17-letter words containing l, d, o, p, a
- dna amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- doorstep salesman — a door-to-door salesman
- double pair royal — a set of four cards of the same denomination, worth 12 points.
- drilling platform — a structure, either fixed to the sea bed or mobile, which supports the machinery and equipment (the drilling rig), together with the stores, required for digging an offshore oil well
- drool-proof paper — (jargon) Documentation that has been obsessively dumbed down, to the point where only a cretin could bear to read it, is said to have succumbed to the "drool-proof paper syndrome" or to have been "written on drool-proof paper". For example, this is an actual quote from Apple Computer's LaserWriter manual: "Do not expose your LaserWriter to open fire or flame."
- enlarged prostate — disorder of male reproductive gland
- epicycloidal gear — a gear of an epicyclic train
- epidemiologically — With regard to epidemiology.
- exception handler — Special code which is called when an exception occurs during the execution of a program. If the programmer does not provide a handler for a given exception, a built-in system exception handler will usually be called resulting in abortion of the program run and some kind of error indication being returned to the user. Examples of exception handler mechanisms are Unix's signal calls and Lisp's catch and throw.
- exceptional child — a gifted child
- falling diphthong — a diphthong in which the first of the two apparent vocalic elements is of greater stress or sonority and the second is of lesser stress or sonority, as in (ī), (ou), (oi), etc.
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- galapagos islands — a group of 15 islands in the Pacific west of Ecuador, of which they form a province: discovered (1535) by the Spanish; main settlement on San Cristóbal. Pop: 18 640 (2001). Area: 7844 sq km (3028 sq miles)
- garden heliotrope — the common valerian, Valeriana officinalis, especially when cultivated as an ornamental.
- guadalupe hidalgo — a city in the Federal District of Mexico: famous shrine; peace treaty 1848.
- gunboat diplomacy — diplomatic relations involving the use or threat of military force, especially by a powerful nation against a weaker one.
- gustavus adolphus — (Gustavus Adolphus) 1778–1837, king of Sweden 1792–1809 (son of Gustavus III).
- gustavus-adolphus — (Gustavus Adolphus) 1778–1837, king of Sweden 1792–1809 (son of Gustavus III).
- hardware platform — a group of compatible computers that can run the same software.
- holding operation — a plan or procedure devised to prolong the existing situation
- hydrotherapy pool — a pool of water used for hydrotherapy
- hypochlorous acid — a weak, unstable acid, HOCl, existing only in solution and in the form of its salts, used as a bleaching agent and disinfectant.
- hypochondriacally — In a hypochondriacal manner.
- illegal procedure — a penalty assessed against the offensive team for a technical rules violation, as in assuming an illegal formation.
- kaleidoscopically — of, relating to, or created by a kaleidoscope.
- kastor and pollux — Castor and Pollux.
- lambda expression — (mathematics) A term in the lambda-calculus denoting an unnamed function (a "lambda abstraction"), a variable or a constant. The pure lambda-calculus has only functions and no constants.
- least fixed point — (mathematics) A function f may have many fixed points (x such that f x = x). For example, any value is a fixed point of the identity function, (\ x . x). If f is recursive, we can represent it as f = fix F where F is some higher-order function and fix F = F (fix F). The standard denotational semantics of f is then given by the least fixed point of F. This is the least upper bound of the infinite sequence (the ascending Kleene chain) obtained by repeatedly applying F to the totally undefined value, bottom. I.e. fix F = LUB {bottom, F bottom, F (F bottom), ...}. The least fixed point is guaranteed to exist for a continuous function over a cpo.
- least upper bound — an upper bound that is less than or equal to all the upper bounds of a particular set. 3 is the least upper bound of the set consisting of 1, 2, 3. Abbr.: lub.
- legal proceedings — court case
- lipopolysaccaride — a molecule, consisting of lipid and polysaccharide components, that is the main constituent of the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria
- liquid petrolatum — mineral oil.
- liquid propellant — a rocket propellant in liquid form.
- load displacement — the weight, in long tons, of a cargo vessel loaded so that the summer load line touches the surface of the water.
- lymphadenopathies — Plural form of lymphadenopathy.
- medical procedure — A medical procedure is a medical treatment or operation.
- microencapsulated — Encapsulated using microencapsulation.
- modern pentathlon — an athletic contest consisting of five different events: horse riding with jumps, fencing with electric épée, freestyle swimming, pistol shooting, and cross-country running
- modular sb-prolog — Modular Prolog
- mounted policeman — policemen who patrol on horseback
- muscle dysmorphia — a mental disorder primarily affecting males, characterized by obsessions about a perceived lack of muscularity, leading to compulsive exercising, use of anabolic steroids, etc. Compare body dysmorphic disorder.
- occipital condyle — a protrusion on the occipital bone of the skull that forms a joint with the first cervical vertebra, enabling the head to move relative to the neck.
- old age pensioner — An old age pensioner is a person who is old enough to receive an pension from their employer or the government.
- old spanish trail — an overland route from Santa Fe, N. Mex., to Los Angeles, Calif., first marked out in 1776 by Spanish explorers and missionaries.
- paradoxical sleep — REM sleep.
- parathyroid gland — any of several small oval glands usually lying near or embedded in the thyroid gland.
- periodical cicada — seventeen-year locust.
- personal distance — personal space.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.