22-letter words containing p, r, i, s
- critical path analysis — a technique for planning complex projects by analysing alternative systems with reference to the critical path, which is the sequence of stages requiring the longest time
- curvature of the spine — a condition in which the spine is abnormally curved
- d'alembert's principle — the principle that for a moving body the external forces are in equilibrium with the inertial forces; a generalization of Newton's third law of motion
- damn with faint praise — If someone damns something with faint praise, they say something about it which sounds quite nice but is not enthusiastic, and shows that they do not have a high opinion of it.
- decompression sickness — a disorder characterized by severe pain in muscles and joints, cramp, and difficulty in breathing, caused by a sudden and sustained decrease in air pressure, resulting in the deposition of nitrogen bubbles in the tissues
- dehydroepiandrosterone — the most abundant steroid in the human body, that is involved in the manufacture of testosterone, oestrogen, progesterone, and corticosterone
- descriptive cataloging — the aspect of cataloging concerned with the bibliographic and physical description of a book, recording, or other work, accounting for such items as author or performer, title, edition, and imprint as opposed to subject content.
- descriptive statistics — the use of statistics to describe a set of known data in a clear and concise manner, as in terms of its mean and variance, or diagrammatically, as by a histogram
- developmental disorder — any condition, such as autism or dyslexia, that appears in childhood and is characterized by delay in the development of one or more psychological functions, such as language skill
- digital standard mumps — (DSM) DEC's version of MUMPS.
- disciplinary committee — a committee charged with examining alleged breaches of discipline within an organization, profession, etc and adjudicating on them
- disposable soma theory — the theory that ageing is caused by the body having increasingly fewer resources to allocate towards repairing wear and damage to tissues
- distributed processing — a system consisting of a network of microcomputers performing certain functions and linked with a main computer used for more complex tasks
- earth inductor compass — a compass actuated by induction from the earth's magnetic field.
- electrophysiologically — In an electrophysiological way.
- employers' association — a body of employers, usually from the same sector of the economy, associated to further the interests of member companies by conducting negotiations with trade unions, providing advice, making representations to other bodies, etc
- english cocker spaniel — any of a breed of small spaniel, similar to and the progenitor of the cocker spaniel
- entertainment expenses — the money paid to employees to cover the cost of meals and other entertainment incurred while doing their job
- fall prey to something — To fall prey to something bad means to be taken over or affected by it.
- federal crop insurance — insurance against the failure of certain crops provided to farmers and producers by the Federal Government
- file transfer protocol — (FTP) A client-server protocol which allows a user on one computer to transfer files to and from another computer over a TCP/IP network. Also the client program the user executes to transfer files. It is defined in STD 9, RFC 959. See also anonymous FTP, FSP, TFTP.
- forced place insurance — Forced place insurance is insurance taken out by a bank or creditor on an uninsured debtor's behalf on a property that is being used as collateral.
- galvanic skin response — a change in the electrical conductivity of the skin caused by an emotional reaction to a stimulus.
- garmisch-partenkirchen — a city in S Germany, in the Bavarian Alps.
- general public license — (legal) (GPL, note US spelling) The licence applied to most software from the Free Software Foundation and the GNU project and other authors who choose to use it. The licences for most software are designed to prevent users from sharing or changing it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee the freedom to share and change free software - to make sure the software is free for all its users. The GPL is designed to make sure that anyone can distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if they wish); that they receive source code or can get it if they want; that they can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that they know they can do these things. The GPL forbids anyone to deny others these rights or to ask them to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for those who distribute copies of the software or modify it. See also General Public Virus.
- geographic determinism — a doctrine that regards geographical conditions as the determining or molding agency of group life.
- get/come to grips with — If you get to grips with a problem or if you come to grips with it, you consider it seriously, and start taking action to deal with it.
- give a person what for — to punish or reprimand a person severely
- give it up for someone — to applaud someone
- go their separate ways — When two or more people who have been together for some time go their separate ways, they go to different places or end their relationship.
- government osi profile — (networking, standard) (GOSIP) A subset of OSI standards specific to US Government procurements, designed to maximize interoperability in areas where plain OSI standards are ambiguous or allow excessive options.
- governor winthrop desk — an 18th-century American desk having a slant front.
- graph rewriting system — An extension of a term rewriting system which uses graph reduction on terms represented by directed graphs to avoid duplication of work by sharing expressions.
- graphical display unit — an output device incorporating a cathode ray tube on which both line drawings and text can be displayed. It is usually used in conjunction with a light pen to input or reposition data
- gravitational collapse — the final stage of stellar evolution in which a star collapses to a final state, as a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole, when the star's nuclear reactions no longer generate enough pressure to balance the attractive force of gravity.
- gross domestic product — gross national product excluding payments on foreign investments. Abbreviation: GDP.
- gross national product — the total monetary value of all final goods and services produced in a country during one year. Abbreviation: GNP.
- gross written premiums — Gross written premiums are the total revenue from a contract expected to be received by an insurer before deductions for reinsurance or ceding commissions.
- guanosine triphosphate — GTP.
- gum bichromate process — a contact printing method in which the image is formed on a coating of sensitized gum containing a suitable colored pigment and potassium or ammonium dichromate.
- help a person off with — to assist a person in the removal of (clothes)
- hemorrhagic septicemia — an acute infectious disease of animals, caused by the bacterium Pasteurella multocida, and characterized by fever, catarrhal symptoms, pneumonia, and general blood infection.
- hold the purse strings — hold the purse strings, to have the power to determine how money shall be spent.
- horn-rimmed spectacles — spectacles with rims made of material resembling horn
- horseradish peroxidase — Histology. an enzyme, isolated from horseradish, that when microinjected can be detected by the colored products of the reaction it catalyzes, used as a tracer, as in tracing the route of a motor neuron from the cell body in the spinal cord to the muscle it innervates.
- hospital administrator — a person who works in the management team of a hospital
- hybrid multiprocessing — (parallel) (HMP) The kind of multitasking which OS/2 supports. HMP provides some elements of symmetric multiprocessing, using add-on IBM software called MP/2. OS/2 SMP was planned for release in late 1993.
- independent assortment — law of independent assortment.
- information processing — processing of information, especially the handling of information by computers in accordance with strictly defined systems of procedure.
- interoperable database — A database front-end which communicates with multiple heterogenous databases and makes them appear as a single homogenous entity with semantic calls. See ODBC.