18-letter words containing p, i, s, c, a, r
- 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
- corpus christi bay — a bay in S Texas, at the mouth of the Nueces River.
- 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
- critical apparatus — the variant readings, footnotes, etc found in a scholarly work or a critical edition of a text
- 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.
- depth-first search — (algorithm) A graph search algorithm which extends the current path as far as possible before backtracking to the last choice point and trying the next alternative path. Depth-first search may fail to find a solution if it enters a cycle in the graph. This can be avoided if we never extend a path to a node which it already contains. Opposite of breadth first search. See also iterative deepening.
- descriptive clause — a relative clause that describes or supplements but is not essential in establishing the identity of the antecedent and is usually set off by commas in English. In This year, which has been dry, is bad for crops the clause which has been dry is a nonrestrictive clause.
- diphosphoglycerate — an ester of phosphoric acid and glyceric acid that occurs in the blood and that promotes the release of hemoglobin-bound oxygen.
- diplomatic service — diplomatic corps
- discharge printing — a fabric-printing method in which the material is dyed and then certain areas are discharged so as to permit the original hue or its color replacement to act as a pattern against the colored ground.
- display postscript — An extended form of PostScript permitting its interactive use with bitmap displays.
- eclipsing variable — a variable star whose changes in brightness are caused by periodic eclipses of two stars in a binary system.
- eggshell porcelain — a type of very thin translucent porcelain originally made in China
- endangered species — animal, plant becoming extinct
- equinoctial spring — either of the two highest spring tides that occur at the equinoxes
- examination script — a script with answers written on it by an examination candidate taking a written examination
- excess profits tax — a tax on profits exceeding a certain amount
- exercise programme — a programme detailing a range of physical exercises and the amount of time each exercise should be performed, used especially in gymnasiums, where they are typically tailored to individuals' needs
- feeping creaturism — /fee'ping kree"ch*r-izm/ A deliberate spoonerism for creeping featurism, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks. This term isn"t really well defined, but it sounds so neat that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their customary noises.
- fermat's principle — Optics. the law that the path taken by a ray of light in going from one point to another point will be the path that requires the least time.
- ftp software, inc. — (company) Developers of the original PC/TCP Packet Driver specification. Address: 26 Princess St. Wakefield, MA 01880-3004. Telephone: +1 (617) 246 0900.
- funeral procession — ceremonial cortège at a burial
- general precession — the precession that results from both lunisolar precession and planetary precession; precession of the equinoxes.
- gensym corporation — (company) A company that supplies software and services for intelligent operations management. Common applications include quality management, process optimisation, dynamic scheduling, network management, energy and environmental management, and process modelling and simulation. Their products include G2.
- geometrical optics — the branch of optics dealing with light as rays, especially in the study of the effects of lenses and mirrors on light beams and of their combination in optical instruments.
- gravity escapement — an escapement, used especially in large outdoor clocks, in which the impulse is given to the pendulum by means of a weight falling through a certain distance.
- great expectations — a novel (1861) by Charles Dickens.
- helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
- hippocratic facies — the sallow facial expression, with listless staring eyes, often regarded as denoting approaching death
- histomorphological — histology.
- historical present — the present tense used in narrating a past event as if happening at the time of narration.
- hypercholesteremia — Alternative spelling of hypercholesteraemia.
- hypernationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.
- hypogastric artery — iliac artery (def 3).
- hyposulfurous acid — an acid, H 2 S 2 O 4 , next in a series below sulfurous acid, known only in solution or in the form of its salts.
- in comparison with — when compared to
- in the first place — firstly
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- interstellar space — astronomy: space between the stars
- irreproachableness — The quality or state of being irreproachable; integrity; innocence.
- isothermal process — a process that takes place without change in temperature.
- japanese artichoke — Chinese artichoke.
- justice department — the United States federal department for enforcing federal laws
- lenticular process — a method for producing images with a three-dimensional effect by photographing on lenticulated film.
- linear perspective — a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point (one-point perspective) two points (two-point perspective) or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position.