18-letter words containing s, r, u
- potassium fluoride — a white, crystalline, hygroscopic, toxic powder, KF, used chiefly as an insecticide, a disinfectant, and in etching glass.
- potassium myronate — sinigrin.
- precious moonstone — moonstone (def 1).
- predation pressure — the effect of predation upon a population, resulting in the decrease in size of that population.
- predicate calculus — predicate logic
- prefect of studies — a senior master in a Jesuit school or college
- present continuous — a verb form consisting of an auxiliary be in the present tense followed by a present participle and used especially to indicate that a present action or event is in progress, being repeated, or of a temporary nature or to express the future.
- presidential suite — a suite of rooms, as in a hotel, suitable for a president or other head of state.
- pressure altimeter — an aneroid barometer adapted for measuring altitude by converting the indicated atmospheric pressure to altitude according to a standard relationship.
- presumption of law — a presumption based upon a policy of law or a general rule and not upon the facts or evidence in an individual case.
- presuppositionless — to suppose or assume beforehand; take for granted in advance.
- primus inter pares — (of males) first among equals.
- prison authorities — the people in charge of running a prison
- prison rustic work — rustication having a deeply pitted surface.
- process scheduling — multitasking
- procrustean string — (programming) A fixed-length string. If a string value is too long for the allocated space, it is truncated to fit; and if it is shorter, the empty space is padded, usually with space characters. This is an allusion to Procrustes, a legendary robber of ancient Attica. He bound his victims to a bed, and if they were shorter than the bed, he stretched their limbs until they would fit; if their limbs were longer, he lopped them off.
- productivity bonus — an extra payment made to workers for being more productive or yielding more favourable results than normal
- programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- prometheus unbound — a drama in verse (1820) by Shelley.
- property insurance — insurance coverage for land and housing
- protective custody — detention of a person by the police solely as protection against a possible attack or reprisal by someone.
- provascular tissue — procambium.
- pseudo-anarchistic — a person who advocates or believes in anarchy or anarchism.
- pseudotuberculosis — an acute, sometimes fatal disease of rodents, birds, and other animals, including humans, caused by the bacterium Yersinia (Pasteurella) pseudotuberculosis, and characterized by the formation of nodules resembling those that result from tuberculosis.
- psychotherapeutics — psychotherapy.
- pulmonary embolism — the blockage of a pulmonary artery, often by a blood clot, that stops the flow of blood to the lungs and which can result in death if untreated
- pulmonic airstream — a current of lung air set in motion by the respiratory muscles in the production of speech.
- purchasing officer — the member of staff in an organization who is responsible for buying goods or products
- purple loosestrife — an Old World plant, Lythrum salicaria, of the loosestrife family, widely naturalized in North America, growing in wet places and having spikes of reddish-purple flowers.
- puss in the corner — a parlor game for children in which one player in the middle of a room tries to occupy any of the positions along the walls that become vacant as other players dash across to exchange places at a signal.
- put heads together — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- put one's shirt on — to bet all one has on (a horse, etc)
- put out to pasture — Also called pastureland [pas-cher-land, pahs-] /ˈpæs tʃərˌlænd, ˈpɑs-/ (Show IPA). an area covered with grass or other plants used or suitable for the grazing of livestock; grassland.
- put the mockers on — stop, thwart
- pyramus and thisbe — (in Greek legend) two lovers of Babylon: Pyramus, wrongly supposing Thisbe to be dead, killed himself and she, encountering him in his death throes, did the same
- pyrosulphuric acid — a fuming liquid acid made by adding sulphur trioxide to concentrated sulphuric acid. Formula: H2S2O7
- quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
- quantity surveying — the action or profession of a person who estimates the cost of the materials and labour necessary for a construction job
- quarterlife crisis — a crisis that may be experienced in one's twenties, involving anxiety over the direction and quality of one's life
- queen's university — A Canadian University. Source of GVL, NIAL, Pasqual, Q'NIAL and TXL.
- quinacrine mustard — a nitrogen mustard derived from mepacrine and used as a stain for chromosomes
- radiation exposure — exposure to radiant energy or to the particles emitted in the transfer of radiant energy, esp the particles and gamma rays emitted in nuclear decay; exposure to radioactive substances
- radiation pressure — the pressure exerted on a surface by electromagnetic radiation or by sound waves.
- radius of gyration — the distance from an axis at which the mass of a body may be assumed to be concentrated and at which the moment of inertia will be equal to the moment of inertia of the actual mass about the axis, equal to the square root of the quotient of the moment of inertia and the mass.
- rear its ugly head — the upper part of the body in humans, joined to the trunk by the neck, containing the brain, eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
- recursive function — a function defined in terms of the repeated application of a number of simpler functions to their own values, by specifying a base clause and a recursion formula
- red cluster pepper — a tropical, woody plant, Capsicum annuum fasciculatum, having erect, very pungent, red fruit in small clusters.
- red-spotted purple — any color having components of both red and blue, such as lavender, especially one deep in tone.
- reduction division — the first division of meiosis in which the number of chromosomes is reduced to half the original number.
- reduction strategy — (theory) An algorithm for deciding which redex(es) to reduce next. Different strategies have different termination properties in the presence of recursive functions or values. See string reduction, normal order reduction, applicative order reduction, parallel reduction