17-letter words containing p, r, s
- field penny-cress — the common penny-cress, Thlaspi arvense.
- first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
- first-loss policy — an insurance policy for goods in which a total loss is extremely unlikely and the insurer agrees to provide cover for a sum less than the total value of the property
- fitness programme — a plan to help someone improve their health and physical condition
- five-spice powder — a mixture of spices used especially in Chinese cooking, usually including cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, pepper, and star anise.
- flash photography — photography using a momentary flash of artificial light as a source of illumination.
- flexible response — a military strategy that enables the response to an attack to be adapted to the nature and strength of the attack
- floppy disk drive — disk drive
- fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
- for the most part — a portion or division of a whole that is separate or distinct; piece, fragment, fraction, or section; constituent: the rear part of the house; to glue the two parts together.
- forest enterprise — a British government department responsible for maintaining and expanding forests
- four-eyed opossum — a small opossum, Metachirops (Philander) opossum, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, having a white spot above each eye.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- frames per second — (unit) (fps) The unit of measurement of the frame rate of a moving image.
- francisco pizarro — Francisco [fran-sis-koh;; Spanish frahn-thees-kaw,, -sees-] /frænˈsɪs koʊ;; Spanish frɑnˈθis kɔ,, -ˈsis-/ (Show IPA), c1470–1541, Spanish conqueror of Peru.
- freedom of speech — the right of people to express their opinions publicly without governmental interference, subject to the laws against libel, incitement to violence or rebellion, etc.
- from soup to nuts — a liquid food made by boiling or simmering meat, fish, or vegetables with various added ingredients.
- from the rooftops — If you shout something from the rooftops, you say it or announce it in a very public way.
- garden apartments — a complex of low apartment buildings surrounded by lawn or landscaped areas
- gas chromatograph — a chromatograph used for the separation of volatile substances.
- gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
- gender expression — the external expression of gender roles, as through socially defined behaviors and ways of dressing.
- general paralysis — a syphilitic brain disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and degeneration of cerebral tissue resulting in mental and physical deterioration.
- go-faster stripes — (jargon) chrome. Mainstream in some parts of UK.
- graduated pension — the money that an employee receives after retirement if they have paid into the graduated pension scheme
- grain of paradise — Usually, grains of paradise. one of the pungent, peppery seeds of an African plant, Aframomum melegueta, of the ginger family, used to strengthen cordials and in veterinary medicine.
- greaseproof paper — Greaseproof paper is a special kind of paper which does not allow fat or oil to pass through it. It is mainly used in cooking or to wrap food.
- greater spearwort — a Eurasian ranunculaceous plant, Ranunculus lingua, which grows in wet places and has long narrow leaves and yellow flowers
- greensand process — a process for casting iron with sand not previously heated.
- ground provisions — starchy vegetables, esp root crops and plantains
- handicap register — a list of the disabled people in its area that a local authority had a duty to compile under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
- heating apparatus — an apparatus that heats something
- hepatitis b virus — a form of hepatitis caused by a DNA virus (hepatitis B virus, or HBV) that persists in the blood, characterized by a long incubation period: usually transmitted by sexual contact or by injection or ingestion of infected blood or other bodily fluids.
- hippocampal gyrus — a convolution on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum, bordering the hippocampus.
- historiographical — the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively.
- home improvements — improvements to one's home, such as new kitchens and bathrooms, central heating etc
- hospital gangrene — Pathology. a contagious, often fatal gangrene, especially involving amputation stumps and war wounds, occurring usually in crowded, ill-kept hospitals, and caused by putrefactive bacteria.
- hot off the press — newspaper: freshly printed
- hot-and-sour soup — a spicy Chinese soup made with pork, chicken, beans, vinegar, etc., served hot
- housekeeping cart — A housekeeping cart is a large metal basket on wheels which is used by a cleaner in a hotel to move clean bed linen, towels, and cleaning equipment.
- http proxy server — (web) A proxy server for HTTP requests. Typically an HTTP proxy or "web proxy" accepts HTTP requests containing URLs with a special prefix. The proxy removes the prefix and looks for the resulting URL in its local cache (if it is a caching proxy). If found, it returns the document immediately, otherwise it fetches it from the remote server, saves a copy in its cache and returns it to the requester. The cache will usually have an expiry algorithm which flushes documents according to their age, size and access history. The purpose is to reduce the amount of data flowing over the proxy's Internet connection and to speed up clients' access to frequently requested pages, e.g. at an ISP or on a large company's firewall. The proxy may also reject requests where the URL or content matches certain conditions. The Apache HTTP server can be configured to act as a proxy server. Another popular software proxy is Squid.
- huygens principle — the principle that all points on a wave front of light are sources of secondary waves and that surfaces tangential to these waves define the position of the wave front at any point in time.
- hydrogen sulphide — Chemistry
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- hyper-peristalsis — the progressive wave of contraction and relaxation of a tubular muscular system, especially the alimentary canal, by which the contents are forced through the system.
- hyperbolic cosine — one of a group of functions of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances of a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes; cosh
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
- hyperbolic spiral — rθ = a, (where a is a constant)
- hyperpolarisation — Alternative spelling of hyperpolarization.
- hypochlorous acid — a weak, unstable acid, HOCl, existing only in solution and in the form of its salts, used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant.