18-letter words containing p, l, a, s
- cleopatra's needle — either of two Egyptian obelisks, originally set up at Heliopolis about 1500 bc: one was moved to the Thames Embankment, London, in 1878, the other to Central Park, New York, in 1880
- closed corporation — a corporation the stock of which is owned by a small number of persons and is rarely traded on the open market
- closed scholarship — a scholarship for which only certain people, such as those from a particular school or with a particular surname, are eligible
- cock-a-leekie soup — a soup made from a fowl boiled with leeks
- color transparency — a positive color image photographically produced on transparent film or glass and viewed by transmitted light, usually by projection.
- community hospital — (in the US) a local hospital
- compassionlessness — The quality, state, or condition of being compassionless; uncompassion.
- complementarianism — The doctrine that genders in a society should have complementary roles.
- complementary base — either of the nucleotide bases linked by a hydrogen bond on opposite strands of DNA or double-stranded RNA: guanine is the complementary base of cytosine, and adenine is the complementary base of thymine in DNA and of uracil in RNA.
- complexity measure — (algorithm) A quantity describing the complexity of a computation.
- conceptual realism — the doctrine that universals have real and independent existence.
- conceptualisations — Plural form of conceptualisation.
- conceptualizations — Plural form of conceptualization.
- 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
- cranial osteopathy — osteopathy that focuses on the cranium and the spine
- 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.
- 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.
- delmarva peninsula — a peninsula of the northeast US, between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic
- departmental store — a department store.
- depository library — a library designated by law to receive without charge all or a selection of the official publications of a government.
- desalination plant — a factory where salt is removed from salt water in order to make the water suitable for drinking and irrigation
- 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.
- devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
- dialytic telescope — a type of achromatic telescope with a second correcting lens
- didaskaleinophobia — The fear of going to school.
- dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
- 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
- diplomatic shuttle — a series of diplomatic visits to other states made by an official, such as an ambassador or envoy
- disability pension — a pension paid to people who are unable to continue to work because of a disability
- dispersible tablet — A dispersible tablet is a tablet that disintegrates in water or other liquid.
- display postscript — An extended form of PostScript permitting its interactive use with bitmap displays.
- disproportionality — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionately — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
- domestic appliance — a machine used for household tasks, for example, a washing machine, refrigerator, etc.
- double-page spread — two pages treated as one in a publication, with images or text extending across the binding
- due process of law — the administration of justice in accordance with established rules and principles
- dynamic psychology — any system of psychology that emphasizes the interaction between different motives, emotions, and drives
- dynamically scoped — dynamic scope
- 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
- electron transport — the metabolic process in mitochondria or chloroplasts, in which electrons are transferred in stages from energy-rich compounds to molecular oxygen with liberation of energy
- entrepreneurialism — The spirit or state of acting in an entrepreneurial manner.
- equinoctial spring — either of the two highest spring tides that occur at the equinoxes
- ethnopsychological — Relating to ethnopsychology.
- fall-back position — an alternative plan