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22-letter words containing p, r

  • restricted users group — a group of people who, with knowledge of a secret password, or by some other method, have access to restricted information stored in a computer
  • revolutions per minute — (unit)   (rpm, rarely: rotations per minute) A unit of angular velocity equal to 1/60 of a revolution per second.
  • rheumatoid spondylitis — ankylosing spondylitis.
  • rocky mountain juniper — a juniper, Juniperus scopulorum, of western North America, that yields a soft, reddish wood used for making fences, pencils, etc., and that is also grown as an ornamental.
  • saddleback caterpillar — a moth larva, Sibine stimulea, of the southeastern U.S, having a brown and green, saddlelike marking on its back and poisonous spines.
  • sainte anne de beaupre — a village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence River: shrine and basilica.
  • sainte-anne-de-beaupré — village in S Quebec, Canada, on the St. Lawrence: site of a Rom. Catholic shrine (established 1658): pop. 3,000
  • salt-marsh caterpillar — the fuzzy larva of a moth, Estigmene acrea, of North America, destructive to various crops.
  • sapir-whorf hypothesis — a theory developed by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf that states that the structure of a language determines or greatly influences the modes of thought and behavior characteristic of the culture in which it is spoken.
  • sarcoplasmic reticulum — a system of membrane-bound tubules that surrounds muscle fibrils, releasing calcium ions during contraction and absorbing them during relaxation.
  • satisfiability problem — A problem used as an example in complexity theory. It can be stated thus: Given a Boolean expression E, decide if there is some assignment to the variables in E such that E is true. A Boolean expression is composed of Boolean variables, (logical) negation (NOT), (logical) conjunction (AND) and parentheses for grouping. The satisfiability problem was the first problem to be proved to be NP-complete (by Cook).
  • saturday night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
  • saturday-night special — a cheap, small-caliber handgun that is easily obtainable and concealable.
  • scalable sampling rate — (compression, standard, algorithm)   (SSR) See, e.g., MPEG-4 AAC SSR.
  • schachter's hypothesis — (web)   The observation that "Given two unrelated technical terms, an Internet search engine will retrieve only résumés". This was first formulated by Joshua Eli Schachter in about 1998, while poring over the uniformly irrelevant pages that resulted from a search he'd run on "+Perl +MAPI" in Altavista.
  • school crossing patrol — the official name for lollipop man or lady
  • scissors-and-paste job — if you describe a piece of work as a scissors and paste job, you mean that it has been mechanically compiled, as if by simply cutting and pasting different parts to make a new whole
  • secondary spermatocyte — See under spermatocyte.
  • semipalmated sandpiper — a common North American sandpiper, Calidris pusillus, having semipalmate feet.
  • serial presence detect — presence detect
  • side-impact protection — a device that is intended to protect a car and its passengers in the event of a collision at the side
  • silicon graphics, inc. — (company)   (SGI) Manufacturer of workstations and software for graphics and image processing. SGI was founded by Dr. James H. Clark, who left some time before May 1994 to head Mosaic Communications Corporation. Quarterly sales $433M, profits $44M (Aug 1994).
  • simple harmonic motion — vibratory motion in a system in which the restoring force is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium. Abbreviation: S.H.M., s.h.m.
  • sing someone's praises — the act of expressing approval or admiration; commendation; laudation.
  • slip something over on — to move, flow, pass, or go smoothly or easily; glide; slide: Water slips off a smooth surface.
  • someone's number is up — someone's time to die or suffer punishment has arrived
  • south african republic — former name of Transvaal.
  • special delivery stamp — a stamp of special design, having a value indicating an extra fee in addition to the regular postage, and affixed to an item of mail to ensure its special delivery.
  • special drawing rights — the reserve assets of the International Monetary Fund on which member nations may draw in proportion to their contribution to the Fund
  • special interest group — (SIG) One of several technical areas, sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery. Well-known SIGs include SIGPLAN (the Special Interest Group on Programming Languages), SIGARCH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Architecture) and SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics).
  • special marine warning — a National Weather Service warning of high-wind conditions at sea that are expected to last for up to two hours, and generally result from convective storm systems, as thunderstorms or squall lines. Compare warning (def 3).
  • special school teacher — a teacher who works in a school for children who are unable to benefit from ordinary schooling because they have learning difficulties, physical or mental handicaps, etc
  • special-interest group — Also called special interest. a body of persons, corporation, or industry that seeks or receives benefits or privileged treatment, especially through legislation.
  • speckle interferometry — a photographic technique for clarifying the telescopic images of a star by taking short exposures of the electronic images of the star's speckle pattern and extrapolating properties of the starlight to create a more accurate composite image.
  • spectrophotometrically — an instrument for making photometric comparisons between parts of spectra.
  • spectroscopic analysis — the use of spectroscopy in determining the chemical or physical constitution of substances
  • speech from the throne — (in Britain and the dominions of the Commonwealth) the speech at the opening of each session of Parliament in which the Government outlines its legislative programme. It is read by the sovereign or his or her representative
  • spelling pronunciation — a pronunciation based on spelling, usually a variant of the traditional pronunciation. The spelling pronunciation of waistcoat is [weyst-koht] /ˈweɪstˌkoʊt/ (Show IPA) rather than [wes-kuh t] /ˈwɛs kət/ (Show IPA).
  • spherical trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry that deals with spherical triangles.
  • spinal accessory nerve — accessory nerve.
  • split-dollar insurance — life insurance in which someone helps pay the premiums for another, as when an employer contributes to the premiums of an employee's policy.
  • split-screen technique — a cinematic device by which two or more complete images are projected simultaneously onto separate parts of the screen
  • spontaneous generation — abiogenesis.
  • sports injuries clinic — a medical clinic that specializes in treating sports injuries
  • st-pierre and miquelon — group of islands in the Atlantic, south of Newfoundland, constituting a political unit of France: includes the islands of St-Pierre (c. 10 sq mi, 26 sq km) & Miquelon & several islets: 93 sq mi (241 sq km); pop. 6,000
  • stereospecific polymer — an organic polymer in which the steric arrangements of groups on asymmetric carbon atoms occur in a regular sequence
  • structured programming — the design and coding of programs by a methodology (top-down) that successively breaks problems into smaller, nested subunits.
  • stuffing and stripping — (in marine transport) the packing and unpacking of containers
  • subjective probability — a measure or estimate of the degree of confidence one may have in the occurrence of an event, defined by subjective criteria
  • subornation of perjury — the offense of bribing or otherwise persuading another to commit perjury.
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