21-letter words containing p, r, e, y
- residual unemployment — the unemployment that remains in periods of full employment, as a result of those mentally, physically, or emotionally unfit to work
- reverse polish syntax — postfix notation
- rob peter to pay paul — to take something from (someone) by unlawful force or threat of violence; steal from.
- schlieren photography — a type of photography which records schlieren
- scorched earth policy — a military practice of devastating the property and agriculture of an area before abandoning it to an advancing enemy.
- scorched-earth policy — a military practice of devastating the property and agriculture of an area before abandoning it to an advancing enemy.
- social inquiry report — (in Britain) a report on a person and his or her circumstances, which may be required by a court before sentencing and is made by a probation officer or a social worker from a local authority social services department
- split-screen facility — a facility allowing different scenes to be shown on screen at the same time
- sport utility vehicle — a rugged vehicle with a trucklike chassis and four-wheel drive, designed for occasional off-road use. Abbreviation: SUV.
- sport-utility vehicle — a rugged vehicle with a trucklike chassis and four-wheel drive, designed for occasional off-road use. Abbreviation: SUV.
- steady-state response — A steady-state response is the behavior of a circuit after a long time when steady conditions have been reached after an external excitation.
- strachey, christopher — Christopher Strachey
- supplementary benefit — (formerly) an extra amount of money that is paid to someone by the government, in addition to their normal income. Replaced by income support in 1988
- sympathetic vibration — a vibration induced by resonance.
- tape operating system — (operating system) (TOS) An IBM operating system for System 360, used in the early days around 1965 to support the IBM 360 model 30 et al. TOS was a predecessor to IBM's Disk Operating System. TOS died out really early as disks such as the 2311 and 2314 became common with the IBM 360 whereas thet had been a real luxury on the IBM 7090.
- the apple of your eye — If you say that someone is the apple of your eye, you mean that they are very important to you and you are extremely fond of them.
- theoretical physicist — a scientist who studies theoretical physics
- therapeutic community — a group-based form of therapy for mental disorders, sometimes residential
- third party procedure — impleader.
- third-party insurance — insurance that compensates for a loss to a party other than the insured for which the insured is liable.
- threshold wage policy — a policy whereby wages are increased in accordance with inflation
- to be public property — to be publicly owned
- to mix your metaphors — If you mix your metaphors, you use two conflicting metaphors. People do this accidentally, or sometimes deliberately as a joke.
- to play the race card — if someone plays the race card they bring up the issue of race in a discussion, perhaps for sympathy or to seek popularity by appealing to racist sentiment
- tripartite and fretty — (of a cross) having the limbs divided into three longitudinal strips each, intermingled in the manner of those in a cross parted and fretty.
- trustee in bankruptcy — a person appointed by a court to administer the property of a bankrupt.
- ulster unionist party — a Northern Irish political party advocating the maintenance of union with the UK
- uncertainty principle — the principle of quantum mechanics, formulated by Heisenberg, that the accurate measurement of one of two related, observable quantities, as position and momentum or energy and time, produces uncertainties in the measurement of the other, such that the product of the uncertainties of both quantities is equal to or greater than h/ 2 π, where h equals Planck's constant.
- west university place — a city in SE Texas.
- yellow lady's-slipper — a showy orchid, Cypripedium calceolus, of eastern North America, having purple-tinged yellow flowers with an inflated lip petal.
- yellow-rumped warbler — a common North American wood warbler, Dendroica coronata, having yellow spots on the rump, crown, and sides, including a white-throated eastern subspecies (myrtle warbler) and a yellow-throated western subspecies (Audubon's warbler)