19-letter words containing p, u, r, s, a
- pretty as a picture — girl: sweetly attractive
- prick up one's ears — a puncture made by a needle, thorn, or the like.
- private prosecution — a prosecution started by a private individual rather than by the police
- privatization issue — an issue of shares available for purchase by members of the public when a publicly owned organization is transferred to the private sector
- profitability study — a study of how much profit a company, organization, etc, makes or how profitable it is
- progressive judaism — Reform Judaism.
- property speculator — a person who takes part in property speculation
- provably unsolvable — The set or property of problems for which no algorithm at all exists. E.g. the Halting Problem. See also provably difficult.
- pseudo-aristocratic — of or relating to government by an aristocracy.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudo-conservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- pseudo-experimental — pertaining to, derived from, or founded on experiment: an experimental science.
- pseudo-intransitive — denoting an occurrence of a normally transitive verb in which a direct object is not explicitly stated or forms the subject of the sentence, as in Margaret is cooking or these apples cook well
- pseudo-professional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- pseudohermaphrodite — an individual having internal reproductive organs of one sex and external sexual characteristics resembling those of the other sex or being ambiguous in nature. Compare hermaphrodite (def 1).
- pseudorandom number — (programming) One of a sequence of numbers generated by some algorithm so as to have an even distribution over some range of values and minimal correlation between successive values. Pseudorandom numbers are used in simulation and encryption. They are pseudorandom not random because the sequence eventually repeats exactly and is entirely determined by the initial conditions. One of the simplest algorithms is x[i+1] = (a * x[i] + c) mod m but this repeats after at most m numbers and successive numbers are closely related. Better algorithms generally use more previous numbers to calculate the next number.
- public-interest law — a branch of law that often utilizes class-action suits to protect the interest of a large group or of the public at large, as in matters relating to racial discrimination, air pollution, etc.
- puerperal psychosis — a mental disorder sometimes occurring in women after childbirth, characterized by deep depression, delusions of the child's death, and homicidal feelings towards the child
- pugwash conferences — international peace conferences of scientists held regularly to discuss world problems: Nobel peace prize 1995 awarded to Joseph Rotblat (1908–2005) , one of the founders of the conferences, secretary-general (1957–73), and president (1988–97)
- put a figure on sth — When you put a figure on an amount, you say exactly how much it is.
- quartermaster corps — the branch of the U.S. Army responsible for supplying food, clothing, fuel, and equipment and for the operation of commissaries, laundries, etc.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- reflux oesophagitis — inflammation of the gullet caused by regurgitation of stomach acids, producing heartburn: may be associated with a hiatus hernia
- reserved occupation — in time of war, an occupation from which one will not be called up for military service
- respiratory failure — a condition in which the respiratory system is unable to provide an adequate supply of oxygen or to remove carbon dioxide efficiently
- resplendent quetzal — See under quetzal (def 1).
- saddharma-pundarika — a Mahayana sutra, forming with its references to Amida and the Bodhisattvas the basis for the doctrine that there is something of Buddha in everyone, so that salvation is universally available: a central text of Mahayana Buddhism.
- san juan capistrano — a city in SW California: site of old Spanish mission; known for annual return of swallows, said to occur on March 19.
- sb's spiritual home — your spiritual home is the place where you feel that you belong, usually because your ideas or attitudes are the same as those of the people who live there
- scale down (or up) — to reduce (or increase), often according to a fixed ratio or proportion
- sexual reproduction — reproduction involving the union of gametes.
- sexual stereotyping — the formation or promotion of a fixed general idea or image of how men and women will behave
- sharp-focus realism — photorealism.
- sharp-tailed grouse — a grouse, Pedioecetes phasianellus, of prairies and open forests of western North America, similar in size to the prairie chicken but with a more pointed tail.
- slugging percentage — a number expressing a player's average effectiveness in making extra-base hits, calculated by dividing the total number of bases (from all singles, doubles, triples, and home runs) by the number of official at bats
- southern crab apple — a tree, Malus angustifolia, of the eastern U.S., having oblong leaves, fragrant, pink or rose-colored flowers, and small, round, yellow-green fruit.
- spare a thought for — If you spare a thought for an unfortunate person, you make an effort to think sympathetically about them and their bad luck.
- specular reflection — Specular reflection is reflection of heat or light in which the angles of different parts of the surface are important.
- spider-hunting wasp — any solitary wasp of the superfamily Pompiloidea, having a slender elongated body: the fast-running female hunts spiders as a food store for her larvae
- spin quantum number — the quantum number that designates the total angular momentum associated with electron spin and has a value of ½ in units of h /2π.
- standing broad jump — a jump for distance from a standing position.
- stationery cupboard — a cupboard where things like paper, pens and paper clips are kept
- step-up transformer — a device that transfers an alternating current from one circuit to one or more other circuits with an increase of voltage
- stratford-upon-avon — town in S Warwickshire, England, on the Avon: birthplace & burial place of Shakespeare: pop. of county district (called Stratford-on-Avon) 106,000
- subnuclear particle — any of the elementary particles, including those that do not exist in stable matter but appear as a result of high-energy collisions of other particles or nuclei.
- subtractive process — a process of color photography in which the colors are formed by combination of cyan, yellow, and magenta lights.
- sun-and-planet gear — a planetary epicyclic gear train.
- superannuation fund — a fund used for paying pensions
- supercritical fluid — A supercritical fluid is a fluid at a temperature and pressure at which there is no difference between liquid and gas.
- supernatural virtue — one of the three graces: faith, hope, or charity, infused into the human intellect and will by a special grace of God.