17-letter words containing p, a, t, r, o
- thermal pollution — a rise in the temperature of rivers or lakes that is injurious to water-dwelling life and is caused by the disposal of heated industrial waste water or water from the cooling towers of nuclear power plants.
- throat microphone — a microphone worn around the throat and actuated by vibrations of the larynx, used when background noise would obscure the sound of speech, as in an airplane cockpit.
- to keep your head — If you keep your head, you remain calm in a difficult situation. If you lose your head, you panic or do not remain calm in a difficult situation.
- to play it by ear — If you play it by ear, you decide what to say or do in a situation by responding to events rather than by following a plan which you have decided on in advance.
- to play with fire — If you say that someone is playing with fire, you mean that they are doing something dangerous that may result in great harm for them and cause many problems.
- tolpuddle martyrs — six farm workers sentenced to transportation for seven years in 1834 for administering an unlawful oath to form a trade union in the village of Tolpuddle, Dorset
- topological group — a set that is a group and a topological space and for which the group operation and the map of an element to its inverse are continuous functions.
- traffic policeman — a policeman controlling traffic, esp while stationed at an intersection, or enforcing traffic regulations
- trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
- travelling people — Gypsies or other itinerant people: a term used esp by such people of themselves
- trick photography — photography that creates an illusion
- triskaidekaphobia — fear or a phobia concerning the number 13.
- tropical aquarium — an aquarium designed for the maintenance and breeding of tropical fish and kept at a suitably warm temperature.
- tropical maritime — a type of warm, wet air mass originating at low latitudes over ocean areas
- tropical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the study and treatment of diseases occurring in the tropics.
- turbosupercharger — (formerly) a turbocharger.
- ultrametamorphism — metamorphism during which the temperature of a rock exceeds its melting point.
- unconformity trap — An unconformity trap is a hydrocarbon trap where the closure is made by an unconformity (= a formation of rock layers which represents a gap in the geological record).
- uncooperativeness — working or acting together willingly for a common purpose or benefit.
- undercompensation — to compensate or pay less than is fair, customary, or expected.
- unemployment rate — percentage of population without jobs
- unify corporation — (company) Developers of the Unify relational database. At one time, before Sybase, they were a competitor of Oracle, et al.
- unproportionately — proportioned; being in due proportion; proportional.
- upper paleolithic — See under Paleolithic.
- urban development — the development or improvement of an urban area by building
- urban exploration — a recreational activity in which people explore derelict urban structures such as abandoned sewers or underground railways or attempt to access areas which are closed to the public such as the roofs of skyscrapers
- vacuum aspiration — menstrual extraction.
- vittore carpaccio — Vittore [veet-taw-re] /vitˈtɔ rɛ/ (Show IPA), c1450–1525, Venetian painter.
- war correspondent — a reporter or commentator assigned to send news or opinions directly from battle areas.
- warehouse receipt — a receipt for goods placed in a warehouse.
- wave-cut platform — a flat surface at the base of a cliff formed by erosion by waves
- weapons inspector — a person who inspects a country's weapons
- wearable computer — a small computer that is worn or carried on the body; a wearable computing device: a wrist-worn wearable computer with a head-mounted display.
- well-photographed — a picture produced by photography.
- weston-super-mare — a town and resort in SW England, in North Somerset unitary authority, Somerset, on the Bristol Channel. Pop: 78 044 (2001)
- wireless operator — a radio operator
- wood preservative — a coating applied to timber as a protection against decay, insects, weather, etc
- xerox corporation — (company) A US company, founded in 1906, specialising in document related technology and services including photocopiers, printers and office software. Xerox's acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services added business process and document management to their product range. In 2013 they have 140,000 employees. Their research centre, XEROX PARC, prototyped several revolutionary advances in computing, which the company failed to exploit, including the WIMP desktop metaphor and XEROX Network Services.
- youth programming — the creation and scheduling of television programmes specifically aimed at young people
- zygomatic process — any of several bony processes that articulate with the cheekbone.