17-letter words containing s, p, l, a, t
- not spare oneself — to exert oneself to the full
- 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.
- olympic mountains — a mountain range in NW Washington: part of the Coast Range. Highest peak: Mount Olympus, 2427 m (7965 ft)
- omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
- operation sealion — the codename for Hitler's proposed invasion (1940) of Great Britain
- opportunistically — adhering to a policy of opportunism; practicing opportunism.
- optical astronomy — the branch of observational astronomy using telescopes to observe or photograph celestial objects in visible light.
- optical isomerism — stereoisomerism in which the isomers are identical in molecular weight and most chemical and physical properties but differ in their effect on the rotation of polarized light.
- paleobiochemistry — the study of biochemical processes that occurred in fossil life forms.
- paleoconservative — a person advocating an older, traditional type of conservatism, especially in politics.
- papanicolaou test — Pap test.
- paralysis agitans — Parkinson's disease
- parcplace systems — (company) A company spun-off from Xerox PARC that developed the original version of VisualWorks.
- partially sighted — unable to see properly so that even with corrective aids normal activities are prevented or seriously hindered
- particle kinetics — Particle kinetics is the study of the movement of particles and the forces that cause this movement.
- parts per million — the number of units (of a substance) present in a million units of another substance
- pascal's triangle — a triangular arrangement of the binomial coefficients of the expansion (x + y) n for positive integral values of n.
- 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.
- paternalistically — the system, principle, or practice of managing or governing individuals, businesses, nations, etc., in the manner of a father dealing benevolently and often intrusively with his children: The employees objected to the paternalism of the old president.
- patriarchal cross — a Latin cross having a shorter crosspiece above the customary one.
- paymaster general — a government minister responsible for making payments by government departments
- 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.
- penitential psalm — any of the Psalms (the 6th, 32nd, 38th, 51st, 102nd, 130th, and 143rd) that give expression to feelings of penitence and that are used in various Christian liturgical services.
- perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
- personal computer — a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use, as by a person in an office or at home or school, for such applications as word processing, data management, financial analysis, or computer games. Abbreviation: PC.
- personal distance — personal space.
- personal equation — the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.
- personal property — an estate or property consisting of movable articles both corporeal, as furniture or jewelry, or incorporeal, as stocks or bonds (distinguished from real property).
- personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
- peterloo massacre — an incident at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, in 1819 in which a radical meeting was broken up by a cavalry charge, resulting in about 500 injuries and 11 deaths
- phenyl isocyanate — a liquid reagent, C 7 H 5 NO, having an unpleasant, irritating odor: used chiefly for identifying alcohols and amines.
- physical activity — sth involving use of the body
- physical training — fitness coaching
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- pittsburg landing — a village in SW Tennessee, on the Tennessee River: battle of Shiloh in 1862.
- planck's constant — the fundamental constant of quantum mechanics, expressing the ratio of the energy of one quantum of radiation to the frequency of the radiation and approximately equal to 6.624 × 10− 27 erg-seconds. Symbol: h.
- plastic explosive — a puttylike substance that contains an explosive charge, and is detonated by fuse or by remote control: used especially by terrorists and in guerrilla warfare.
- plastics industry — the industry that makes plastics
- plateau's problem — the problem in the calculus of variations of finding the surface with the least area bounded by a given closed curve in space.
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- point reyes lilac — a prostrate shrub, Ceanothus gloriosus, of southern California, having leathery, roundish leaves and purplish or deep-blue flowers.
- polar coordinates — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
- polioencephalitis — a disease characterized by inflammation of the gray matter of the brain.
- political science — a social science dealing with political institutions and with the principles and conduct of government.
- positive polarity — the grammatical characteristic of a word or phrase, such as delicious or rather, that may normally only be used in a semantically or syntactically positive or affirmative context