17-letter words containing s, n, u
- project assurance — The process of specifying the support system: techniques, internal standards, measurements, tools, and training for a project; counselling the project team in the application of these elements and monitoring the adherence to the standards.
- prusso-danish war — a war of 1864 between Prussia and Denmark by which Denmark lost Schleswig-Holstein.
- pseudo-humanistic — a person having a strong interest in or concern for human welfare, values, and dignity.
- pseudo-scientific — any of various methods, theories, or systems, as astrology, psychokinesis, or clairvoyance, considered as having no scientific basis.
- psychoeducational — designating or of psychological methods, as intelligence tests, used in evaluating learning ability
- psycholinguistics — the study of the relationship between language and the cognitive or behavioral characteristics of those who use it.
- public assistance — government aid to the poor, disabled, or aged or to dependent children, as financial assistance or food stamps.
- public enterprise — economic activity by governmental organizations
- public television — a type of noncommercial, usually educational, television programming funded by the government, grants, viewers, and corporations. Compare educational television.
- publicity-seeking — eager to attract publicity
- pull one's weight — the amount or quantity of heaviness or mass; amount a thing weighs.
- pulsejet (engine) — a jet engine without a compressor or turbine, in which intermittent combustion provides the thrust
- purdue university — http://purdue.edu/.
- purely and simply — You use purely and simply to emphasize that the thing you are mentioning is the only thing involved.
- push the envelope — a flat paper container, as for a letter or thin package, usually having a gummed flap or other means of closure.
- put on a pedestal — an architectural support for a column, statue, vase, or the like.
- put on the gloves — to box
- put one's feet up — relax
- put one's hand to — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- put the kibosh on — nonsense.
- put the screws on — a metal fastener having a tapered shank with a helical thread, and topped with a slotted head, driven into wood or the like by rotating, especially by means of a screwdriver.
- 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.
- quality assurance — a system for ensuring a desired level of quality in the development, production, or delivery of products and services: Quality assurance for nursing homes begins with a set of standards. Abbreviation: QA.
- quality newspaper — a more serious newspaper which gives detailed accounts of world events, as well as reports on business, culture, and society
- quantity discount — When you receive a quantity discount from a store or supplier, you pay less because you have bought a large quantity of goods. Also known as bulk buying discount.
- quantity surveyor — A quantity surveyor is a person who calculates the cost and amount of materials and workers needed for a job such as building a house or a road.
- quantum chemistry — the application of quantum mechanics to the study of chemical phenomena.
- quantum mechanics — a theory of the mechanics of atoms, molecules, and other physical systems that are subject to the uncertainty principle. Abbreviation: QM.
- quarterback sneak — a play in which the quarterback charges into the middle of the line, usually immediately after receiving the ball from the center.
- quasi-independent — not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, etc.; thinking or acting for oneself: an independent thinker.
- quasiexperimental — (medicine) Describing a trial in which the assignment to a group is based upon an experimental condition.
- quasquicentennial — pertaining to or marking a period of 125 years.
- quatercentenaries — Plural form of quatercentenary.
- queen anne's lace — a plant, Daucus carota, the wild form of the cultivated carrot, having broad umbels of white flowers.
- queen of puddings — a pudding made of moist but firm breadcrumb and custard mixture topped with jam and meringue
- queen's messenger — a person who takes dispatches to or from the sovereign
- queensberry rules — the code of rules followed in modern boxing, requiring the use of padded gloves, rounds of three minutes, and restrictions on the types of blows allowed
- radioluminescence — luminescence induced by nuclear radiation.
- raynaud's disease — a vascular disorder of unknown cause, characterized by recurrent episodes of blanching and numbness of the fingers and toes and sometimes the tip of the nose and ears, usually triggered by stress or exposure to cold.
- reconstructionism — a 20th-century movement among U.S. Jews, founded by Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, advocating that Judaism, being a culture and way of life as well as a religion, is in sum a religious civilization requiring constant adaptation to contemporary conditions so that Jews can identify more readily and meaningfully with the Jewish community.
- reconstructionist — an advocate or supporter of Reconstruction or Reconstructionism.
- 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.
- redistributionist — a person who believes in, advocates, or supports income redistribution.
- reduce to silence — If someone or something reduces you to silence, they make you feel so upset or confused that you cannot speak.
- refuse collection — the collection of rubbish and waste, usually in a rubbish or refuse truck, before final disposal
- reported question — A reported question is a question which is reported using a clause beginning with a word such as 'why' or 'whether', as in 'I asked her why she'd done it'.
- rescue operations — operations or organized procedures to bring people or a person out of danger, attack, harm, etc
- resurrection fern — a drought-resistant, evergreen, epiphytic fern, Polypodium polypodioides, of subtropical to tropical America, appearing to be a ball of coiled, dead leaves in the dry season but reviving with moisture.
- revascularization — the restoration of the blood circulation of an organ or area, achieved by unblocking obstructed or disrupted blood vessels or by surgically implanting replacements.