17-letter words containing s, t, r, a
- portuguese guinea — former name of Guinea-Bissau.
- 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
- post-and-rail tea — (in the 19th century) a coarse tea in which floating particles resembled a post-and-rail fence
- postal stationery — an envelope, postal card, wrapper, or aérogramme, with the stamp printed directly on the paper.
- postbaccalaureate — bachelor's degree.
- poststructuralism — a variation of structuralism, often seen as a critique, emphasizing plurality of meaning and instability of concepts that structuralism uses to define society, language, etc.
- posttranslational — Genetics, Biochemistry. occurring after the synthesis of a polypeptide chain.
- 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.
- potassium bromate — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KBrO 3 , used chiefly as an oxidizing agent and as an analytical reagent.
- potassium bromide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KBr, having a bitter saline taste: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic papers and plates, in engraving, and in medicine as a sedative.
- potassium nitrate — a crystalline compound, KNO 3 , produced by nitrification in soil, and used in gunpowders, fertilizers, and preservatives; saltpeter; niter.
- poulter's measure — a metrical pattern using couplets having the first line in iambic hexameter, or 12 syllables, and the second in iambic heptameter, or 14 syllables.
- pre-investigation — the act or process of investigating or the condition of being investigated.
- pre-manifestation — an act of manifesting.
- pre-modifications — an act or instance of modifying.
- precision casting — investment casting.
- prefect apostolic — the administrator, usually below the rank of bishop, in charge of a prefecture apostolic.
- preferential shop — a shop in which union members are preferred, usually by agreement of an employer with a union.
- premonstratensian — a member of a religious order founded at Prémontré in N France in 1120 by St Norbert (about 1080–1134)
- presentation copy — a copy of a book given by the publisher or author
- presentationalism — a style of production in which the audience is addressed directly with songs, skits, exposition, etc., and no attempt is made at realism.
- press association — an organization formed for the purpose of gathering news for transmittal to its members. Compare news agency.
- pressure altitude — the altitude for a given pressure in a standard atmosphere, such as that registered by a pressure altimeter.
- pressure gradient — the change of pressure per unit distance
- prima inter pares — (of a female) first among equals.
- primary qualities — any of the qualities inherent in an object, namely quantity, extent, figure, solidity, and motion or rest.
- primary structure — Biochemistry. the basic sequence of amino acids in a polypeptide or protein.
- prime ministerial — of or relating to the head of a parliamentary government
- primitive baptist — (especially in the Southern U.S.) one belonging to a highly conservative, loosely organized Baptist group, characterized by extreme fundamentalism and by opposition to missionary work, Sunday Schools, and the use of musical instruments in church.
- prismatic compass — a hand compass equipped with sights and prisms to permit aiming the instrument at a point and at the same time reading the compass direction of the point.
- prison population — all the people who are confined in prison
- private ownership — the fact of being owned by a private individual or organization, rather than by the state or a public body
- private secretary — a person who attends to the individual or confidential correspondence, files, etc., of a business executive, official, or the like.
- procurator fiscal — In the Scottish legal system, the procurator fiscal is a public official who puts people on trial.
- production values — the quality of a media production (such as a film) in regards to elements such as colours, quality, style, etc
- program statement — a single instruction in a computer program
- progressive party — a political party formed in 1912 under the leadership of Theodore Roosevelt, advocating popular control of government, direct primaries, the initiative, the referendum, woman suffrage, etc.
- project assurance — The process of specifying the support system: techniques, internal standards, measurements, tools, and training for a project; counselling the project team in the application of these elements and monitoring the adherence to the standards.
- prostatic utricle — a small pouch near the prostate gland that opens into the urethra.
- protocol analyser — (communications, hardware, networking, testing, tool) Any device that captures and interprets the network traffic between two or more connected computer systems. The traffic can then be decoded so that it is possible to see what processes are occurring. By examining the flow of traffic, protocol analysers can be used to find out where problems (such as bottlenecks or the failure of a network device) are on a LAN. Advanced protocol analysers can also provide statistics on the traffic that can help to identify trends that may in future lead to further problems with the network.
- pseudo-democratic — pertaining to or of the nature of democracy or a democracy.
- pseudo-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- pseudo-moralistic — a person who teaches or inculcates morality.
- psychotherapeutic — psychotherapy.
- pythagorean scale — the major scale as derived acoustically by Pythagoras from the perfect fifth.
- quadratic residue — a number x that is relatively prime to a given integer y and for which a number z exists whose square gives the same remainder as x when divided by y.
- quality assurance — a system for ensuring a desired level of quality in the development, production, or delivery of products and services: Quality assurance for nursing homes begins with a set of standards. Abbreviation: QA.
- quality newspaper — a more serious newspaper which gives detailed accounts of world events, as well as reports on business, culture, and society
- quantity surveyor — A quantity surveyor is a person who calculates the cost and amount of materials and workers needed for a job such as building a house or a road.
- quantum chemistry — the application of quantum mechanics to the study of chemical phenomena.