19-letter words containing t, o, p, s, e, c
- polytene chromosome — a giant, cross-banded chromosome that results from multiple replication of its genetic material with the duplicated chromatin strands remaining closely associated.
- population genetics — the branch of genetics concerned with the hereditary makeup of populations.
- post office problem — (algorithm) Given a set of points (in N dimensions), find another point which minimises the sum of the distances from that point to each of the others.
- post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
- postage and packing — the cost of packing and mailing an item bought by post
- potassium carbonate — a white, granular, water-soluble powder, K 2 CO 3 , used chiefly in the manufacture of soap, glass, and potassium salts.
- prescription charge — a charge, set by the government, to be paid by a patient for medicines
- presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
- priority scheduling — (operating system) Processes scheduling in which the scheduler selects tasks to run based on their priority as opposed to, say, a simple round-robin. Priorities may be static or dynamic. Static priorities are assigned at the time of creation, while dynamic priorities are based on the processes' behaviour while in the system. For example, the scheduler may favour I/O-intensive tasks so that expensive requests can be issued as early as possible. A danger of priority scheduling is starvation, in which processes with lower priorities are not given the opportunity to run. In order to avoid starvation, in preemptive scheduling, the priority of a process is gradually reduced while it is running. Eventually, the priority of the running process will no longer be the highest, and the next process will start running. This method is called aging.
- prismatic telescope — a telescope having an eyepiece at the side or top equipped with a reflecting prism, used for taking sights at steep angles.
- private prosecution — a prosecution started by a private individual rather than by the police
- proctosigmoidoscope — sigmoidoscope.
- programmer's switch — (hardware) A button on the front of some Apple Macintosh computers which, when pressed, causes a command line prompt to appear. This gives access to the built-in mini-debugger, which has commands to dump memory, return to the application that was broken out, and others. A more sophisticated debugger must be installed in order to inspect breakpoints, etc.
- promotion prospects — the chances or prospects an employee has for promotion or for gaining a better position, often in the same company
- promotions director — someone in charge of encouraging the sale of (a product) by advertising or securing financial support
- property speculator — a person who takes part in property speculation
- pseudo-aristocratic — of or relating to government by an aristocracy.
- pseudo-conservative — disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change.
- pseudo-intellectual — a person exhibiting intellectual pretensions that have no basis in sound scholarship.
- psychotechnological — of or relating to psychotechnology
- psychrometric chart — a chart for calculating values of relative humidity, absolute humidity, and dew point from psychrometer readings.
- push comes to shove — matters become serious or reach a critical point where some action or decision is required
- put one's back into — to devote all one's strength to (a task)
- quartermaster corps — the branch of the U.S. Army responsible for supplying food, clothing, fuel, and equipment and for the operation of commissaries, laundries, etc.
- rap on the knuckles — a mild reprimand or light sentence
- reactive depression — depression occurring in response to some situational stress, as loss of one's job.
- relocation expenses — Relocation expenses are a sum of money that a company pays to someone who moves to a new area in order to work for the company. The money is to help them pay for moving house.
- repeat prescription — A repeat prescription is a prescription for a medicine that you have taken before or that you use regularly.
- republic of letters — the collective body of literary people.
- reserved occupation — in time of war, an occupation from which one will not be called up for military service
- resorcinolphthalein — fluorescein.
- royal correspondent — a journalist who reports on matters relating to royalty
- sacrifice operative — a euphemistic term for a suicide bomber
- sanitary protection — Sanitary protection is sanitary towels or tampons.
- santa rosa de copan — a town in W Honduras: site of extensive Mayan ruins.
- scare the pants off — to scare extremely
- secondary picketing — the picketing by strikers of a place of work that supplies goods to or distributes goods from their employer
- sexual reproduction — reproduction involving the union of gametes.
- shopping facilities — shops or other retail services
- simple carbohydrate — a carbohydrate, as glucose, that consists of a single monosaccharide unit.
- single-cell protein — a protein produced or derived from the culture of a single-celled organism, used as a food supplement or substitute. Abbreviation: SCP.
- smoking compartment — a compartment of a train where smoking is permitted
- sodium hypochlorite — a pale-green, crystalline compound, NaOCl, unstable in air, soluble in cold water, decomposes in hot water: used as a bleaching agent for paper and textiles, in water purification, in household use, and as a fungicide.
- solid-state physics — the branch of physics that deals with the macroscopic physical properties of matter, especially solids; the study of the electromagnetic, structural, and thermodynamic properties of solids.
- south pacific ocean — the part of the Pacific Ocean extending S from the Equator to the Antarctic continent.
- southern crab apple — a tree, Malus angustifolia, of the eastern U.S., having oblong leaves, fragrant, pink or rose-colored flowers, and small, round, yellow-green fruit.
- specular reflection — Specular reflection is reflection of heat or light in which the angles of different parts of the surface are important.
- speculative fiction — a broad literary genre encompassing any fiction with supernatural, fantastical, or futuristic elements
- speeding conviction — a conviction for breaking the speed limit while driving a vehicle
- spherical astronomy — the branch of astronomy dealing with the determination of the positions of celestial bodies on the celestial sphere.