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18-letter words containing p, y, r

  • potassium myronate — sinigrin.
  • prayer of manasses — a book of the Apocrypha.
  • pre-filled syringe — A pre-filled syringe is a disposable syringe that is supplied already loaded with the substance to be injected.
  • preparatory school — a private or parochial secondary school, especially one boarding its students and providing a college-preparatory education.
  • presentation layer — (networking)   The second highest layer (layer 6) in the OSI seven layer model. Performs functions such as text compression, code or format conversion to try to smooth out differences between hosts. Allows incompatible processes in the application layer to communicate via the session layer. Documents: ITU Rec. X.226 (ISO 8823), ITU Rec. X.216 (ISO 8822).
  • priority interrupt — (jargon)   Any stimulus compelling enough to yank one right out of hack mode. Classically used to describe being dragged away by an SO for immediate sex, but may also refer to more mundane interruptions such as a fire alarm going off in the near vicinity. Also called an NMI (non-maskable interrupt), especially in PC-land.
  • priority inversion — (parallel)   The state of a concurrent system where a high priority task is waiting for a low priority task which is waiting for a medium priority task. The system may become unstable and crash under these circumstances. In an operating system that uses multiple tasks, each task (or context) may be given a priority. These priorities help the scheduler decide which task to run next. Consider tasks, L, M, and H, with priorities Low, Medium, and High. M is running and H is blocked waiting for some resource that is held by L. So long as any task with a priority higher than L is runable, it will prevent task L, and thus task H, from running. Priority inversion is generally considered either as a high-level design failure or an implementation issue to be taken into account depending on who is talking. Most operating systems have methods in place to prevent or take inversion into account. Priority inheritance is one method. The most public instance of priority inversion is the repeated 'fail-safe' rebooting of the Mars Pathfinder. base station ('Sagan Memorial Station').
  • probability theory — the theory of analyzing and making statements concerning the probability of the occurrence of uncertain events. Compare probability (def 4).
  • processionary moth — a moth of the family Thaumetopoeidae, esp the oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea processionea), the larvae of which leave the communal shelter nightly for food in a V-shaped procession
  • product life cycle — the four stages (introduction, growth, maturity, and decline) into one of which the sales of a product fall during its market life
  • production company — an organization which produces, films, plays, television or radio programmes
  • productivity bonus — an extra payment made to workers for being more productive or yielding more favourable results than normal
  • programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
  • property developer — person: deals in real estate
  • property insurance — insurance coverage for land and housing
  • proprietary colony — any of certain colonies, as Maryland and Pennsylvania, that were granted to an individual or group by the British crown and that were granted full rights of self-government.
  • proprietary rights — rights of ownership
  • protective custody — detention of a person by the police solely as protection against a possible attack or reprisal by someone.
  • protein deficiency — a lack or insuffiency of protein
  • proton synchrotron — a synchrotron used for accelerating protons.
  • provably difficult — The set or property of problems for which it can be proven that no polynomial-time algorithm exists, only exponential-time algorithms.
  • psychogalvanometer — a type of galvanometer for detecting and measuring psychogalvanic currents.
  • psychopharmacology — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the psychological effects of drugs.
  • psychotherapeutics — psychotherapy.
  • pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
  • pulp canal therapy — endodontics.
  • put your foot down — If someone puts their foot down, they use their authority in order to stop something happening.
  • pyramus and thisbe — (in Greek legend) two lovers of Babylon: Pyramus, wrongly supposing Thisbe to be dead, killed himself and she, encountering him in his death throes, did the same
  • pyromucic aldehyde — furfural.
  • pyrosulphuric acid — a fuming liquid acid made by adding sulphur trioxide to concentrated sulphuric acid. Formula: H2S2O7
  • raman spectroscopy — a form of spectroscopy which uses the Raman effect for studying molecules
  • rapid eye movement — rapidly shifting, continuous movements of the eyes beneath closed lids during the stage of sleep characterized by dreaming.
  • recovery operation — the process of locating and retrieving bodies, esp following an explosion or natural disaster
  • redundancy payment — a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
  • reentering polygon — a polygon having one or more reentering angles.
  • registered company — a company which has officially registered its business
  • repayment mortgage — a mortgage that you pay back in monthly repayments which consist of the accrued interest in addition to the original amount borrowed
  • repayment schedule — a document detailing the specific terms of a borrower's loan, such as monthly payment, interest rate, due dates etc
  • reporters' gallery — an area in parliament reserved for journalists and reporters
  • respiratory arrest — cessation of breathing
  • respiratory system — the system by which oxygen is taken into the body and an exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place; in mammals the system includes the nasal passages, pharynx, trachea, bronchi, and lungs.
  • reverse psychology — (in nontechnical use) a method of getting another person to do what one wants by pretending not to want it or to want something else or something more.
  • richard p. feynman — (person, computing, architecture)   /fayn'mn/ 1918-1988. A US physicist, computer scientist and author who graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton. Feynmane was a key figure in helping Oppenheimer and team develop atomic bomb. In 1950 he became a professor at Caltech and in 1965 became Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics for QED (quantum electrodynamics). He was a primary figure in "solving" the Challenger disaster O-ring problem. He "rediscovered" the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Tuva. The 2001 film "Infinity" about Feynman's early life featured Matthew Broderick and Patricia Arquette. In 2001, "QED", a play about Feynman's life featuring Alan Alda opened.
  • room occupancy tax — Room occupancy tax is a tax that guests at a hotel have to pay in order to stay there.
  • root canal therapy — endodontics.
  • rural municipality — any lightly settled area in Canada lacking a local elected government and administered directly by a provincial government.
  • sampling frequency — sample rate
  • saskatchewan party — (in Canada) a Saskatchewan political party formed by former members of the provincial Progressive Conservative and Liberal Parties
  • secondary syphilis — the second stage of syphilis, characterized by eruptions of the skin and mucous membrane.
  • self-deprecatingly — in a self-deprecating manner
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