18-letter words containing p, a
- compliance officer — a specialist, usually a lawyer, employed by a financial group operating in a variety of fields and for multiple clients to ensure that no conflict of interest arises and that all obligations and regulations are complied with
- compressor program — a computer program that compresses data
- compressor station — A compressor station is a facility with several compressors (= devices that increase the pressure of air or natural gas) and other equipment to pump natural gas under pressure over long distances.
- computer animation — animated film or video that is generated by computers
- computer-generated — produced by a computer program
- concentration camp — A concentration camp is a prison in which large numbers of ordinary people are kept in very bad conditions, usually during a war.
- concentration span — the length of time a person can concentrate on something
- conceptual realism — the doctrine that universals have real and independent existence.
- conceptualisations — Plural form of conceptualisation.
- conceptualizations — Plural form of conceptualization.
- condensation point — a point of which every neighborhood contains an uncountable number of points of a given set.
- conjugated protein — a biochemical compound consisting of a sequence of amino acids making up a simple protein to which another nonprotein group (a prosthetic group), such as a carbohydrate or lipid group, is attached
- connected subgraph — (mathematics) A connected graph consisting of a subset of the nodes and edges of some other graph.
- conservative party — The Conservative Party is the main right-of-centre party in Britain.
- constituency party — a branch of a political party operating within a constituency
- construction paper — Construction paper is a type of stiff, colored paper that children use for drawing and for making things.
- controllable-pitch — (of a marine or aircraft propeller) having blades whose pitch can be changed during navigation or flight; variable-pitch.
- conversation piece — something, esp an unusual object, that provokes conversation
- copper naphthenate — a green salt, soluble in benzene, used as an insecticide and a wood preservative, but harmless to plants.
- cornucopian thesis — the belief that, as long as science and technology continue to advance, growth can continue for ever because these new advances create new resources
- corporate anorexia — a malaise of a business organization resulting from making too many creative people redundant in efforts to cut costs
- corporate identity — business brand
- corpus christi bay — a bay in S Texas, at the mouth of the Nueces River.
- corpuscular theory — the theory, originally proposed by Newton, and revived with the development of the quantum theory, that light consists of a stream of particles
- correspondent bank — A correspondent bank is a bank that provides services such as accepting deposits for another bank.
- costume department — the department in a theatre or television company that is responsible for actors' costumes
- counter-adaptation — the act of adapting.
- counterprogramming — the practice of scheduling a program opposite another program, esp. a popular one, that appeals to a different kind of audience, as in placing a romantic film directed at women opposite a sports program mainly watched by men
- countertherapeutic — Working against a therapy.
- coupling capacitor — A coupling capacitor is a capacitor that is used to transmit an alternating current signal from one node to another.
- cranial osteopathy — osteopathy that focuses on the cranium and the spine
- creatine phosphate — phosphocreatine.
- creeping featurism — (jargon) /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance.
- creeping paralysis — any slow process that causes a system, government, etc, to stop working efficiently
- criminal profiling — the analysis of a person's psychological and behavioural characteristics, so as to assess whether they are likely to have committed a crime under investigation
- critical apparatus — the variant readings, footnotes, etc found in a scholarly work or a critical edition of a text
- crookes dark space — the dark space between the cathode glow and the negative glow in a vacuum tube, occurring when the pressure is low.
- cross-disciplinary — linking two or more fields of study
- crystal microphone — a microphone that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert sound energy into electrical energy
- cultural pluralism — a condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences.
- cumberland plateau — division of the W Appalachians, extending from S W.Va. to N Ala.
- curvature of space — (in relativity) a property of space near massive bodies in which their gravitational field causes light to travel along curved paths.
- cyclopean concrete — concrete containing stones larger than 6 inches (15 cm).
- dafydd ap gruffudd — died 1283, Welsh leader. Claiming the title Prince of Wales (1282), he led an unsuccessful revolt against Edward I: executed
- daisywheel printer — (printer) A kind of impact printer where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy). The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter. One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different typefaces.
- deanthropomorphism — the ridding of philosophy or religion of anthropomorphic beliefs and doctrines.
- decachlorobiphenyl — (organic compound) The fully chlorinated polychlorinated biphenyl containing ten chlorine atoms.
- decompartmentalize — to remove excessive compartmentalization from (an organization)
- deep-sea fisherman — a person who takes part in deep-sea fishing
- deficiency payment — a payment made to a commodity producer that represents the difference between the market price and the guaranteed price