17-letter words containing s, p, h, a
- isomorphism class — (mathematics) A collection of all the objects isomorphic to a given object. Talking about the isomorphism class (of a poset, say) ensures that we will only consider its properties as a poset, and will not consider other incidental properties it happens to have.
- isopropyl alcohol — a colorless, flammable, water-soluble liquid, C 3 H 8 O, produced from propylene by the action of sulfuric acid and hydrolysis: used chiefly in the manufacture of antifreeze and rubbing alcohol and as a solvent.
- isthmus of panama — an isthmus linking North and South America, between the Pacific and the Caribbean. Length: 676 km (420 miles). Width (at its narrowest point): 50 km (31 miles)
- japanese chestnut — any of the several deciduous trees constituting the genus Castanea, of the beech family, having toothed, oblong leaves and bearing edible nuts enclosed in a prickly bur, and including C. dentata (American chestnut) which has been virtually destroyed by the chestnut blight, C. sativa (European chestnut) C. mollissima (Chinese chestnut) and C. crenata (Japanese chestnut)
- karitane hospital — a hospital for young babies and their mothers
- kick in the pants — a reprimand or scolding designed to produce greater effort, enthusiasm, etc, in the person receiving it
- king philip's war — the war (1675–76) between New England colonists and a confederation of Indians under their leader, King Philip.
- l'hospital's rule — the theorem that for the quotient of two functions satisfying certain conditions on a given closed interval, each having infinite limit or zero as limit at a given point, the limit of the quotient at the given point is equal to the limit of the quotient of the derivatives of each function.
- leizhou peninsula — a peninsula of SE China, in SW Guangdong province, separated from Hainan Island by Hainan Strait
- lisp machine lisp — (language) An extension of Maclisp, now called Zetalisp.
- lithostratigraphy — the study or character of stratified rocks based solely on their physical and petrographic features.
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- mascarpone cheese — a very rich, white cream cheese of Italy
- mass spectrograph — a mass spectroscope for recording a mass spectrum on a photographic plate.
- massage therapist — sb who gives body rubs
- merchant shipping — shipping which is involved in commerce (rather than defence, etc)
- morphic resonance — the idea that, through a telepathic effect or sympathetic vibration, an event or act can lead to similar events or acts in the future or an idea conceived in one mind can then arise in another
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- neuropsychiatrist — A medical doctor specializing in neuropsychiatry; a medical doctor dealing with disorders that have both neurological and psychiatric features.
- non-thermoplastic — soft and pliable when heated, as some plastics, without any change of the inherent properties.
- nonaccomplishment — Something that does not achieve the intended goal.
- northeast passage — a ship route along the N coast of Europe and Asia, between the North Sea and the Pacific.
- northern sporades — a group of Greek islands in the Aegean, lying northeast of Euboea
- northwest passage — a ship route along the Arctic coast of Canada and Alaska, joining the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
- old spanish trail — an overland route from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to Los Angeles, Calif., first marked out in 1776 by Spanish explorers and missionaries.
- omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
- on the pig's back — successful; established
- opisthobranchiate — (zoology) Of or pertaining to the Opisthobranchiata.
- organic psychosis — a severe mental illness produced by damage to the brain, as a result of poisoning, alcoholism, disease, etc
- organophosphorous — Misspelling of organophosphorus.
- overstep the mark — If someone oversteps the mark, they behave in a way that is considered unacceptable.
- pacific northwest — the region of North America lying north of the Columbia River and west of the Rockies
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- parker house roll — a soft dinner roll made by folding a flat disk of dough in half.
- parmesan (cheese) — a very hard, dry cheese orig. of Italy, made from skimmed cow's milk and usually grated for sprinkling on pasta, soups, etc.
- partially sighted — unable to see properly so that even with corrective aids normal activities are prevented or seriously hindered
- pashmina politics — the adoption of political policies immediately after they have gone out of fashion
- past life therapy — a form of hypnosis or meditation based on the belief that an individual's present problems are rooted in events that occurred before birth in this life
- pastoral symphony — the Symphony No. 6 in F major (1807–08) by Ludwig van Beethoven.
- pastoral theology — the branch of theology dealing with the responsibilities of members of the clergy to the people under their care.
- patriarchal cross — a Latin cross having a shorter crosspiece above the customary one.
- peaches and cream — If you say that a woman or a girl has a peaches and cream complexion, you mean that she has very clear, smooth, pale skin.
- penalty shoot-out — In football, a penalty shoot-out is a way of deciding the result of a game that has ended in a draw. Players from each team try to score a goal in turn until one player fails to score and their team loses the game.
- peripheral vision — all that is visible to the eye outside the central area of focus; side vision.
- perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
- personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
- perth and kinross — a council area of N central Scotland, corresponding mainly to the historical counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire: part of Tayside Region from 1975 until 1996: chiefly mountainous, with agriculture, tourism, and forestry. Administrative centre: Perth. Pop: 135 990 (2003 est). Area: 5321 sq km (2019 sq miles)
- petrarchan sonnet — a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
- phase of the moon — Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also heisenbug. True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine into a Lisp program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.
- phenyl isocyanate — a liquid reagent, C 7 H 5 NO, having an unpleasant, irritating odor: used chiefly for identifying alcohols and amines.