16-letter words containing s, p, o, t, e

obstreperousness — resisting control or restraint in a difficult manner; unruly.
october surprise — a major event, occurring shortly before a presidential election, which influences the result
odontoid process — the toothlike upward projection at the back of the second vertebra of the neck
oesophagogastric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the oesophagus and the stomach.
on the same page — one side of a leaf of something printed or written, as a book, manuscript, or letter.
on the scrapheap — (of people or things) having outlived their usefulness
on your doorstep — If a place is on your doorstep, it is very near to where you live. If something happens on your doorstep, it happens very close to where you live.
on-the-spot fine — a fine that is charged immediately upon being caught and found guilty of a crime
one's cup of tea — the dried and prepared leaves of a shrub, Camellia sinensis, from which a somewhat bitter, aromatic beverage is prepared by infusion in hot water.
one-party system — a political system in which only one party is allowed
open box testing — white box testing
open parenthesis — left parenthesis
operating system — (operating system) (OS) The low-level software which handles the interface to peripheral hardware, schedules tasks, allocates storage, and presents a default interface to the user when no application program is running. The OS may be split into a kernel which is always present and various system programs which use facilities provided by the kernel to perform higher-level house-keeping tasks, often acting as servers in a client-server relationship. Some would include a graphical user interface and window system as part of the OS, others would not. The operating system loader, BIOS, or other firmware required at boot time or when installing the operating system would generally not be considered part of the operating system, though this distinction is unclear in the case of a rommable operating system such as RISC OS. The facilities an operating system provides and its general design philosophy exert an extremely strong influence on programming style and on the technical cultures that grow up around the machines on which it runs. Example operating systems include 386BSD, AIX, AOS, Amoeba, Angel, Artemis microkernel, BeOS, Brazil, COS, CP/M, CTSS, Chorus, DACNOS, DOSEXEC 2, GCOS, GEORGE 3, GEOS, ITS, KAOS, Linux, LynxOS, MPV, MS-DOS, MVS, Mach, Macintosh operating system, Microsoft Windows, MINIX, Multics, Multipop-68, Novell NetWare, OS-9, OS/2, Pick, Plan 9, QNX, RISC OS, STING, System V, System/360, TOPS-10, TOPS-20, TRUSIX, TWENEX, TYMCOM-X, Thoth, Unix, VM/CMS, VMS, VRTX, VSTa, VxWorks, WAITS.
operating-system — the collection of software that directs a computer's operations, controlling and scheduling the execution of other programs, and managing storage, input/output, and communication resources. Abbreviation: OS.
ophthalmoparesis — (medicine) A partial or complete paralysis of the extraocular muscles which are responsible for eye movements.
optical tweezers — a laser device used to study, manipulate, or trap a microscopic object, as a microorganism or cell, with nanometer precision.
organophosphates — Plural form of organophosphate.
orthosympathetic — Of or pertaining to the sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system.
osculating plane — the plane containing the circle of curvature of a point on a given curve.
osmotic pressure — the force that a dissolved substance exerts on a semipermeable membrane, through which it cannot penetrate, when separated by it from pure solvent.
over-consumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
over-descriptive — having the quality of describing; characterized by description: a descriptive passage in an essay.
over-speculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
overcompensating — Present participle of overcompensate.
overcompensation — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
oversubscription — to subscribe for more of than is available, expected, or required: The charity drive was oversubscribed by several thousand dollars.
pacific sturgeon — a dark gray sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus, inhabiting marine and fresh waters along the northwestern coast of North America, valued as a food and sport fish.
pairs tournament — an event in a sport such as tennis or darts open to pairs of competitors
palmerston north — a city in New Zealand, in the S North Island on the Manawatu River. Pop: 78 100 (2004 est)
paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
parrot's-feather — a South American water milfoil, Myriophyllum aquaticum, having hairlike pinnate leaves, widely cultivated as an aquarium plant.
parser generator — A program which takes a formal description of a grammar (e.g. in BNF) and outputs source code for a parser which will recognise valid strings obeying that grammar and perform associated actions. Unix's yacc is a well known example.
parts of lindsey — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
pascal's theorem — the theorem that the lines joining adjacent vertices of a hexagon intersect the same straight line if alternate vertices lie on two intersecting straight lines.
passage to india — a novel (1924) by E. M. Forster.
past progressive — a verb form consisting of an auxiliary be in the past tense followed by a present participle and used especially to indicate that an action or event was incomplete or in progress at a point of reference in the past, as was sleeping in I was sleeping when the phone rang.
pastoral epistle — any one of three New Testament books, I or II Timothy or Titus, that stress pastoral and ecclesiastical concerns.
paterson's curse — a purple-flowered noxious plant, Echium plantagineum, a close relative of viper's bugloss, naturalized in Australia and NZ where its harmfulness to livestock has prompted attempts to limit its spread
peasants' revolt — the first great popular rebellion in English history (1381), caused by the imposition of an unpopular poll tax: it lasted less than a month and failed as a social revolution
pectoralis major — the larger of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
pectoralis minor — the smaller of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
pension benefits — the benefits that are paid to a person in accordance with his pension scheme
pension mortgage — an arrangement whereby a person takes out a mortgage and pays the capital repayment instalments into a pension fund and the interest to the mortgagee. The loan is repaid out of the tax-free lump sum proceeds of the pension plan on the borrower's retirement
pentatonic scale — a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave.
pentothal sodium — thiopental sodium
people's charter — the principles or movement of a party of political reformers, chiefly workingmen, in England from 1838 to 1848: so called from the document (People's Charter or National Charter) that contained a statement of their principles and demands.
performance test — a test requiring little or no use of language, the test materials being designed to elicit manual or behavioral responses rather than verbal ones.
permafrost table — the variable surface constituting the upper limit of permafrost. Compare frostline (def 2).
person-to-person — (of a long-distance telephone call) chargeable only upon speaking with a specified person at the number called: a person-to-person call to her brother in California. Compare station-to-station.

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