15-letter words containing s, a, p, r
- depersonalizing — Present participle of depersonalize.
- dephosphorylate — to remove a phosphate group from (an organic compound)
- dermatoglyphics — the lines forming a skin pattern, esp on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet
- dermatographism — a condition in which touching or lightly scratching the skin causes raised, reddish marks.
- dermatophytosis — a fungal infection of the skin, esp the feet
- desktop manager — A user interface to system services, usually icon and menu based like the Macintosh Finder, enabling the user to run application programs and use a file system without directly using the command language of the operating system.
- diaheliotropism — the tendency among plants to respond to the light of the sun by orienting their leaves perpendicular to the sun's rays, such that the upper surface of the leaves receives maximum light
- diaphototropism — growth of a plant or plant part in a direction transverse to that of the light
- diastrophically — in a diastrophic fashion
- disciplinarians — Plural form of disciplinarian.
- dishwasherproof — (of dishes, cooking utensils, etc.) able to withstand washing in an automatic dishwasher without breaking, chipping, fading, etc.
- disincorporated — Simple past tense and past participle of disincorporate.
- disproportional — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disreputability — The state of being disreputable.
- distributor cap — the cap of an engine's distributor that holds in place the wires from the distributor to the sparking plugs
- draughtsmanship — (British) alternative spelling of draftsmanship.
- draw oneself up — to assume a straighter posture; stand or sit straight
- drop handlebars — aerodynamic handlebars that drop down and curve towards the rider at the ends rather than turning upwards as on conventional bicycles
- dysmorphophobia — an obsessive fear that one's body, or any part of it, is repulsive or may become so
- dystrophication — the process by which a body of water becomes dystrophic.
- early-type star — any massive hot star of spectral type O, B, or A
- east providence — a town in NE Rhode Island, near Providence.
- edriophthalmous — (of certain crustaceans) having stalkless eyes
- edwards plateau — a highland area in SW Texas. 2000–5000 feet (600–1500 meters) high.
- egyptian jasper — a type of jasper, generally with zones of colour, found in desert regions of Egypt
- enantiomorphism — (chemistry) The relationship exhibited by a pair of enantiomorphs.
- enantiomorphous — Of or pertaining to enantiomorphs or enantiomorphism; enantiomorphic.
- english sparrow — a small Eurasian weaverbird, Passer domesticus, now established in North America and Australia. It has a brown streaked plumage with grey underparts
- english speaker — a person who speaks English as a first, or second mother tongue
- enterohepatitis — dual inflammation of the intestine and liver
- enteropeptidase — Enterokinase.
- epsilon squared — (jargon) A quantity even smaller than epsilon, as small in comparison to epsilon as epsilon is to something normal; completely negligible. If you buy a supercomputer for a million dollars, the cost of the thousand-dollar terminal to go with it is epsilon, and the cost of the ten-dollar cable to connect them is epsilon squared. Compare lost in the underflow, lost in the noise.
- eric conspiracy — (person, humour) A shadowy group of moustachioed hackers named Eric first pinpointed as a sinister conspiracy by an infamous talk.bizarre posting ca. 1986. This was doubtless influenced by the numerous "Eric" jokes in the Monty Python oeuvre. There do indeed seem to be considerably more moustachioed Erics in hackerdom than the frequency of these three traits can account for unless they are correlated in some arcane way. Well-known examples include Eric Allman (of the "Allman style" described under indent style), Erik Fair (co-author of NNTP), Eric S. Raymond and about fifteen others. The organisation line "Eric Conspiracy Secret Laboratories" now emanates regularly from more than one site.
- evening prayers — the daily evening service of Bible readings and prayers prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer
- experientialism — (philosophy) The theory that experience is the source of knowledge.
- experientialist — A proponent of experientialism.
- experimentalism — An experimental practice or tendency, especially in the arts.
- experimentalist — One who performs experiments.
- export earnings — the earnings of a company or country that are generated through the export of goods or services
- expression mark — one of a set of musical directions, usually in Italian, indicating how a piece or passage is to be performed
- extemporisation — Alternative spelling of extemporization.
- external spline — any one of a series of narrow keys formed longitudinally around the circumference of a shaft that fit into corresponding grooves (internal splines) in a mating part: used to prevent movement between two parts, esp in transmitting torque
- facile princeps — an obvious leader
- fairy footsteps — heavy footsteps
- false pregnancy — physiological signs of pregnancy without conception; pseudocyesis.
- false pretences — fraud, deception
- false pretenses — If you do something under false pretenses, you do it when people do not know the truth about you and your intentions.
- familiar spirit — a supernatural spirit often assuming animal form, supposed to attend and aid a witch, wizard, etc
- fillister plane — an adjustable plane for cutting rabbets, grooves, etc
- fissiparousness — The quality of being fissiparous.