — wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that can be transmitted through the earth's atmosphere. Atmospheric windows occur in the visible, infrared, and radio regions of the spectrum
  • auditory phonetics — the branch of phonetics concerned with the perception of speech sounds by humans
  • australopithecines — Plural form of australopithecine.
  • autoignition point — the minimum temperature at which a substance will undergo spontaneous combustion.
  • autonomous phoneme — a phoneme that is defined or determined by its contrast in sound with other phonemes, without reference to its role in morphology or any other level of linguistic analysis beyond the phonetic level.
  • axile placentation — a type of placenta structure in an ovary with the ovules forming at the angles where the septa join the central placenta
  • bachelor apartment — a flat consisting of one room that is used as a sitting room and bedroom, as well as a kitchenette and a bathroom
  • balanced computing — (jargon)   Matching computer tools to job activities so that the computer system structure parallels the organisation structure and work functions. Both personal computers and employees operate in a decentralised environment with monitoring of achievement of management objectives from centralised corporate systems.
  • ballistic pendulum — a device consisting of a large mass hung from a horizontal bar by two rods, used to measure the velocity of an object, as a bullet, by retaining the object upon impact, its velocity being a function of the displacement of the mass.
  • band-tailed pigeon — a wild pigeon, Columba fasciata, of western North America, having a gray band on its tail.
  • bankers-acceptance — a draft or bill of exchange that a bank has accepted. Abbreviation: BA. Also called banker's acceptance. Compare acceptance (def 6).
  • baritone saxophone — the second lowest instrument in the family of saxophones
  • basement apartment — an apartment below the ground floor of a building
  • be in good company — If you say that someone is in good company, you mean that they should not be ashamed of a mistake or opinion, because some important or respected people have made the same mistake or have the same opinion.
  • beauty competition — a competition in which the participants, usually women, are judged on their attractiveness, with a prize, and often a title, awarded to the winner
  • behaviour patterns — the characteristic ways in which a person or animal acts
  • benchmark position — a public service job used for comparison with a similar position, such as a position in commerce, for wage settlements
  • beta-naphthylamine — a white to reddish, crystalline, water-soluble, extremely toxic solid, C 10 H 9 N, used chiefly in the manufacture of azo dyes.
  • biological parents — the biological mother and father of a child
  • bipolar transistor — (electronics)   A transistor made from a sandwich of n- and p-type semiconductor material: either npn or pnp. The middle section is known as the "base" and the other two as the "collector" and "emitter". When used as an amplifying element, the base to emitter junction is in a "forward-biased" (conducting) condition, and the base to collector junction is "reverse-biased" or non-conducting. Small changes in the base to emitter current (the input signal) cause either holes (for pnp devices) or free electrons (for npn) to enter the base from the emitter. The attracting voltage of the collector causes the majority of these charges to cross into and be collected by the collector, resulting in amplification. Contrast field effect transistor.
  • blocking capacitor — a capacitor that blocks the passage of direct current but allows alternating current to pass
  • bomb disposal unit — a unit of the police or armed services specializing in bomb disposal
  • borax pentahydrate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble solid, Na 2 B 4 O 7 ⋅5H 2 O, used chiefly for killing weeds, as a water softener, and as a disinfectant and deodorizing agent.
  • bore the pants off — to bore extremely
  • brand-name product — A brand-name product is one which is made by a well-known manufacturer and has the manufacturer's label on it.
  • brazilian sapphire — a blue variety of tourmaline used as a gem: not a true sapphire.
  • c-reactive protein — a globulin in the blood produced by the liver in response to inflammation
  • calcium propionate — a white, water-soluble powder, CaC 6 H 10 O 4 , used in bakery products to inhibit the growth of fungi.
  • campaign furniture — furniture, as chests or desks, having metal hinges on the corners and handles on the sides.
  • campbell-bannerman — Sir Henry. 1836–1908, British statesman and leader of the Liberal Party (1899–1908); prime minister (1905–08), who granted self-government to the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony
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