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16-letter words containing p, y, r, o, n

  • operating system — (operating system)   (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running. The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present and various system programs which use facilities provided by the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client-server relationship. Some would include a graphical user interface and window system as part of the OS, others would not. The operating system loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boot time or when installing the operating system would generally not be considered part of the operating system, though this distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operating system such as RISC OS. The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around the machines on which it runs. Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS, Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil, COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2, GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS, MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system, Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68, Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX, RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix, VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.
  • operating-system — the collection of software that directs a computer's operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS.
  • opportunity cost — the money or other benefits lost when pursuing a particular course of action instead of a mutually-exclusive alternative: The company cannot afford the opportunity cost attached to policy decisions made by the current CEO.
  • opportunity shop — a shop selling second-hand goods for charitable funds
  • opposed-cylinder — (of an internal-combustion engine) having cylinders on opposite sides of the crankcase in the same plane
  • organoleptically — In an organoleptic manner.
  • overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
  • parity operation — the mathematical operation of reversing the directions of all three space coordinates. Symbol: P.
  • parts of lindsey — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
  • periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
  • personal hygiene — bodily cleanliness
  • personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
  • personal stylist — a person employed by a rich or famous client to offer advice on clothes, hairstyles, and other aspects of personal appearance
  • personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
  • personality test — an instrument, as a questionnaire or series of standardized tasks, used to measure personality characteristics or to discover personality disorders.
  • personality type — a cluster of personality traits commonly occurring together
  • personnel agency — an agency for placing employable persons in jobs; employment agency.
  • pharmacodynamics — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the course of action, effect, and breakdown of drugs within the body.
  • photozincography — a type of photoengraving using a sensitized zinc plate.
  • phytoremediation — a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants.
  • pinot chardonnay — Chardonnay.
  • play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
  • polyhedral angle — a configuration consisting of the lateral faces of a polyhedron around one of its vertices. The portion of a pyramid including one of its points is such a configuration.
  • polyphonic prose — prose characterized by the use of poetic devices, as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, etc., and especially by an emphasis on rhythm not strictly metered.
  • polyvinyl formal — a colorless, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal produced from partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate and formaldehyde, used chiefly in the manufacture of lacquers.
  • potential energy — the energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
  • poverty-stricken — suffering from poverty; extremely poor: poverty-stricken refugees.
  • poynting theorem — the theorem that the rate of flow of electromagnetic energy through unit area is equal to the Poynting vector, i.e. the cross product of the electric and magnetic field intensities
  • prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
  • primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
  • primary election — primary (def 15a).
  • primary electron — in thermionics, any of the electrons falling on a body, distinguished from those emitted by it
  • prison psychosis — a state of mental confusion, transitory or permanent, brought on by incarceration or by the anticipation of imprisonment.
  • proboscis monkey — a reddish, arboreal monkey, Nasalis larvatus, of Borneo, the male of which has a long, flexible nose: an endangered species.
  • process industry — business of treating raw materials
  • proficiency test — an exam which test how proficient or skilled someone is in a particular activity, field of study, language, etc
  • progress payment — an instalment of a larger payment made to a contractor for work carried out up to a specified stage of the job
  • property company — a business that makes money by buying, selling, and renting out land and houses
  • proprietary name — a name of a product or service that is protected by a patent, copyright, or trademark and cannot be used by another party for commercial purposes without permission of the registered owner or licensee.
  • propylene glycol — a colorless, viscous, hygroscopic liquid, C 3 H 8 O, used chiefly as a lubricant, as an antifreeze, as a heat transfer fluid, and as a solvent for fats, oils, waxes, and resins.
  • protection money — law: criminal fee
  • proteus syndrome — a condition caused by malfunction in cell growth, in which bone and flesh tissue overgrow in localized areas of the body
  • pseudoparenchyma — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
  • pulmonary artery — an artery conveying venous blood from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs.
  • pyloric stenosis — an abnormal narrowing of the valve at the outlet from the stomach, preventing normal passage of food into the small intestine.
  • pyroconductivity — conductivity brought about by the application of heat, especially in solids that are not conductors at normal temperatures.
  • pyrovanadic acid — an oxyacid of vanadium, known chiefly in the form of its vanadate salts; Formula: H4V2O7
  • redemption yield — the yield produced by a redeemable gilt-edged security taking into account the annual interest it pays and an annualized amount to account for any profit or loss when it is redeemed
  • restriction play — a limited number of opening moves that are predetermined by their chance selection from an accepted list.
  • rhinopharyngitis — inflammation of the mucous membranes of the nose and pharynx.
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