20-letter words containing p, a, r, l
- schwarzschild sphere — the sphere which surrounds a non-rotating uncharged black hole, from within which no information can escape because of gravitational forces
- semiautobiographical — pertaining to or being a fictionalized account of an author's own life.
- separation allowance — an allowance paid to a member of the military when they are forced to be apart from their family due to their military duties
- sharp-tailed sparrow — a sparrow, Ammospiza caudacuta, inhabiting salt marshes in North America, having narrow, sharply pointed tail feathers.
- south american plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, comprising the continent of South America and several ocean basins and bounded on the north by the Caribbean Plate, on the east by the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on the west by a submarine trench that borders the western coast of the continent, and on the south by the Antarctic Plate.
- spanish oyster plant — a composite plant, Scolymus hispanicus, of southern Europe, having spiny, thistlelike leaf margins, small yellow flowers, and an edible root.
- special boat service — a unit of the Royal Marines specializing in reconnaissance and sabotage
- special patrol group — a former police unit tasked with counter terrorism in the Royal Ulster Constabulary
- special relationship — the exceptionally close political, diplomatic, cultural and historical relations between the United States and the United Kingdom
- specialist registrar — a hospital doctor senior to a house officer but junior to a consultant, specializing in medicine (medical specialist registrar), surgery (surgical specialist registrar), or some subspeciality of either
- spherical aberration — variation in focal length of a lens or mirror from center to edge, due to its spherical shape.
- spherical coordinate — Usually, spherical coordinates. any of three coordinates used to locate a point in space by the length of its radius vector and the angles this vector makes with two perpendicular polar planes.
- spiral of archimedes — a curve that is the locus of a point that moves outward with uniform speed along a vector, beginning at the origin, while the vector rotates about the origin with uniform angular velocity. Equation (in polar coordinates): r = aθ.
- splice the mainbrace — to issue and partake of an extra allocation of alcoholic spirits
- spotted crane's-bill — the American wild geranium, Geranium maculatum.
- spread like wildfire — If something, especially news or a rumour, spreads like wildfire, it spreads extremely quickly.
- star spangled banner — Stars and Stripes.
- star-spangled banner — Stars and Stripes.
- state highway patrol — a state's road traffic police
- subscription library — a commercial lending library
- supplementary angles — either of two angles that added together produce an angle of 180°.
- telesales department — the department of a company that deals with telesales
- teletype corporation — (company) The company which made Teletype teletypewriters. Address: Skokie, Illinois, USA.
- television programme — a programme broadcast on television
- the legal profession — the profession of law
- to clean up your act — If someone who has been behaving badly cleans up their act, they start to behave in a more acceptable or responsible way.
- to 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.
- to scrape the barrel — If you say that someone is scraping the barrel, or scraping the bottom of the barrel, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality.
- travel-sickness pill — a pill which is used to relieve the symptoms of travel or motion sickness, the condition of being nauseated from riding in a moving vehicle
- triphenylmethane dye — any of a great number of dyes, as gentian violet, fuchsin, and rosaniline, produced from triphenylmethane by replacement of the ring hydrogen atoms with hydroxy, amino, sulfo, or other atoms or groups.
- tropical continental — a type of warm, dry air mass originating at low latitudes over land areas
- tropical disturbance — a very weak, or incipient, tropical cyclone.
- trumpet call for sth — a signal for something
- united arab republic — a name given the union of Egypt and Syria from 1958 to 1961; after that, the official name of Egypt alone until 1971. Abbreviation: U.A.R.
- upmail tricia prolog — ftp://ftp.csd.uu.se/pub/Tricia/README. E-mail: <[email protected]>.
- upper layer protocol — (protocol) 1. (ULP, or upper-layer protocol) Any protocol residing in OSI layers five or above. The Internet protocol suite includes many upper layer protocols representing a wide variety of applications e.g. FTP, NFS, RPC, and SMTP. These and other network applications use the services of TCP/IP and other lower layer protocols to provide users with basic network services. 2. A protocol higher in the OSI reference model than the current reference point. Upper Layer Protocol is often used to refer to the next-highest protocol in a particular protocol stack.
- upper yosemite falls — a section of Yosemite Falls in central California, in the Yosemite National Park that is 436 m (1430 ft) high
- upset the apple cart — to disrupt a procedure, spoil someone's plans, etc.
- vertical envelopment — envelopment of an enemy accomplished by parachuting and landing airborne troops at the rear of the enemy's position.
- wet-bulb temperature — The wet-bulb temperature is the temperature reached by a small amount of liquid evaporating in a large amount of an unsaturated air-vapor mixture.
- white-lipped peccary — a piglike artiodactyl mammal, Tayassu albirostris, of forests of southern North America, Central and South America: family Tayassuidae
- winter olympic games — an international contest of winter sports, esp skiing, held every four years
- with all due respect — despite my regard for you
- working relationship — a relationship with a colleague, boss or employee
- working-capital fund — a fund established to finance operating activities in an industrial enterprise.