22-letter words containing p
- portable standard lisp — (language) (PSL) A dialect of Lisp from Utah University. PSL is available as a kit for 68000 and also runs on VAX. It compiles Lisp to C-code virtual machine language.
- portuguese east africa — former name of Mozambique (def 1).
- portuguese west africa — a republic in SW Africa: formerly an overseas province of Portugal; gained independence Nov. 11, 1975. 481,226 sq. mi. (1,246,375 sq. km). Capital: Luanda.
- positive reinforcement — encouragement
- post office department — former name of United States Postal Service.
- postmortem examination — dissection and examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death
- potassium ferricyanide — a bright-red, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous solid, K 3 Fe(CN) 6 , used chiefly in the manufacture of pigments, as Prussian blue, and of paper, especially blueprint paper.
- potassium ferrocyanide — a lemon-yellow, crystalline, water-soluble solid, K 4 Fe(CN) 6 ⋅3H 2 O, used chiefly in casehardening alloys having an iron base and in dyeing wool and silk.
- potassium permanganate — a very dark purple, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KMnO 4 , used chiefly as an oxidizing agent, disinfectant, laboratory reagent, and in medicine as an astringent and antiseptic.
- potassium-argon dating — a method for estimating the age of a mineral or rock, based on measurement of the rate of decay of radioactive potassium into argon.
- practice makes perfect — If you say 'practice makes perfect', you mean that it is possible to learn something or develop a skill if you practise enough. People often say this to encourage someone to keep practising.
- prawn-sandwich brigade — sports fans who are perceived to lack passion and commitment, and who it is supposed attend matches in order to eat food and buy merchandise rather than cheer on their team
- preestablished harmony — (in the philosophy of Leibnitz) synchronous operation of all monads, since their simultaneous creation, in accordance with the preexisting plan of God.
- pressure relief system — A pressure relief system is a device or method for reducing pressure in vessels, stages, or equipment when pressure has increased above a particular limit.
- preventive maintenance — (PM) To bring down a machine for inspection or test purposes. See provocative maintenance, scratch monkey.
- price variation clause — a clause in a contract allowing the seller to vary the selling price under certain conditions
- primary rate interface — (PRI) A type of ISDN connection. In North America and Japan, this consists of 24 channels, usually divided into 23 B channels and 1 D channel, and runs over the same physical interface as T1. Elsewhere the PRI has 31 user channels, usually divided into 30 B channels and 1 D channel and is based on the E1 interface. PRI is typically used for connections such as one between a PBX (private branch exchange, a telephone exchange operated by the customer of a telephone company) and a CO (central office, of the telephone company) or IXC (inter exchange carrier, a long distance telephone company).
- primate of all england — a title of the archbishop of Canterbury.
- prince edward islander — a native or inhabitant of Prince Edward Island
- prince of wales island — the largest island in the Alexander Archipelago, in SE Alaska. 1500 sq. mi. (3990 sq. km).
- principal ideal domain — a commutative integral domain with multiplicative identity in which every ideal is principal.
- prisoner of conscience — sb imprisoned for beliefs
- private-equity company — an organization that uses private equity to gain control of and manage companies
- privileged instruction — A machine code instruction that may only be executed when the processor is running in supervisor mode. Privileged instructions include operations such as I/O and memory management.
- probationary assistant — a teacher in the first probationary years
- process cinematography — cinematography in which the main or foreground action or scene is superimposed on or combined with simulated or separately filmed background action or scenery to produce special visual effects.
- procurement department — the department of (a company, organization, etc) responsible for purchasing and buying
- productivity agreement — an agreement whereby the employees of an organization agree to changes which are intended to improve productivity in return for an increase in pay or other benefits
- program transformation — The systematic development of efficient programs from high-level specifications by meaning-preserving program manipulations. Also known as optimisation. See fusion, loop combination, peephole optimisation, register allocation, tupling, unfold/fold.
- programmed instruction — a progressively monitored, step-by-step teaching method, employing small units of information or learning material and frequent testing, whereby the student must complete or pass one stage before moving on to the next.
- progressive participle — present participle.
- pronunciation spelling — a spelling intended to match a certain pronunciation more closely than the traditional spelling does, as gonna for going to , kinda for kind of (meaning “rather”), git for get , or lite for light.
- propositional attitude — a relation between a person and a proposition, such as belief, desire, intention, etc
- propositional calculus — propositional logic
- propositional function — sentential function.
- protestant reformation — reformation (def 2).
- prothonotary apostolic — a member of the first college of prelates of the Roman Curia.
- psychological thriller — book, movie: suspense story
- public domain software — public domain
- public housing project — a group of homes for poorer families which is funded and controlled by the local government
- public limited company — A public limited company is the same as a public company. The abbreviation plc is used after such companies' names.
- public service vehicle — a bus or coach
- pull out all the stops — to cease from, leave off, or discontinue: to stop running.
- pull/bring sb up short — If something pulls you up short or brings you up short, it makes you suddenly stop what you are doing.
- pulmonary tuberculosis — tuberculosis of the lungs.
- punctuated equilibrium — theory of, Biology. a hypothesis holding that the evolution of species proceeds in a characteristic pattern of relative stability for long periods of time interspersed with much shorter periods during which many species become extinct and new species emerge. Also called punctuationalism. Compare gradualism (def 3).
- pure food and drug act — a law passed in 1906 to remove harmful and misrepresented foods and drugs from the market and regulate the manufacture and sale of drugs and food involved in interstate trade.
- pushing up the daisies — dead and buried
- put out of countenance — to cause to lose composure; embarrass; disconcert
- put sth out to pasture — If you put animals out to pasture, you move them out into the fields so they can eat the grass.