12-letter words containing p, a, s, t, d
- postprandial — after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
- potato salad — potato chunks in mayonnaise
- pre-disaster — a calamitous event, especially one occurring suddenly and causing great loss of life, damage, or hardship, as a flood, airplane crash, or business failure.
- predesignate — to designate beforehand.
- predestinate — Theology. to foreordain by divine decree or purpose.
- preset board — a control board for setting up theatrical lighting switches and dimmer readings in advance so that during a performance the lights can be automatically operated for one or several scenes.
- presidential — of or relating to a president or presidency.
- proboscidate — having a proboscis.
- process data — data processing
- promuscidate — shaped like a proboscis
- propagandist — a person involved in producing or spreading propaganda.
- pseudomartyr — someone falsely or inaccurately called a martyr
- radioisotope — a radioactive isotope, usually artificially produced: used in physical and biological research, therapeutics, etc.
- radiophonist — a person who produces radiophonic music
- respondentia — a loan upon a ship's cargo, which is repaid with interest if the ship reaches its destination, and if the ship does not, the loan is not repaid
- saddle point — a point at which a function of two variables has partial derivatives equal to zero but at which the function has neither a maximum nor a minimum value.
- safe-deposit — providing safekeeping for valuables: a safe-deposit vault.
- sandpainting — a type of painting done by American Indians, esp in the healing ceremonies of the Navaho, using fine coloured sand on a neutral ground
- scratchpad i — (language) A general-purpose language originally for interactive symbolic mathematics by Richard Jenks, Barry Trager, Stephen M. Watt and Robert S. Sutor of IBM Research, ca 1971. It features abstract parametrised data types, multiple inheritance and polymorphism. There were implementations for VM/CMS and AIX.
- scsi adaptor — (hardware) (Or "host adaptor") A device that communicates between a computer and its SCSI peripherals. The SCSI adaptor is usually assigned SCSI ID 7. It is often a separate card that is connected to the computer's bus (e.g. PCI, ISA, PCMCIA) though increasinly, SCSI adaptors are built in to the motherboard. Apart from being cheaper, busses like PCI are too slow to keep up with the newer SCSI standards like Ultra SCSI and Ultra-Wide SCSI. There are several varieties of SCSI (and their connectors) and an adaptor will not support them all. The performance of SCSI devices is limited by the speed of the SCSI adaptor and its connection to the computer. An adaptor that plugs into a parallel port is unlikely to be as fast as one incorporated into a motherboard. Fast adaptors use DMA or bus mastering. Some SCSI adaptors include a BIOS to allow PCs to boot from a SCSI hard disk, if their own BIOS supports it. Note that it is not a "SCSI controller" - it does not control the devices, and "SCSI interface" is redundant - the "I" of "SCSI" stands for "interface".
- seed capital — small sum invested in new business
- sharp-witted — having or showing mental acuity; intellectually discerning; acute.
- shop steward — commerce: union rep
- spatter dash — roughcast (def 1).
- spatter-dash — Also called spatter dash. an exterior wall finish composed of mortar and fine pebbles mixed together and dashed against the wall. Compare pebble dash.
- speed dating — an organized social event in which participants have one-on-one conversations typically limited to less than ten minutes, for the purpose of meeting people they would like to date.
- speedboating — the act, practice, or sport of traveling in a speedboat.
- speedskating — a form of ice skating in which contestants race against each other or the clock over various distances
- spermaticide — spermicide.
- spermatocide — spermicide.
- spermatozoid — a motile male gamete produced in an antheridium.
- spider plant — Also called ribbon plant. a plant, Chlorophytum comosum, of the lily family, native to southern Africa, that has long, narrow leaves and clusters of white flowers and is widely cultivated as a houseplant.
- spit-roasted — cooked on a spit
- spotted cavy — paca.
- spotted tail — (Sinte-galeshka) 1833?–81, Brulé Sioux leader.
- stamp dealer — someone who buys and sells postage stamps (to collectors)
- stand up for — (of a person) to be in an upright position on the feet.
- standing cup — a tall decorative cup of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, having a raised cover.
- standpattism — belief in or the practice of resisting or refusing to accept change, especially in politics.
- stapedectomy — a microsurgical procedure to relieve deafness by replacing the stapes of the ear with a prosthetic device.
- steel-plated — covered with steel
- stepdaughter — a daughter of one's husband or wife by a previous marriage.
- stride piano — a style of jazz piano playing in which the right hand plays the melody while the left hand plays a single bass note or octave on the strong beat and a chord on the weak beat, developed in Harlem during the 1920s, partly from ragtime piano playing.
- striped bass — an important American game fish, Morone saxatilis, having blackish stripes along each side.
- student lamp — a table lamp whose light source can be adjusted in height.
- subduplicate — of the square root of ratios
- suicide pact — an agreement between two or more people to commit suicide together.
- superstardom — a person, as a performer or athlete, who enjoys wide recognition, is esteemed for exceptional talent, and is eagerly sought after for his or her services.
- support band — a band, pop group, rock group, etc not topping the bill
- swap trading — a contract in which the parties to it exchange liabilities on outstanding debts in trading