18-letter words containing p, o, s, l
- louisiana purchase — a treaty signed with France in 1803 by which the U.S. purchased for $15,000,000 the land extending from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
- low blood pressure — hypotension.
- lubber grasshopper — plains grasshopper.
- maksutov telescope — a reflecting telescope in which coma and spherical aberration are reduced to a minimum by a combination of a spherical mirror and a meniscus lens placed inside the radius of curvature of the mirror.
- marsilius of padua — c1280–1343? Italian scholar and political theorist.
- maternity hospital — birthing facility
- medical profession — the body of people who work as doctors of medicine
- methylprednisolone — A synthetic glucocorticoid drug, with chemical formula C22H30O5.
- mezzo-soprano clef — a C clef locating middle C on the line next to the lowest line of the staff.
- microencapsulation — the process of enclosing chemical substances in microcapsules.
- misplaced modifier — Grammar. a word, phrase, or clause that seems to refer to or modify an unintended word because of its placement in a sentence, as when young in When young, circuses appeal to all of us.
- mission specialist — the crew member of a space shuttle who is assigned primary responsibility for carrying out operations related to the payload of the shuttle.
- moccasin telegraph — the transmission of rumour or secret information; the grapevine
- molecular spectrum — the spectrum of light emitted or absorbed by a species of molecule.
- monophosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with a single unit of phosphoric acid.
- mosquito repellent — a chemical substance, such as a spray or lotion, applied to the body to prevent mosquitoes biting
- move the goalposts — to change the aims of an activity to ensure the desired results
- mucopolysaccharide — (formerly) glycosaminoglycan.
- multiple collision — an accident in which several cars crash into each other
- multiple ownership — ownership by several people or organizations
- multiple sclerosis — a chronic degenerative, often episodic disease of the central nervous system marked by patchy destruction of the myelin that surrounds and insulates nerve fibers, usually appearing in young adulthood and manifested by one or more mild to severe neural and muscular impairments, as spastic weakness in one or more limbs, local sensory losses, bladder dysfunction, or visual disturbances.
- muscular dystrophy — a hereditary disease characterized by gradual wasting of the muscles with replacement by scar tissue and fat, sometimes also affecting the heart.
- natural philosophy — natural science.
- nebular hypothesis — the theory that the solar system evolved from a mass of nebular matter: prominent in the 19th century following its precise formulation by Laplace.
- needle-nose pliers — long thin pliers
- neuroleptanalgesia — a semiconscious nonreactive state induced by certain drug combinations, as fentanyl with droperidol.
- neurophysiological — the branch of physiology dealing with the functions of the nervous system.
- neuropsychological — Of or pertaining to neuropsychology, the relation or combination of brain and mind.
- neutrosophic logic — (logic) (Or "Smarandache logic") A generalisation of fuzzy logic based on Neutrosophy. A proposition is t true, i indeterminate, and f false, where t, i, and f are real values from the ranges T, I, F, with no restriction on T, I, F, or the sum n=t+i+f. Neutrosophic logic thus generalises: - intuitionistic logic, which supports incomplete theories (for 0
- non-responsibility — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- nonpartisan league — a political organization of farmers, founded in North Dakota in 1915, and extending to many states west of the Mississippi, with the aim of influencing agricultural legislation in state legislatures.
- nonpreferentialism — of, relating to, or of the nature of preference: preferential policies.
- nord-pas-de-calais — a region of N France, on the Straits of Dover (the Pas de Calais): coal-mining, textile, and metallurgical industries
- normally aspirated — A normally aspirated or naturally aspirated engine breathes air at atmospheric pressure.
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- oedipus at colonus — a tragedy by Sophocles, written toward the end of his life and produced posthumously in 401? b.c.
- offset lithography — offset (def 6).
- old curiosity shop — a novel (1840–41) by Dickens.
- on everyone's lips — being much discussed
- operationalisation — Alternative spelling of operationalization.
- optical disc drive — optical disk drive
- optical disk drive — (hardware) (Or "optical disc drive", "optical storage") A generic term for any device that reads and/or writes optical media, i.e. compact discs, DVDs and/or Blu-ray discs or future media that uses light (from a small laser) to read data off a removable, rotating disk. At least one such drive is commonly installed in most personal computers to allow them to play and/or record audio and video media and load and store data such as program installers. The floppy disk has been replaced by optical media due to its vastly greater capacity, e.g. 50,000 megabytes for a dual-layer blu-ray disc compared with 1.5 megabytes for a floppy (over 30,000 times as much).
- optical microscope — traditional magnifying instrument
- optical soundtrack — the final soundtrack on a motion picture, which appears as a band of black and white serrations along a strip of film to the left of the composite print. Light is shined through the serrations and is converted to audible sound.
- oriental scops owl — any of a group of small owls having ear tufts and a whistling call, especially Otus scops (Old World scops owl) and O. sunia (Oriental scops owl)
- oscillographically — By means of oscillography.
- overspecialization — excessive specialization, as in a field of study.
- pacinian corpuscle — (sometimes lowercase) a microscopic, onionlike body consisting of layers of connective tissue wrapped around a nerve ending, located in the deep layers of skin, tendons, etc., and functioning as a sensory receptor of pressure and vibration.
- pair of spectacles — a score of 0 in each innings of a match
- paleoclimatologist — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.