17-letter words containing s, t, e, l, n
- off one's trolley — trolley car.
- old contemptibles — the British expeditionary force to France in 1914
- old red sandstone — a thick sequence of sedimentary rock (generally, but not always, red) deposited in Britain and NW Europe during the Devonian period
- omphalomesenteric — (anatomy) Of or pertaining to the umbilicus and mesentery.
- on cruise control — If you say that someone is on cruise control in a contest, you mean that they are winning the contest easily and without needing to make a lot of effort.
- on someone's tail — following or shadowing someone closely
- on the half shell — served raw, with seasonings, on a half shell
- one size fits all — (of clothing) designed to fit people of a wide range of sizes.
- one-size-fits-all — (of clothing) designed to fit people of a wide range of sizes.
- operation sealion — the codename for Hitler's proposed invasion (1940) of Great Britain
- osculating circle — circle of curvature.
- out of all reason — unreasonable
- paleoconservative — a person advocating an older, traditional type of conservatism, especially in politics.
- papanicolaou test — Pap test.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- percussion bullet — a bullet that is exploded by percussion
- 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
- phenyl isocyanate — a liquid reagent, C 7 H 5 NO, having an unpleasant, irritating odor: used chiefly for identifying alcohols and amines.
- photoluminescence — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- 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.
- plumbing fixtures — things such as pipes, sinks, toilets that are fixed in position in a building
- point reyes lilac — a prostrate shrub, Ceanothus gloriosus, of southern California, having leathery, roundish leaves and purplish or deep-blue flowers.
- pointer swizzling — swizzle
- poison-pen letter — A poison-pen letter is an unpleasant unsigned letter which is sent in order to upset someone or to cause trouble.
- 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.
- polystyrene chips — small pieces of polystyrene used for insulating or packing
- positive electron — positron.
- post-and-rail tea — (in the 19th century) a coarse tea in which floating particles resembled a post-and-rail fence
- post-depositional — removal from an office or position.
- postal stationery — an envelope, postal card, wrapper, or aérogramme, with the stamp printed directly on the paper.
- postmillennialism — the doctrine or belief that the second coming of Christ will follow the millennium.
- postural drainage — a therapy for clearing congested lungs by placing the patient in a position for drainage by gravity, often accompanied by percussion with hollowed hands.
- power supply unit — (hardware) (PSU) An electronic module that converts high voltage (110 or 240 VAC) alternating current mains electricity into smoothed direct current at the various differnt voltages required by the motherboard; internal peripheral devices, cheifly storage devices: hard disks, CD or DVD, floppy disks and external connections such as USB. A PSU needs a high enough power output rating to supply all the devices connected to it and should output as little as possible electrical noise, both on the output wires and as electromagnetic radiation. See also uninterruptable power supply.
- preferential shop — a shop in which union members are preferred, usually by agreement of an employer with a union.
- presentationalism — a style of production in which the audience is addressed directly with songs, skits, exposition, etc., and no attempt is made at realism.