18-letter words containing p, r, e, v
- rapid eye movement — rapidly shifting, continuous movements of the eyes beneath closed lids during the stage of sleep characterized by dreaming.
- reactive component — the component in an alternating-current circuit that does not contribute power because it is 90° out of phase with the voltage or current.
- recovery operation — the process of locating and retrieving bodies, esp following an explosion or natural disaster
- redevelopment area — an urban area in which all or most of the buildings are demolished and rebuilt
- representativeness — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- reverse psychology — (in nontechnical use) a method of getting another person to do what one wants by pretending not to want it or to want something else or something more.
- ribbon development — housing or commercial buildings built along a stretch of road.
- sea-level pressure — the atmospheric pressure, at any elevation, reduced by formula to a value approximating the pressure at sea level.
- service department — a repair shop
- set priority level — (SPL) The way traditional Unix kernels implement mutual exclusion by running code at high interrupt priority levels and thus blocking lower level interrupts.
- silvery spleenwort — a fern, Diplazium pycnocarpon, of eastern North America, having fronds from 20 to 30 inches (50.8 to 76.2 cm) long on yellowish-green stalks.
- special relativity — the state or fact of being relative.
- split-level cooker — a cooker that is designed with a separate oven and hob so that they can be fitted wherever is most convenient in the kitchen
- super royal octavo — a book size, 63⁄4 by 101⁄4 inches
- superior vena cava — See under vena cava.
- supportive therapy — any treatment, such as the intravenous administration of certain fluids, designed to reinforce or sustain the physiological well-being of a patient
- surveyor's compass — an instrument used by surveyors for measuring azimuths.
- telephone receiver — a device, as in a telephone, that converts changes in an electric current into sound.
- the operative word — If you describe a word as the operative word, you want to draw attention to it because you think it is important or exactly true in a particular situation.
- to play favourites — to display favouritism
- to scrape a living — If you say that someone scrapes a living or scratches a living, you mean that they manage to earn enough to live on, but it is very difficult. In American English, you say they scrape out a living or scratch out a living.
- transverse process — a process that projects from the sides of a vertebra.
- universal coupling — a coupling between rotating shafts set at an angle to one another, allowing for rotation in three planes.
- vectorcardiography — a method of determining the direction and magnitude of the electrical forces of the heart.
- venture capitalist — funds invested or available for investment in a new or unproven business enterprise.
- vermiform appendix — a narrow, blind tube protruding from the cecum, having no known useful function, in humans being 3 to 4 inches (8 to 10 cm) long and situated in the lower right-hand part of the abdomen.
- videotape recorder — a device for recording television programs on magnetic tape for delayed transmission or for storage.
- vigoureux printing — a printing method in which worsted fibers are printed with the desired color while in sliver form and then processed into yarn, producing a mixed color in the spun yarn and woven fabric.
- visiting professor — a professor from another institution invited to teach at a university or college for a limited period, usually for a semester or one academic year.
- vulcan nerve pinch — (jargon) (Or "three-finger salute", Vulcan death grip; from the old "Star Trek" TV series via Commodore Amiga hackers) The keyboard combination that forces a soft boot or jump to ROM monitor (on machines that support such a feature). On an Amiga this is done with Ctrl/Right Amiga/Left Amiga; on IBM PCs and many microcomputers it is Ctrl/Alt/Del; on Suns, L1-A; on some Macintoshes, it is
- ! Silicon Graphics users are obviously the most dextrous however, as these machines use the five-finger combination: Left Shift/Left Ctrl/Left Alt/Keypad Divide/F12. Compare quadruple bucky.