22-letter words containing p, a, s, y, t
- preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
- probationary assistant — a teacher in the first probationary years
- process cinematography — cinematography in which the main or foreground action or scene is superimposed on or combined with simulated or separately filmed background action or scenery to produce special visual effects.
- prothonotary apostolic — a member of the first college of prelates of the Roman Curia.
- psychological thriller — book, movie: suspense story
- pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
- rheumatoid spondylitis — ankylosing spondylitis.
- sapir-whorf hypothesis — a theory developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf that states that the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
- satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
- saturday night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
- saturday-night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
- schachter's hypothesis — (web) The observation that "Given two unrelated technical terms, an Internet search engine will retrieve only résumés". This was first formulated by Joshua Eli Schachter in about 1998, while poring over the uniformly irrelevant pages that resulted from a search he'd run on "+Perl +MAPI" in Altavista.
- secondary spermatocyte — See under spermatocyte.
- special delivery stamp — a stamp of special design, having a value indicating an extra fee in addition to the regular postage, and affixed to an item of mail to ensure its special delivery.
- specific heat capacity — the heat required to raise unit mass of a substance by unit temperature interval under specified conditions, such as constant pressure: usually measured in joules per kelvin per kilogram
- spectrophotometrically — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
- spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
- speculative philosophy — philosophy embodying beliefs insusceptible of proof and attempting to gain insight into the nature of the ultimate by intuitive or a priori means.
- spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
- subjective probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined by subjective criteria
- subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
- supplementary question — a question asked in Parliament by an MP during Questions to the Prime Minister
- sympathetic ophthalmia — inflammation of one eye due to injury or disease of the other eye.
- temporal lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- temporal-lobe epilepsy — a type of seizure disorder produced by abnormal electric discharges in the temporal lobe of the brain, characterized by the occurrence of any of a variety of auras followed by a brief loss of consciousness with accompanying repetitive, automatic movements.
- texas independence day — March 2, observed in Texas as the anniversary of the declaration in 1836 of the independence of Texas from Mexico and also as the birthday of Sam Houston.
- the pennsylvania dutch — a group of German-speaking people in E Pennsylvania, descended from 18th-century settlers from SW Germany and Switzerland
- time-lapse photography — the photographing on motion-picture film of a slow and continuous process, as the growth of a plant, at regular intervals, especially by exposing a single frame at a time, for projection at a higher speed.
- to overplay one's hand — If someone overplays their hand, they act more confidently than they should because they believe that they are in a stronger position than they actually are.
- to play fast and loose — If you say that someone is playing fast and loose, you are expressing disapproval of them for behaving in a deceitful, immoral, or irresponsible way.
- to play happy families — to spend time with your family or partner and to outwardly give the impression of being happy (although this may not be the case)
- torpedo-boat destroyer — a vessel somewhat larger than the ordinary torpedo boat, designed for destroying torpedo boats or as a more powerful form of torpedo boat.
- transition probability — the probability of going from a given state to the next state in a Markov process.
- unemployment insurance — a government program that provides a limited number of payments to eligible workers who are involuntarily unemployed.
- united empire loyalist — any of the American colonists who settled in Canada during or after the War of American Independence because of loyalty to the British Crown
- video display terminal — Computers. a computer terminal consisting of a screen on which data or graphics can be displayed. Abbreviation: VDT.
- white australia policy — an unofficial term for an immigration policy designed to restrict the entry of non-White people into Australia
- yosemite national park — a national park in E California. 1182 sq. mi. (3060 sq. km).