16-letter words containing p, o, n, c
- on the scrapheap — (of people or things) having outlived their usefulness
- onboard computer — onboard a vehicle, ship, plane, train or spacecraft
- once upon a time — at one time in the past; formerly: I was a farmer once; a once powerful nation.
- one's cup of tea — the dried and prepared leaves of a shrub, Camellia sinensis, from which a somewhat bitter, aromatic beverage is prepared by infusion in hot water.
- onomatopoeically — the formation of a word, as cuckoo, meow, honk, or boom, by imitation of a sound made by or associated with its referent.
- open punctuation — punctuation characterized by sparing use of stops, esp of the comma
- open scholarship — a scholarship which anyone can apply for
- opening ceremony — a ceremony held in celebration of the start of something
- operating income — revenue from business operations after operating expenses are deducted from gross income.
- opportunity cost — the money or other benefits lost when pursuing a particular course of action instead of a mutually-exclusive alternative: The company cannot afford the opportunity cost attached to policy decisions made by the current CEO.
- opposed-cylinder — (of an internal-combustion engine) having cylinders on opposite sides of the crankcase in the same plane
- optical illusion — something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
- optical rotation — the angle at which the plane of polarized light is rotated when passed through an optically active substance.
- optical scanning — the process of interpreting data in printed, handwritten, bar-code, or other visual form by a device (optical scanner or reader) that scans and identifies the data.
- organ-pipe coral — an alcyonarian coral of the genus Tubipora, occurring in tropical waters, and forming a complex colony of brick-red, vertical tubules joined at intervals by transverse plates.
- organoleptically — In an organoleptic manner.
- osculating plane — the plane containing the circle of curvature of a point on a given curve.
- over-application — the act of putting to a special use or purpose: the application of common sense to a problem.
- over-consumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- over-expectation — the act or the state of expecting: to wait in expectation.
- over-speculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
- overcapitalizing — Present participle of overcapitalize.
- overcompensating — Present participle of overcompensate.
- overcompensation — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overcomplicating — Present participle of overcomplicate.
- oversubscription — to subscribe for more of than is available, expected, or required: The charity drive was oversubscribed by several thousand dollars.
- oxonium compound — a salt formed by the reaction of an acid with an organic compound containing a basic oxygen atom.
- pacific sturgeon — a dark gray sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus, inhabiting marine and fresh waters along the northwestern coast of North America, valued as a food and sport fish.
- packing fraction — Physics. a measure of the stability of an atomic nucleus, equal to 10 4 multiplied by the mass defect and divided by the mass number.
- palaeolithic man — any of various primitive types of man, such as Neanderthal man and Java man, who lived in the Palaeolithic
- panel discussion — a formal discussion before an audience for which the topic, speakers, etc., have been selected in advance.
- panoramic camera — a still camera having a movable lens that horizontally scans a view while exposing a long photographic plate or strip of film.
- panoramic screen — a very wide screen, as of a television, etc
- pantothenic acid — a hydroxy acid, C 9 H 1 7 O 5 N, found in plant and animal tissues, rice, bran, etc., that is part of the B complex of vitamins and is essential for cell growth.
- parochialization — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- partial fraction — one of the fractions into which a given fraction can be resolved, the sum of such simpler fractions being equal to the given fraction: Partial fractions of 5/(x2−x) are 5/(x−1) and −5/x.
- partial function — A function which is not defined for all arguments of its input type. E.g. f(x) = 1/x if x /= 0. The opposite of a total function. In denotational semantics, a partial function f : D -> C may be represented as a total function ft : D' -> lift(C) where D' is a superset of D and ft x = f x if x in D ft x = bottom otherwise where lift(C) = C U bottom. Bottom (LaTeX \perp) denotes "undefined".
- pascal's limacon — limaçon.
- passport control — identity check at airport, etc.
- paterson's curse — a purple-flowered noxious plant, Echium plantagineum, a close relative of viper's bugloss, naturalized in Australia and NZ where its harmfulness to livestock has prompted attempts to limit its spread
- pavillon chinois — crescent (def 6).
- peace conference — a conference where representatives of warring governments or countries sign a treaty to end conflict
- peano arithmetic — (mathematics) Giuseppe Peano's system for representing natural numbers inductively using only two symbols, "0" (zero) and "S" (successor). This system could be expressed as a recursive data type with the following Haskell definition: data Peano = Zero | Succ Peano The number three, usually written "SSS0", would be Succ (Succ (Succ Zero)). Addition of Peano numbers can be expressed as a simple syntactic transformation: plus Zero n = n plus (Succ m) n = Succ (plus m n) (1995-03-28)
- pectoralis minor — the smaller of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
- pelagic division — the biogeographic realm or zone that comprises the open seas and oceans, including water of all depths.
- pelican crossing — place to cross road
- pentatonic scale — a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave.
- people's commune — a usually rural, Communist Chinese social and administrative unit of from 2000 to 4000 families combined for collective farming, fishing, mining, or industrial projects.
- percentage point — difference: one per cent