18-letter words containing p, c, v
- particular average — a loss at sea, as through accident or negligence, that is borne solely by the owner of the lost property. Abbreviation: P.A.
- passive resistance — opposition to a government or to specific governmental laws by the use of noncooperation and other nonviolent methods, as economic boycotts and protest marches.
- passive vocabulary — all the words, collectively, that a person can understand
- payment in advance — If a business asks for payment in advance, the payment must be received in full before the goods or services are delivered.
- pennsylvania dutch — the descendants of 17th- and 18th-century settlers in Pennsylvania from southwest Germany and Switzerland.
- periodic inventory — Periodic inventory is a method of valuing inventory, usually at the end of accounting periods, by physically counting all merchandise held in stock at that time.
- physical inventory — To carry out a physical inventory is to count all the stock on hand.
- pneumatic conveyor — a tube through which powdered or granular material, such as cement, grain, etc is transported by a flow of air
- polyvinyl chloride — a white, water-insoluble, thermoplastic resin, derived by the polymerization of vinyl chloride: used chiefly for thin coatings, insulation, and pipings.
- positively charged — having a positive charge
- productivity bonus — an extra payment made to workers for being more productive or yielding more favourable results than normal
- progressive coding — (graphics, file format, algorithm) (Or "interlacing") An aspect of a graphics storage format or transmission algorithm that treats bitmap image data non-sequentially in such a way that later data adds progressively greater resolution to an already full-size image. This contrasts with sequential coding. Progressive coding is useful when an image is being sent across a slow communications channel, such as the Internet, as the low-resolution image may be sufficient to allow the user to decide not to wait for the rest of the file to be received. In an interlaced GIF89 image, the pixels in a row are stored sequentially but the rows are stored in interlaced order, e.g. 0, 8, 4, 12, 2, 6, 8, 10, 14, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15. Each vertical scan adds rows in the middle of the gaps left by the previous one. Interlacing is also supported by other formats. JPEG supports a functionally similar concept known as Progressive JPEG. [How does the algorithm differ?] See also progressive/sequential coding.
- protective colloid — a lyophilic colloid added to a lyophobic sol to lessen its sensitivity to the precipitating effect of an electrolyte.
- protective custody — detention of a person by the police solely as protection against a possible attack or reprisal by someone.
- protocol converter — (networking) A device or program to translate between different protocols which serve similar functions (e.g. TCP and TP4). Some call this a "gateway", though others use that term for other kinds of internetworking device.
- provably difficult — The set or property of problems for which it can be proven that no polynomial-time algorithm exists, only exponential-time algorithms.
- provascular tissue — procambium.
- provincetown print — a print made from a woodblock incised with grooves that serve to separate the colors being used and to leave white lines highlighting the design.
- provincial council — (formerly) a council administering any of the New Zealand provinces
- provision merchant — a person or company in the business of retailing food and other provisions
- pseudo-competitive — of, pertaining to, involving, or decided by competition: competitive sports; a competitive examination.
- psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
- public convenience — a rest room, especially at a large public place, as at a railroad station.
- puvis de chavannes — Puvis de [py-vee duh] /püˈvi də/ (Show IPA), Puvis de Chavannes, Pierre.
- reactive component — the component in an alternating-current circuit that does not contribute power because it is 90° out of phase with the voltage or current.
- recovery operation — the process of locating and retrieving bodies, esp following an explosion or natural disaster
- reverse psychology — (in nontechnical use) a method of getting another person to do what one wants by pretending not to want it or to want something else or something more.
- service department — a repair shop
- special relativity — the state or fact of being relative.
- specific viscosity — a measure of the resistance to flow of a fluid, expressed as the ratio of the absolute viscosity of the fluid to that of a reference fluid (usually water in the case of liquids)
- split-level cooker — a cooker that is designed with a separate oven and hob so that they can be fitted wherever is most convenient in the kitchen
- super royal octavo — a book size, 63⁄4 by 101⁄4 inches
- superior vena cava — See under vena cava.
- surveyor's compass — an instrument used by surveyors for measuring azimuths.
- telephone receiver — a device, as in a telephone, that converts changes in an electric current into sound.
- television company — a company that broadcasts programmes by television
- to scrape a living — If you say that someone scrapes a living or scratches a living, you mean that they manage to earn enough to live on, but it is very difficult. In American English, you say they scrape out a living or scratch out a living.
- transverse process — a process that projects from the sides of a vertebra.
- universal coupling — a coupling between rotating shafts set at an angle to one another, allowing for rotation in three planes.
- valle de la pascua — a city in N Venezuela.
- vectorcardiography — a method of determining the direction and magnitude of the electrical forces of the heart.
- venture capitalist — funds invested or available for investment in a new or unproven business enterprise.
- video compact disc — (storage) (VCD) A storage format used for film distribution.
- videotape recorder — a device for recording television programs on magnetic tape for delayed transmission or for storage.
- vulcan nerve pinch — (jargon) (Or "three-finger salute", Vulcan death grip; from the old "Star Trek" TV series via Commodore Amiga hackers) The keyboard combination that forces a soft boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a feature). On an Amiga this is done with Ctrl/Right Amiga/Left Amiga; on IBM PCs and many microcomputers it is Ctrl/Alt/Del; on Suns, L1-A; on some Macintoshes, it is
- ! Silicon Graphics users are obviously the most dextrous however, as these machines use the five-finger combination: Left Shift/Left Ctrl/Left Alt/Keypad Divide/F12. Compare quadruple bucky.