17-letter words containing r, o, c, a, i
- procurator fiscal — In the Scottish legal system, the procurator fiscal is a public official who puts people on trial.
- product liability — the responsibility of a manufacturer for injury or loss caused by its product.
- production values — the quality of a media production (such as a film) in regards to elements such as colours, quality, style, etc
- proficiency badge — an insignia or device granted by the Girl Scouts and worn especially on a uniform to indicate special achievement.
- propanedioic acid — a colourless crystalline compound occurring in sugar beet. Formula: C3H4O4,CH2(COOH)2
- prostatic utricle — a small pouch near the prostate gland that opens into the urethra.
- protection factor — a figure representing the relative degree of protection from the sun's rays afforded by a particular sunscreen
- protection racket — a criminal activity in which money gangsters extort money from victims in exchange for freedom from molestation
- protective tariff — a tariff levied on imports to protect the domestic economy rather than to raise revenue
- prothoracic gland — either of a pair of endocrine glands in the anterior thorax of some insects, functioning to promote the series of molts from hatching to adulthood.
- provincial police — (in Canada) the police force of a province, esp Ontario or Quebec
- provincialization — to make provincial in character.
- pseudo-democratic — pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
- pseudo-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- pseudo-moralistic — a person who teaches or inculcates morality.
- psychographically — Psychology. a graph indicating the relative strength of the personality traits of an individual.
- psychoprophylaxis — Lamaze method.
- psychotherapeutic — psychotherapy.
- purple of cassius — a purple pigment precipitated as a sol by the interaction of gold chloride and a solution of stannic acid and stannous chloride: used chiefly in the manufacture of ruby glass, ceramic glazes, and enamels.
- put into practice — If you put a belief or method into practice, you behave or act in accordance with it.
- pyroligneous acid — a yellowish, acidic, water-soluble liquid, containing about 10 percent acetic acid, obtained by the destructive distillation of wood: used for smoking meats.
- pyrosulfuric acid — a strong, crystalline acid, H2S2O7, prepared commercially as a heavy, oily, fuming liquid: used in making explosives and dyes, as a sulfating agent, etc.
- quadratic formula — the formula for determining theroots of a quadratic equation from its coefficients: .
- quattuordecillion — a cardinal number represented in the U.S. by 1 followed by 45 zeros, and in Great Britain by 1 followed by 84 zeros.
- quick on the draw — having fast reflexes
- rack one's brains — to strain in mental effort, esp to remember something or to find the solution to a problem
- radio alarm clock — an alarm clock which consists of a radio that can be set to play at a particular time
- radioactive decay — decay (def 8).
- radioactive waste — the radioactive by-products from the operation of a nuclear reactor or from the reprocessing of depleted nuclear fuel.
- radioluminescence — luminescence induced by nuclear radiation.
- rail detector car — a car equipped with special instruments and used to locate defects in rails.
- railroad crossing — place for vehicles to cross train tracks
- rainbow coalition — a political grouping together by several minority parties
- rational function — a function that can be written as the quotient of two polynomials with integral coefficients.
- read the riot act — an English statute of 1715 providing that if 12 or more persons assemble unlawfully and riotously, to the disturbance of the public peace, and refuse to disperse upon proclamation they shall be considered guilty of felony.
- receding forehead — a forehead which slopes backwards
- recoil escapement — anchor escapement.
- recreation centre — a facility open to the public for leisure and recreation activities
- recreation ground — an open space for public recreation, esp one in a town, with swings and slides, etc, for children
- recreational drug — drug taken for pleasure
- recreationalist's — recreationist.
- recrystallization — to become crystallized again.
- recursion formula — a formula for determining the next term of a sequence from one or more of the preceding terms.
- recursive acronym — (convention) A hackish (and especially MIT) tradition is to choose acronyms and abbreviations that refer humorously to themselves or to other acronyms or abbreviations. The classic examples were two MIT editors called EINE ("EINE Is Not Emacs") and ZWEI ("ZWEI Was EINE Initially"). More recently, there is a Scheme compiler called LIAR (Liar Imitates Apply Recursively), and GNU stands for "GNU's Not Unix!" - and a company with the name CYGNUS, which expands to "Cygnus, Your GNU Support". See also mung.
- reduction formula — a formula, such as sin (90° ± A) = cos A, expressing the values of a trigonometric function of any angle greater than 90° in terms of a function of an acute angle
- reflection nebula — a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light of neighboring stars.
- refractory period — a short period after a nerve or muscle cell fires during which the cell cannot respond to additional stimulation.
- renaissance woman — a woman who has acquired profound knowledge or proficiency in more than one field.
- rental collection — a group of books, in a public or other free library, for which a borrower must pay a fee.
- republic of china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.