23-letter words containing p, r, e, c, i
- parliamentary secretary — government minister's assistant
- participant observation — a technique of field research, used in anthropology and sociology, by which an investigator (participant observer) studies the life of a group by sharing in its activities.
- participating insurance — insurance in which the policyholders receive dividends and share in the surplus earnings of the company.
- participating preferred — a preferred stock entitled to its fixed dividend and to additional ones on a specified basis after payment of dividends on common stock.
- participatory democracy — individual participation by citizens in political decisions and policies that affect their lives, especially directly rather than through elected representatives.
- particulate inheritance — the inheritance of discrete characters via genes that are independently expressed without the blending of characters from one generation to the next.
- pentachloronitrobenzene — a crystalline compound, C 6 Cl 5 NO 2 , used as an herbicide and insecticide. Abbreviation: PCNB.
- perceived noise decibel — a unit for measuring perceived levels of noise by comparison with the sound pressure level of a reference sound judged equally noisy by a normal listener
- percentage distribution — a frequency distribution is which individual frequencies are shown as a percentage of the total frequencies
- peroxymonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
- pharmaceuticals company — a company specialising in developing and marketing pharmaceuticals
- photoelectric magnitude — the magnitude of a star determined using a photometer plus a filter to select light or other radiation of the desired wavelength
- photoelectric threshold — the minimum frequency or maximum wavelength of incident radiation necessary to release photons from a given surface.
- physical memory address — physical address
- pin someone's ears back — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.
- pithecanthropus erectus — Java man
- play by electronic mail — (games) A kind of game where the players use electronic mail to communicate. This may be done via a human moderator or an automatic mailing list exploder on some central machine or it may be fully distributed with each player just addressing his mail to all other players. This is a natural extension of "play by mail" games conducted via snail mail.
- political incorrectness — Political incorrectness is the attitude or policy shown by someone who does not care if they offend or upset any group of people in society who have a disadvantage, or who have been treated differently because of their sex, race, or disability.
- polyvinylidene chloride — a polymer of vinylidene chloride, used chiefly in the manufacture of saran.
- portable tool interface — (programming, standard) (PTI) A standard such as PCTE, allowing interworking between different software tools via defined interfaces to the user and to the repository or object management system.
- positive discrimination — special opportunities
- postcode discrimination — discrimination on the basis of the area where someone lives, with relation to employment, credit rating, etc
- potassium acid tartrate — cream of tartar.
- power factor correction — Power factor correction is the process of increasing the power factor to near unity without altering the original load.
- praxis critical systems — (company) The company that supplies SPARK.
- precautionary principle — the precept that an action should not be taken if the consequences are uncertain and potentially dangerous
- precipitation hardening — a process in which alloys are strengthened by the formation, in their lattice, of a fine dispersion of one component when the metal is quenched from a high temperature and aged at an intermediate temperature
- preclinical safety data — Preclinical safety data is information about the safety of a medication that is assessed before clinical trials.
- price escalation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to raise prices if the cost of inputs increases
- price out of the market — to charge so highly for as to prevent the sale, hire, etc, of
- print services facility — (printer) (PSF) IBM's system software which generates native IBM printer language, IPDS and, depending on the version, PostScript and LaserJet PCL. See also: Advanced Function Presentation.
- printer access protocol — (networking, protocol, printer) (PAP) A protocol used in Mac OS Appletalk to provide bi-directional communication between PostScript printers and the client computer.
- private branch exchange — (communications) (PBX) A telephone exchange local to a particular organisation who use, rather than provide, telephone services. The earliest PBXs were manual (Private Manual Branch EXchange, PMBX) but are now more likely to be automatic (Private Automatic Branch eXchange).
- private limited company — a company whose shares can be bought by the public
- process gas compression — Process gas compression is a procedure for pressurizing and circulating gas through a process by compressing it in a cylinder, to enhance conditions for chemical reaction.
- process hazard analysis — Process hazard analysis is calculating what might be a hazard in a process, how likely it is to happen, and what should be done if someone or something is exposed to this hazard.
- process intensification — Process intensification is a change made to a process to make it work in a smaller volume for the same performance.
- product differentiation — the real or illusory distinction between competing products in a market
- professional misconduct — a violation of the rules or boundaries set by the governing body of a profession
- progressive cavity pump — A progressive cavity pump is a pump with an electric motor that rotates rods to make fluid in cavities move upward.
- provocative maintenance — [Common ironic mutation of "preventive maintenance"] Actions performed upon a machine at regularly scheduled intervals to ensure that the system remains in a usable state. So called because it is all too often performed by a field servoid who doesn't know what he is doing; such "maintenance" often *induces* problems, or otherwise results in the machine's remaining in an *un*usable state for an indeterminate amount of time. See also scratch monkey.
- psychomotor retardation — a generalized slowing of psychological and physical activity, frequently occurring as a symptom of severe depression.
- public enemy number one — (not in official use) a criminal at the top of the FBI's list of the ten most wanted criminals.
- public sector borrowing — government borrowing to fund the public sector
- public-key cryptography — public-key encryption
- puerto rican royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea borinquena, of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, having leaves about 10 feet (3 meters) long and egg-shaped, yellowish-brown fruit.
- put the record straight — to correct an error or misunderstanding
- real simple syndication — (spelling) Illiterate form of Really Simple Syndication.
- refuse disposal service — a place or facility where rubbish and waste can be disposed
- respectability politics — the set of beliefs holding that conformity to socially acceptable or mainstream standards of appearance and behavior will protect a member of a marginalized or minority group from prejudices and systemic injustices: Black respectability politics perpetuate the fiction of a meritocracy in public education.