18-letter words containing s, p, l, a, t
- critical apparatus — the variant readings, footnotes, etc found in a scholarly work or a critical edition of a text
- crystal microphone — a microphone that uses a piezoelectric crystal to convert sound energy into electrical energy
- cultural pluralism — a condition in which minority groups participate fully in the dominant society, yet maintain their cultural differences.
- daisywheel printer — (printer) A kind of impact printer where the characters are arranged on the ends of the spokes of a wheel (resembling the petals on a daisy). The wheel (usually made of plastic) is rotated to select the character to print and then an electrically operated hammer mechanism bends the selected spoke forward slightly, sandwiching an ink ribbon between the character and the paper, as in a typewriter. One advantage of this arrangement over that of a typewriter is that different wheels may be inserted to produce different typefaces.
- departmental store — a department store.
- depository library — a library designated by law to receive without charge all or a selection of the official publications of a government.
- desalination plant — a factory where salt is removed from salt water in order to make the water suitable for drinking and irrigation
- descriptive clause — a relative clause that describes or supplements but is not essential in establishing the identity of the antecedent and is usually set off by commas in English. In This year, which has been dry, is bad for crops the clause which has been dry is a nonrestrictive clause.
- devil's paintbrush — a perennial European hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) with leafless flower stalks bearing a cluster of orange-red heads: now a common weed in N U.S. and Canada
- dialytic telescope — a type of achromatic telescope with a second correcting lens
- dietary supplement — a substance taken in addition to what you eat in order to promote health
- diphosphoglycerate — an ester of phosphoric acid and glyceric acid that occurs in the blood and that promotes the release of hemoglobin-bound oxygen.
- diplomatic service — diplomatic corps
- diplomatic shuttle — a series of diplomatic visits to other states made by an official, such as an ambassador or envoy
- disability pension — a pension paid to people who are unable to continue to work because of a disability
- dispersible tablet — A dispersible tablet is a tablet that disintegrates in water or other liquid.
- display postscript — An extended form of PostScript permitting its interactive use with bitmap displays.
- disproportionality — not in proportion; disproportionate.
- disproportionately — not proportionate; out of proportion, as in size or number.
- domestic appliance — a machine used for household tasks, for example, a washing machine, refrigerator, etc.
- electron transport — the metabolic process in mitochondria or chloroplasts, in which electrons are transferred in stages from energy-rich compounds to molecular oxygen with liberation of energy
- entrepreneurialism — The spirit or state of acting in an entrepreneurial manner.
- equinoctial spring — either of the two highest spring tides that occur at the equinoxes
- ethnopsychological — Relating to ethnopsychology.
- fall-back position — an alternative plan
- false imprisonment — the unlawful restraint of a person from exercising the right to freedom of movement.
- family-size packet — a packet large enough to be suitable for a family
- farewell-to-spring — a slender, showy plant, Clarkia amoena, of the evening primrose family, native to western North America, having satiny, cup-shaped, lilac-crimson or reddish-pink flowers and roundish fruit.
- fermat's last post — (humour) A post to a bug tracker, mailing list or forum in which the author claims to have found a simple fix or workaround for a bug, but never says what it is and never shows up again to explain it (even after others have been puzzling over the bug for years).
- fermat's principle — Optics. the law that the path taken by a ray of light in going from one point to another point will be the path that requires the least time.
- flat address space — (architecture) The memory architecture in which any memory location can be selected from a single contiguous block by a single integer offset. Almost all popular processors have a flat address space, but the Intel x86 family has a segmented address space. A flat address space greatly simplifies programming because of the simple correspondence between addresses (pointers) and integers.
- flat-panel display — a type of thin, lightweight video display that uses liquid crystals or electroluminescence to reflect images.
- football supporter — a person who supports a particular football team
- foundling hospital — an institutional home for foundlings.
- galilean telescope — a refracting telescope that forms an erect image, consisting of an objective of relatively long focal length that causes light rays to converge and an eyepiece of short focal length that causes them to diverge.
- geometrical optics — the branch of optics dealing with light as rays, especially in the study of the effects of lenses and mirrors on light beams and of their combination in optical instruments.
- gestalt psychology — (sometimes lowercase) the theory or doctrine that physiological or psychological phenomena do not occur through the summation of individual elements, as reflexes or sensations, but through gestalts functioning separately or interrelatedly.
- grease the palm of — to influence by giving money to; bribe
- hamilton's problem — Hamiltonian problem
- harnessed antelope — any African antelope of the genus Tragelaphus, especially the bushbuck, having the body marked with white stripes and spots that resemble a harness, and, in the male, long, gently spiraling horns.
- helicopter station — a place where helicopters are kept in readiness for use
- hepatosplenomegaly — Enlargement of both the liver and spleen.
- hexaphosphorylated — (biochemistry) phosphorylated with six units of phosphoric acid.
- hilary of poitiers — Saint, a.d. c300–368, French bishop and theologian.
- histocompatibility — the condition of having antigenic similarities such that cells or tissues transplanted from one (the donor) to another (the recipient) are not rejected.
- histomorphological — histology.
- historical present — the present tense used in narrating a past event as if happening at the time of narration.
- hyperaldosteronism — aldosteronism.
- hypercholesteremia — Alternative spelling of hypercholesteraemia.
- hypernationalistic — a person devoted to nationalism.