19-letter words containing p, h, o, r
- primitive methodist — a member of a Protestant denomination (Primitive Methodist Church) founded in England in 1812 and later established in the U.S., characterized by its adherence to the basic doctrines, principles, and practices taught by John Wesley.
- priority scheduling — (operating system) Processes scheduling in which the scheduler selects tasks to run based on their priority as opposed to, say, a simple round-robin. Priorities may be static or dynamic. Static priorities are assigned at the time of creation, while dynamic priorities are based on the processes' behaviour while in the system. For example, the scheduler may favour I/O-intensive tasks so that expensive requests can be issued as early as possible. A danger of priority scheduling is starvation, in which processes with lower priorities are not given the opportunity to run. In order to avoid starvation, in preemptive scheduling, the priority of a process is gradually reduced while it is running. Eventually, the priority of the running process will no longer be the highest, and the next process will start running. This method is called aging.
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- protease inhibitors — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
- proton-proton chain — a series of thermonuclear reactions, responsible for the energy production in stars like the sun, in which the nuclei of hydrogen atoms are transformed into helium nuclei by sequential addition of single hydrogen nuclei.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudo-hieroglyphic — noting or pertaining to a script dating from the second millennium b.c. that appears to be syllabic and to represent the Phoenician language and that is inscribed on objects found at Byblos.
- pseudohermaphrodite — an individual having internal reproductive organs of one sex and external sexual characteristics resembling those of the other sex or being ambiguous in nature. Compare hermaphrodite (def 1).
- psychoendocrinology — the study of the relationship between the endocrine system and various symptoms or types of mental illness.
- psychrometric chart — a chart for calculating values of relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew point from psychrometer readings.
- puerperal psychosis — a mental disorder sometimes occurring in women after childbirth, characterized by deep depression, delusions of the child's death, and homicidal feelings towards the child
- pugwash conferences — international peace conferences of scientists held regularly to discuss world problems: Nobel peace prize 1995 awarded to Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) , one of the founders of the conferences, secretary-general (1957–73), and president (1988–97)
- pull in one's horns — one of the bony, permanent, hollow paired growths, often curved and pointed, that project from the upper part of the head of certain ungulate mammals, as cattle, sheep, goats, or antelopes.
- put a figure on sth — When you put a figure on an amount, you say exactly how much it is.
- pyorrhea alveolaris — a chronic periodontitis of the gums and tooth sockets, characterized by the formation of pus and, usually, by loosening of the teeth
- pyorrhea-alveolaris — Pathology. a discharge of pus.
- pyrophosphoric acid — a crystalline, water-soluble powder, H 4 P 2 O 7 , formed by the union of one molecule of phosphorus pentoxide with two molecules of water.
- pythagoras' theorem — (spelling) It's Pythagoras's Theorem.
- pythagorean theorem — Pythagoras's Theorem
- radiochromatography — chromatography in which radiolabeled substances on the chromatogram are determined quantitatively or qualitatively by measuring their radioactivity.
- radiopharmaceutical — any of a number of radioactive drugs used diagnostically or therapeutically.
- ralph waldo emerson — Ralph Waldo [wawl-doh,, wol-] /ˈwɔl doʊ,, ˈwɒl-/ (Show IPA), 1803–82, U.S. essayist and poet.
- rancho palos verdes — a town in SW California.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- rapture of the deep — nitrogen narcosis.
- reciprocal exchange — an unincorporated association formed so that its members can participate in reciprocal insurance.
- reflux oesophagitis — inflammation of the gullet caused by regurgitation of stomach acids, producing heartburn: may be associated with a hiatus hernia
- research fellowship — the position or office of someone who conducts academic research into a subject at a university, etc
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- sb's spiritual home — your spiritual home is the place where you feel that you belong, usually because your ideas or attitudes are the same as those of the people who live there
- scare the pants off — to scare extremely
- sharp-focus realism — photorealism.
- sharp-tailed grouse — a grouse, Pedioecetes phasianellus, of prairies and open forests of western North America, similar in size to the prairie chicken but with a more pointed tail.
- ship-to-shore radio — a radio that carries communications between land and sea
- shoestring potatoes — potatoes cut into long, very narrow strips and fried crisp in deep fat
- short-stay car park — a car park where a car can be left for a relatively short time
- simple carbohydrate — a carbohydrate, as glucose, that consists of a single monosaccharide unit.
- sleepy hollow chair — an armchair of the mid-19th century, sometimes on rockers, having a single piece forming a high upholstered back and a concave upholstered seat.
- social anthropology — study of human culture
- sodium hypochlorite — a pale-green, crystalline compound, NaOCl, unstable in air, soluble in cold water, decomposes in hot water: used as a bleaching agent for paper and textiles, in water purification, in household use, and as a fungicide.
- southern crab apple — a tree, Malus angustifolia, of the eastern U.S., having oblong leaves, fragrant, pink or rose-colored flowers, and small, round, yellow-green fruit.
- southern hemisphere — the half of the earth between the South Pole and the equator.
- spare a thought for — If you spare a thought for an unfortunate person, you make an effort to think sympathetically about them and their bad luck.
- sphere of influence — any area in which one nation wields dominant power over another or others.
- spherical astronomy — the branch of astronomy dealing with the determination of the positions of celestial bodies on the celestial sphere.
- spirit of hartshorn — a colorless, pungent, suffocating, aqueous solution of about 28.5 percent ammonia gas: used chiefly as a detergent, for removing stains and extracting certain vegetable coloring agents, and in the manufacture of ammonium salts.
- spread oneself thin — to draw, stretch, or open out, especially over a flat surface, as something rolled or folded (often followed by out).
- stakeholder pension — In Britain, a stakeholder pension is a flexible pension scheme with low charges. Both employees and the state contribute to the scheme, which is optional, and is in addition to the basic state pension.
- standard atmosphere — an arbitrarily determined vertical distribution of atmospheric pressure, temperature, and density, assumed to have physical constants and conforming to parametric equations, used for calculations in ballistics, the design of pressure altimeters, etc.