13-letter words containing p, a, r, i, t
- optical fiber — optical fibre
- optical fibre — (communications) (fibre optics, FO, US "fiber", light pipe) A plastic or glass (silicon dioxide) fibre no thicker than a human hair used to transmit information using infra-red or even visible light as the carrier (usually a laser). The light beam is an electromagnetic signal with a frequency in the range of 10^14 to 10^15 Hertz. Optical fibre is less susceptible to external noise than other transmission media, and is cheaper to make than copper wire, but it is much more difficult to connect. Optical fibres are difficult to tamper with (to monitor or inject data in the middle of a connection), making them appropriate for secure communications. The light beams do not escape from the medium because the material used provides total internal reflection. See also FDDI, Optical Carrier n, SONET.
- orchestra pit — musicians' seating in front of stage
- orchestra-pit — a group of performers on various musical instruments, including especially stringed instruments of the viol class, clarinets and flutes, cornets and trombones, drums, and cymbals, for playing music, as symphonies, operas, popular music, or other compositions.
- organotropism — Physiology. the attraction of microorganisms or chemical substances to particular organs or tissues of the body.
- ornithophobia — Fear of birds.
- orthocephalic — having a medium or intermediate relation between the height of the skull and the breadth or length.
- orthoepically — In terms of correct pronunciation.
- orthographies — Plural form of orthography.
- orthographize — to spell correctly or according to the rules of orthography.
- orthopaedical — Pertaining to orthopaedics; characteristic of orthopaedia.
- orthopinakoid — a crystalline plane
- overpotential — overvoltage.
- ovoviviparity — producing eggs that are hatched within the body, so that the young are born alive but without placental attachment, as certain reptiles or fishes.
- packet driver — (networking) IBM PC local area network software that divides data into packets which it routes to the network. It also handles incoming data, reassembling the packets so that application programs can read the data as a continuous stream. Packet drivers provide a simple, common programming interface that allows multiple applications to share a network interface at the data link layer. Packet drivers demultiplex incoming packets among the applications by using the network media's standard packet type or service access point field(s). The packet driver provides calls to initiate access to a specific packet type, to end access to it, to send a packet, to get statistics on the network interface and to get information about the interface. Protocol implementations that use the packet driver can coexist and can make use of one another's services, whereas multiple applications which do not use the driver do not coexist on one machine properly. Through use of the packet driver, a user could run TCP/IP, XNS and a proprietary protocol implementation such as DECnet, Banyan's, LifeNet's, Novell's or 3Com's without the difficulties associated with pre-empting the network interface. Applications which use the packet driver can also run on new network hardware of the same class without being modified; only a new packet driver need be supplied. There are several levels of packet driver. The first is the basic packet driver, which provides minimal functionality but should be simple to implement and which uses very few host resources. The basic driver provides operations to broadcast and receive packets. The second driver is the extended packet driver, which is a superset of the basic driver. The extended driver supports less commonly used functions of the network interface such as multicast, and also gathers statistics on use of the interface and makes these available to the application. The third level, the high-performance functions, support performance improvements and tuning.
- packing crate — A packing crate is a large wooden box in which things are put so that they can be stored or taken somewhere.
- paediatrician — A paediatrician is a doctor who specializes in treating sick children.
- painted horse — paint (def 6).
- painterliness — the quality of being painterly
- pair trawling — the act or practice of using two boats to trawl for fish
- pairs skaters — two skaters, a man and a woman, or a boy and a girl, who skate together, esp in competitions
- palaeocrystic — consisting of former glacial formation
- paleotropical — belonging or pertaining to a geographical division comprising the Ethiopian and Oriental regions.
- pangrammatist — a writer of pangrams
- panradiometer — an instrument used for measuring radiant heat independently of wavelength
- pantagruelian — (in Rabelais' Pantagruel) the huge son of Gargantua, represented as dealing with serious matters in a spirit of broad and somewhat cynical good humor.
- pantagruelism — (in Rabelais' Pantagruel) the huge son of Gargantua, represented as dealing with serious matters in a spirit of broad and somewhat cynical good humor.
- pantie girdle — a girdle with a crotch.
- pantisocratic — relating to pantisocracy
- papaprelatist — a supporter of papal prelates
- paper profits — an unrealized profit due to the appreciation of something owned but not yet sold.
- para-centesis — puncture of the wall of a cavity to drain off fluid.
- paradise lost — an epic poem (1667) by John Milton.
- paraesthesias — an abnormal sensation, as prickling, itching, etc.
- parallelistic — of, relating to, or of the nature of a parallelism.
- paramagnetism — a body or substance that, placed in a magnetic field, possesses magnetization in direct proportion to the field strength; a substance in which the magnetic moments of the atoms are not aligned.
- parameterised — to describe (a phenomenon, problem, curve, surface, etc.) by the use of parameters.
- paranormality — the state of being paranormal
- parasexuality — parasexual behaviour
- parasite drag — the component of drag caused by skin friction and the shape of the surfaces not contributing to lift.
- parasitically — of, relating to, or characteristic of parasites.
- parasitoidism — the feeding by certain insect larvae on host tissues such that the host remains alive until larval development is complete and then usually dies.
- parasynthesis — the formation of a word by the addition of a derivational suffix to a phrase or compound, as of greathearted, which is great heart plus -ed.
- parasynthetic — the formation of a word by the addition of a derivational suffix to a phrase or compound, as of greathearted, which is great heart plus -ed.
- parent-in-law — the father or mother of one's wife or husband.
- parental unit — of or relating to a parent.
- parenthesized — to insert (a word, phrase, etc.) as a parenthesis.
- parenthetical — of, pertaining to, noting, or of the nature of a parenthesis: several unnecessary parenthetic remarks.
- parietal bone — either of a pair of membrane bones forming, by their union at the sagittal suture, part of the sides and top of the skull.
- parietal cell — any of the cells in the mucous membranes of the stomach that secrete hydrochloric acid.