23-letter words containing p, u, r, e, l
- precautionary principle — the precept that an action should not be taken if the consequences are uncertain and potentially dangerous
- price escalation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to raise prices if the cost of inputs increases
- professional misconduct — a violation of the rules or boundaries set by the governing body of a profession
- program design language — Any of a large class of formal and profoundly useless pseudo-languages in which management forces one to design programs. Too often, management expects PDL descriptions to be maintained in parallel with the code, imposing massive overhead of little or no benefit. See also flow chart.
- public enemy number one — (not in official use) a criminal at the top of the FBI's list of the ten most wanted criminals.
- public sector borrowing — government borrowing to fund the public sector
- public-key cryptography — public-key encryption
- puerto rican royal palm — a feather palm, Roystonea borinquena, of Puerto Rico and St. Croix, having leaves about 10 feet (3 meters) long and egg-shaped, yellowish-brown fruit.
- refuse disposal service — a place or facility where rubbish and waste can be disposed
- relative sunspot number — a number indicating the degree of sunspot activity on the sun as a factor of observer idiosyncrasies, the number of sunspot groups, and the number of individual sunspots.
- rocky mountain beeplant — a rank-smelling plant, Cleome serrulata, of the caper family, native to the western U.S., having showy, dense clusters of pink or white flowers, frequented by bees.
- sidewalk superintendent — a bystander who watches the building, demolition, repair, or other work being done at a construction site.
- slum clearance campaign — a campaign to rehouse those people who live in a slum area, and to prepare the area for demolition and rebuilding
- social security payment — a payment of social security made to an individual
- sodium tripolyphosphate — a white powder, Na 5 P 3 O 1 0 , used as a water softener, sequestering agent, and food additive.
- st. pierre and miquelon — two small groups of islands off the S coast of Newfoundland: an overseas territory of France; important base for fishing. 3 sq. mi. (240 sq. km). Capital: St. Pierre.
- structural unemployment — unemployment caused by basic changes in the overall economy, as in demographics, technology, or industrial organization.
- subscription television — pay television.
- superposition principle — principle of superposition.
- supplementary insurance — Supplementary insurance is insurance coverage that is purchased in addition to an insurance policy to provide additional benefits or coverage.
- suprasegmental phonemes — phonemes or features of speech, as pitch, stress, and juncture, that may extend over and modify series of segmental phonemes
- text processing utility — (language) (TPU) A DEC language for creation of text-processing interfaces, used to implement DEC's Extensible VAX Editor (EVE).
- to keep sth to yourself — If you keep something to yourself, you do not tell anyone else about it.
- to keep your nose clean — If you keep your nose clean, you behave well and stay out of trouble.
- to pluck up the courage — If you pluck up the courage to do something that you feel nervous about, you make an effort to be brave enough to do it.
- to win the popular vote — to get a majority as regards the votes cast by individual voters
- trans-new guinea phylum — the largest grouping of the non-Austronesian languages of Papua and New Guinea and the surrounding regions
- virtual private network — (networking, security) (VPN) The use of encryption in the lower protocol layers to provide a secure connection through an otherwise insecure network, typically the Internet. VPNs are generally cheaper than real private networks using private lines but rely on having the same encryption system at both ends. The encryption may be performed by firewall software or possibly by routers. Link-level (layer 2 and 3) encryption provides extra protection by encrypting all of each datagram except the link-level information. This prevents a listener from obtaining information about network structure. While link-level encryption prevents traffic analysis (a form of attack), it must encrypt/decrypt on every hop and every path. Protocol-level encryption (layer 3 and 4) encryption encrypts protocol data but leaves protocol and link headers clear. While protocol-level encryption requires you to encrypt/decrypt data only once, and it encrypts/decrypts only those sessions that need it, headers are sent as clear text, allowing traffic analysis. Application (layer 5 up) encryption is based on a particular application and requires that the application be modified to incorporate encryption.
- visual display terminal — video display terminal. Abbreviation: VDT.
- volumetric displacement — the volume of air per revolution that passes through a mechanical pump when the pressure at the intake and the exhaust is the same as that of the atmosphere
- voyageurs national park — a national park in N Minnesota. 343 sq. mi. (888 sq. km).