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21-letter words containing p, l, a, c

  • confidence and supply — denoting an arrangement in a hung parliament in which an opposition party agrees not to vote against a minority government in votes of confidence or budgetary matters but reserves the right to oppose other legislation
  • conspiracy of silence — If there is a conspiracy of silence about something, people who know about it have agreed that they will not talk publicly about it, although it would probably be a good thing if people in general knew about it.
  • corporate hospitality — Corporate hospitality is the entertainment that a company offers to its most valued clients, for example by inviting them to sporting events and providing them with food and drink.
  • corpuscular radiation — radiation consisting of atomic and subatomic particles, as alpha particles, beta particles, and neutrons.
  • countably compact set — a set for which every cover consisting of a countable number of sets has a subcover consisting of a finite number of sets.
  • court of common pleas — (formerly) a superior court exercising jurisdiction in civil actions between private citizens
  • crystallographic axis — one of the imaginary reference lines passing through the center of an ideal crystal, designated a, b, or c.
  • cultural anthropology — the branch of anthropology dealing with cultural as opposed to biological and racial features
  • cyclical unemployment — unemployment caused by fluctuations in the level of economic activity inherent in trade cycles
  • cyclomatic complexity — (programming, testing)   A measure of the number of linearly independent paths through a program module. Cyclomatic complexity is a measure for the complexity of code related to the number of ways there are to traverse a piece of code. This determines the minimum number of inputs you need to test all ways to execute the program.
  • dark-field microscope — ultramicroscope
  • deep scattering layer — any of the stratified zones in the ocean which reflect sound during echo sounding, usually composed of marine organisms which migrate vertically from c. 250 to 800 m (c. 820 to 2,625 ft)
  • deprovincialization's — to make provincial in character.
  • development education — an area of study that aims to give pupils an understanding of their involvement in world affairs
  • diapason normal pitch — a standard of pitch in which A above middle C is established at 435 vibrations per second.
  • displacement activity — a behavior performed out of its usual context and apparently irrelevant to the prevailing situation, as eating when an unknown individual approaches, tending to occur when appropiate behaviors, as attacking or fleeing, are in conflict or obstructed.
  • electric displacement — the electric flux density when an electric field exists in free space into which a dielectric is introduced
  • electric polarization — Electric polarization is the type of polarization of electricity that occurs in a dielectric.
  • electrochromatography — chromatography effected by the influence of an applied electric field
  • electroencephalograms — Plural form of electroencephalogram.
  • electroencephalograph — A machine used for electroencephalography.
  • electromagnetic pulse — a surge of electromagnetic radiation, esp one resulting from a nuclear explosion, which can disrupt electronic devices and, occasionally, larger structures and equipment
  • electromyographically — By means of, or in terms of, electromyography.
  • electronystagmography — A diagnostic test to record involuntary movements of the eye caused by a condition known as nystagmus. It can also be used to diagnose the cause of vertigo, dizziness or balance dysfunction by testing the vestibular system.
  • empirical probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined as the proportion observed in a sample
  • endoplasmic reticulum — an extensive intracellular membrane system whose functions include synthesis and transport of lipids and, in regions where ribosomes are attached, of proteins
  • epidemic encephalitis — any type of widespread encephalitis caused by various viruses
  • euro-commercial paper — commercial paper issued in a eurocurrency
  • european central bank — the central bank of the European Union, established in 1998 to oversee the process of European Monetary Union and subsequently to direct monetary policy within the countries using the euro
  • flotation compartment — in a boat, an enclosed section filled with air or gas to give buoyancy
  • fluorophosphoric acid — any of three acids containing fluorine and phosphorus, HPF 6 , HPO 2 F 2 , or H 2 PO 3 F.
  • forensic anthropology — the branch of physical anthropology in which anthropological data, criteria, and techniques are used to determine the sex, age, genetic population, or parentage of skeletal or biological materials in questions of civil or criminal law.
  • forward compatibility — (jargon)   The ability to accept input from later versions of itself. Forward compatibility is harder to achieve than backward compatibility, since, in the backward case, the input format is know whereas a forward compatible system needs to cope gracefully with unknown future features. An example of future compatibility is the stipulation that a web browser should ignore HTML tags it does not recognise. See also extensible.
  • fuming sulphuric acid — a mixture of pyrosulphuric acid, H2S2O7, and other condensed acids, made by dissolving sulphur trioxide in concentrated sulphuric acid
  • functional dependency — (database)   Given a relation R (in a relational database), attribute Y of R is functionally dependent on attribute X of R and X of R functionally determines Y of R (in symbols R.X -> R.Y) if and only if each X in R has associated with it precisely one Y in R (at any one time). Attributes X and Y may be composite. This is very close to a function in the mathematical sense.
  • functional imperative — a requirement for the survival of any social system, as communication, control of conflict, or socialization.
  • generic type variable — (programming)   (Also known as a "schematic type variable"). Different occurrences of a generic type variable in a type expression may be instantiated to different types. Thus, in the expression let id x = x in (id True, id 1) id's type is (for all a: a -> a). The universal quantifier "for all a:" means that a is a generic type variable. For the two uses of id, a is instantiated to Bool and Int. Compare this with let id x = x in let f g = (g True, g 1) in f id This looks similar but f has no legal Hindley-Milner type. If we say f :: (a -> b) -> (b, b) this would permit g's type to be any instance of (a -> b) rather than requiring it to be at least as general as (a -> b). Furthermore, it constrains both instances of g to have the same result type whereas they do not. The type variables a and b in the above are implicitly quantified at the top level: f :: for all a: for all b: (a -> b) -> (b, b) so instantiating them (removing the quantifiers) can only be done once, at the top level. To correctly describe the type of f requires that they be locally quantified: f :: ((for all a: a) -> (for all b: b)) -> (c, d) which means that each time g is applied, a and b may be instantiated differently. f's actual argument must have a type at least as general as ((for all a: a) -> (for all b: b)), and may not be some less general instance of this type. Type variables c and d are still implicitly quantified at the top level and, now that g's result type is a generic type variable, any types chosen for c and d are guaranteed to be instances of it. This type for f does not express the fact that b only needs to be at least as general as the types c and d. For example, if c and d were both Bool then any function of type (for all a: a -> Bool) would be a suitable argument to f but it would not match the above type for f.
  • genetic amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
  • gestalt psychotherapy — a therapy devised in the US in the 1960s in which patients are encouraged to concentrate on the immediate present and to express their true feelings
  • give place to someone — to make room for or be superseded by someone
  • glacier national park — a national park in NW Montana: glaciers; lakes; forest reserve. 1534 sq. mi. (3970 sq. km).
  • glyceryl tripalmitate — palmitin.
  • heliocentric parallax — the apparent displacement of an observed object due to a change in the position of the observer.
  • historic places trust — (in New Zealand) the statutory body concerned with the conservation of historic buildings, esp with ancient Māori sites
  • humanistic psychology — an approach to psychology that emphasizes emotions and the better understanding of the self in terms of observation of oneself and one's relations with others
  • hyperbolic paraboloid — a paraboloid that can be put into a position such that its sections parallel to one coordinate plane are hyperbolas, with its sections parallel to the other two coordinate planes being parabolas.
  • hypercholesterolaemia — the condition of having a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood
  • identical proposition — a proposition in which the subject and predicate have the same meaning, as, “That which is mortal is not immortal.”.
  • immaculate conception — the dogma of the unique privilege by which the Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother's womb without the stain of original sin through the anticipated merits of Jesus Christ. Compare virgin birth (def 1).
  • imprecise probability — (probability)   A probability that is represented as an interval (as opposed to a single number) included in [0,1].
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