17-letter words containing s, p, i
- esprit d'escalier — clever repartee one thinks of too late
- experimental lisp — (language) (xlisp) An experimental programming language combining a subset of Common Lisp with an object-oriented extension capability (Class and Object types). It was implemented by David Micheal Betz at Apple to allow experimentation with object-oriented programming on small computers. The C source code has been ported to Unix, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, Atari, and MS-DOS. Version 2.1 of the interpreter, by Tom Almy is closer to Common Lisp. E-mail: Tom Almy <[email protected]>.
- explosion welding — the welding of two parts forced together by a controlled explosion
- explosive forming — a rapid method of forming a metal object in which components are made by subjecting the metal to very high pressures generated by a controlled explosion
- factory inspector — a person who inspects factories
- fee-paying school — a school which charges fees to parents of pupils
- fictitious person — a legal entity or artificial person, as a corporation.
- fiddleback spider — brown recluse spider.
- field penny-cress — the common penny-cress, Thlaspi arvense.
- field post office — a place to which mail intended for military units in the field is sent to be sorted and forwarded
- first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
- first-loss policy — an insurance policy for goods in which a total loss is extremely unlikely and the insurer agrees to provide cover for a sum less than the total value of the property
- fitness programme — a plan to help someone improve their health and physical condition
- five-spice powder — a mixture of spices used especially in Chinese cooking, usually including cinnamon, cloves, fennel seed, pepper, and star anise.
- flexible response — a military strategy that enables the response to an attack to be adapted to the nature and strength of the attack
- flight supplement — an additional charge payable on the price of an air ticket
- floppy disk drive — disk drive
- fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
- forest enterprise — a British government department responsible for maintaining and expanding forests
- francisco pizarro — Francisco [fran-sis-koh;; Spanish frahn-thees-kaw,, -sees-] /frænˈsɪs koʊ;; Spanish frɑnˈθis kɔ,, -ˈsis-/ (Show IPA), c1470–1541, Spanish conqueror of Peru.
- galapagos islands — a group of 15 islands in the Pacific west of Ecuador, of which they form a province: discovered (1535) by the Spanish; main settlement on San Cristóbal. Pop: 18 640 (2001). Area: 7844 sq km (3028 sq miles)
- gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
- gender expression — the external expression of gender roles, as through socially defined behaviors and ways of dressing.
- general paralysis — a syphilitic brain disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and degeneration of cerebral tissue resulting in mental and physical deterioration.
- get one's wind up — to become (or be) nervous or alarmed
- give up the ghost — the soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined, usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as wandering among or haunting living persons.
- glycosphingolipid — (biochemistry) a lipid that contains at least one monosaccharide unit and either a sphingoid or a ceramide.
- glymphatic system — Anatomy. the system or process by which cerebrospinal fluid moves through channels formed by glia, cleansing the mammalian brain of harmful waste.
- go-faster stripes — (jargon) chrome. Mainstream in some parts of UK.
- graduated pension — the money that an employee receives after retirement if they have paid into the graduated pension scheme
- grain of paradise — Usually, grains of paradise. one of the pungent, peppery seeds of an African plant, Aframomum melegueta, of the ginger family, used to strengthen cordials and in veterinary medicine.
- ground provisions — starchy vegetables, esp root crops and plantains
- handicap register — a list of the disabled people in its area that a local authority had a duty to compile under the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
- heating apparatus — an apparatus that heats something
- hepatitis b virus — a form of hepatitis caused by a DNA virus (hepatitis B virus, or HBV) that persists in the blood, characterized by a long incubation period: usually transmitted by sexual contact or by injection or ingestion of infected blood or other bodily fluids.
- hippocampal gyrus — a convolution on the inner surface of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum, bordering the hippocampus.
- histopathological — the science dealing with the histological structure of abnormal or diseased tissue; pathological histology.
- historiographical — the body of literature dealing with historical matters; histories collectively.
- home improvements — improvements to one's home, such as new kitchens and bathrooms, central heating etc
- hope against hope — the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best: to give up hope.
- hospital gangrene — Pathology. a contagious, often fatal gangrene, especially involving amputation stumps and war wounds, occurring usually in crowded, ill-kept hospitals, and caused by putrefactive bacteria.
- hospitality suite — a suite or room, as in a hotel or convention center, rented by a business firm, political candidate, or the like, to meet and entertain clients, potential customers, etc.
- housekeeping cart — A housekeeping cart is a large metal basket on wheels which is used by a cleaner in a hotel to move clean bed linen, towels, and cleaning equipment.
- huygens principle — the principle that all points on a wave front of light are sources of secondary waves and that surfaces tangential to these waves define the position of the wave front at any point in time.
- huygens' eyepiece — a telescope eyepiece consisting of two planoconvex lenses separated by a distance equal to half the sum of their focal lengths, which are in the ratio of three to one, and oriented so that their curved surfaces face the incident light
- hydrogen sulphide — Chemistry
- hydrotherapeutics — hydrotherapy.
- hyper-peristalsis — the progressive wave of contraction and relaxation of a tubular muscular system, especially the alimentary canal, by which the contents are forced through the system.
- hyperbolic cosine — one of a group of functions of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances of a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes; cosh
- hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech