19-letter words containing s, p, h
- open the floodgates — If events open the floodgates to something, they make it possible for that thing to happen much more often or much more seriously than before.
- open-hearth process — a process of steelmaking in which the charge is laid in a furnace (open-hearth furnace) on a shallow hearth and heated directly by burning gas as well as radiatively by the furnace walls.
- operations research — the analysis, usually involving mathematical treatment, of a process, problem, or operation to determine its purpose and effectiveness and to gain maximum efficiency.
- orthopaedic surgeon — a surgeon specializing in the branch of surgery concerned with disorders of the spine and joints and the repair of deformities of these parts
- orthopaedic surgery — surgery concerned with disorders of the spine and joints and the repair of deformities of these parts
- overplay one's hand — If you say that someone is overplaying something such as a problem, you mean that they are making it seem more important than it really is.
- palaeoethnobotanist — someone who studies fossil seeds and grains to further archaeological knowledge, esp of the domestication of cereals
- paleoanthropologist — the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species, using fossils and other remains.
- palisade parenchyma — the upper layer of ground tissue in a leaf, consisting of elongated cells beneath and perpendicular to the upper epidermis and constituting the primary area of photosynthesis.
- parachute spinnaker — a very large spinnaker used on a racing yacht.
- paraphase amplifier — an amplifier that produces a push-pull output from a single input.
- parasympathomimetic — having an effect similar to that produced when the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated
- parting of the ways — When there is a parting of the ways, two or more people or groups of people stop working together or travelling together.
- paschen-back effect — a splitting of spectral lines observed when the source of a radiation is subjected to a strong magnetic field, caused when the vectors associated with the spin and orbital angular momentum exhibit individual rather than common precession.
- phacoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- phakoemulsification — the removal of a cataract by first liquefying the affected lens with ultrasonic vibrations and then extracting it by suction.
- philosopher's stone — a substance sought by alchemists that would be capable of transmuting baser metals into gold or silver and of prolonging life.
- philosophers' stone — a substance sought by alchemists that would be capable of transmuting baser metals into gold or silver and of prolonging life.
- philosophical logic — the branch of philosophy that studies the relationship between formal logic and ordinary language, esp the extent to which the former can be held accurately to represent the latter
- photodisintegration — the disintegration of a nucleus, induced by its absorption of a photon.
- photoreconnaissance — reconnaissance using aerial photography.
- physical addressing — (networking) The low level addressing scheme used on Ethernet. The 48-bit destination Ethernet address in a packet is compared with the receiving node's Ethernet address. Compare IP address.
- physical impairment — A physical impairment is a condition in which a part of a person's body is damaged or is not working properly.
- physical sequential — (file format) (PS, QSAM, Queued Sequential Access Method) The simplest data set on an IBM mainframe. Sequential files can only be read or written from the beginning: they do not support random access.
- physically impaired — with reduced or weakened physical capacity
- physician assistant — a person trained and certified to perform various medical procedures under the supervision of a physician
- pidgin sign english — an auxiliary language formed by using the signs and fingerspelling, but not the grammar, of American Sign Language in the word order of English, often used in communication between deaf signers and speakers of English. Abbreviation: PSE.
- pied-de-biche spoon — a spoon having a handle with a trifid end.
- pillars of hercules — the two promontories at the E end of the Strait of Gibraltar: the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and the Jebel Musa on the African side; according to legend, formed by Hercules
- pinwheel escapement — a clock escapement in which two pallets, usually of unequal length, alternately engage and release pins set on the escape wheel perpendicular to its plane of rotation.
- pistachio ice cream — ice cream flavoured with pistachios
- pistol-handle knife — a table knife, especially of the 18th century, having a slightly curved handle resembling the grip of a flintlock pistol.
- play footsie (with) — to touch feet or rub knees (with) in a caressing way, as under the table
- police headquarters — building where police are stationed
- polyphosphoric acid — any one of a series of oxyacids of phosphorus with the general formula Hn+2PnO3n+1. The first member is pyrophosphoric acid (n = 2) and the series includes the highly polymeric metaphosphoric acid. The higher acids exist in an equilibrium mixture
- polytene chromosome — a giant, cross-banded chromosome that results from multiple replication of its genetic material with the duplicated chromatin strands remaining closely associated.
- portobello mushroom — a dark mushroom, strong in flavor, having a broad, flat cap that is often grilled and eaten
- postsynchronization — the process of adding sound, such as dubbing, to a film or video after shooting or videotaping is completed
- potassium hydroxide — a white, deliquescent, water-soluble solid, KOH, usually in the form of lumps, sticks, or pellets, that upon solution in water generates heat: used chiefly in the manufacture of soap, as a laboratory reagent, and as a caustic.
- potassium phosphate — any of the three orthophosphates of potassium ((potassium monophosphate) (K 2 HPO 4), (potassium diphosphate) (KH 2 PO 4), and (tripotassium phosphate) (K 3 PO 4) )
- prescription charge — a charge, set by the government, to be paid by a patient for medicines
- primitive methodist — a member of a Protestant denomination (Primitive Methodist Church) founded in England in 1812 and later established in the U.S., characterized by its adherence to the basic doctrines, principles, and practices taught by John Wesley.
- priority scheduling — (operating system) Processes scheduling in which the scheduler selects tasks to run based on their priority as opposed to, say, a simple round-robin. Priorities may be static or dynamic. Static priorities are assigned at the time of creation, while dynamic priorities are based on the processes' behaviour while in the system. For example, the scheduler may favour I/O-intensive tasks so that expensive requests can be issued as early as possible. A danger of priority scheduling is starvation, in which processes with lower priorities are not given the opportunity to run. In order to avoid starvation, in preemptive scheduling, the priority of a process is gradually reduced while it is running. Eventually, the priority of the running process will no longer be the highest, and the next process will start running. This method is called aging.
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- protease inhibitors — a drug that inhibits the action of protease, especially any of a class of antiviral drugs that prevent the cleavage and replication of HIV proteins.
- pseudo-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- pseudo-hieroglyphic — noting or pertaining to a script dating from the second millennium b.c. that appears to be syllabic and to represent the Phoenician language and that is inscribed on objects found at Byblos.
- pseudohermaphrodite — an individual having internal reproductive organs of one sex and external sexual characteristics resembling those of the other sex or being ambiguous in nature. Compare hermaphrodite (def 1).
- pseudopsychological — of or relating to psychology.