18-letter words containing n, a, m, p
- normally aspirated — A normally aspirated or naturally aspirated engine breathes air at atmospheric pressure.
- numerical aperture — a measure of the resolving power of a microscope, equal to the index of refraction of the medium in which the object is placed multiplied by the sine of the angle made with the axis by the most oblique ray entering the instrument, the resolving power increasing as the product increases. Abbreviation: N.A.
- on automatic pilot — If you are on automatic pilot or on autopilot, you are acting without thinking about what you are doing, usually because you have done it many times before.
- one-banana problem — (jargon, abuse) At computer installations where the computers have operators for routine administrivia, the programmers and hardware people tend to look down on the operators and claim that a trained monkey could do their job. The incentives offered to said monkeys would then describe the difficulty of a task. A one-banana problem is simple; hence, "It's only a one-banana job at the most; what's taking them so long?" See also Infinite-Monkey Theorem.
- operations manager — business director
- optimum population — a population that is sufficiently large to provide an adequate workforce with minimal unemployment
- pairs championship — an event in a sport such as tennis or darts open to pairs of competitors
- palm beach gardens — a city in SE Florida, near North Palm Beach.
- pan american union — a former organization of American republics dedicated to furthering understanding and peace: replaced in 1970 by the secretariat of the Organization of American States.
- parachute regiment — an airborne regiment of an army
- parallactic motion — the apparent motion of stars due to the earth's orbital motion.
- parallel computing — parallel processing
- parallel importing — the importing of certain goods, esp pharmaceutical drugs, by dealers who undersell local manufacturers
- parliamentarianism — advocacy of a parliamentary system of government.
- particeps criminis — an accomplice in a crime.
- passing modulation — a modulation of a temporary nature.
- pathname separator — (file system) The character used to separate elements of a path or pathname. Under Unix and POSIX.1 compliant systems the pathname separator is the (forward) slash, in MS-DOS backslash serves the same purpose. For obvious reasons the no directory or file name can contain this character.
- pathologic anatomy — the branch of pathology dealing with the morphologic changes in tissues.
- payment by results — a system of wage payment whereby all or part of the wage varies systematically according to the level of work performance of an employee
- payment in advance — If a business asks for payment in advance, the payment must be received in full before the goods or services are delivered.
- pci mezzanine card — (hardware) (PMC) A family of low profile mezzanine cards for VMEbus, Futurebus+, desktop computers and other computer systems with logical and electrical layers based on the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) specification. PMC is defined in IEEE P1386.1 and follows the Common Mezzanine Card (CMC) mechanical specification. PCI2.0 defines a 4.2 inch by 12.3 inch board that plugs perpendicularly into a mother board.
- peppermint camphor — menthol.
- perceptual mapping — the use of a graph or map in the development of a new product, in which the proximity of consumers' images of the new product to those of an ideal product provide an indication of the new product's likely success
- performance artist — an artist that is involved in a theatrical presentation that incorporates various art forms, such as dance, sculpture, music, etc
- permanent hardness — hardness of water that cannot be removed by boiling as it results mainly from the presence of calcium and magnesium chlorides and sulphates
- permanent resident — an immigrant who has been given official residential status, often prior to being granted citizenship
- pernicious anaemia — Pernicious anaemia is a very severe blood disease.
- personal exemption — Your personal exemption is the amount of money that is deducted from your gross income before you have to start paying income tax.
- phantasmagorically — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- phantom withdrawal — the unauthorized removal of funds from a bank account using an automated teller machine
- philharmonic pitch — a standard of pitch in which A above middle C is established at 440 vibrations per second.
- photoisomerization — isomerization induced by light.
- phytohemagglutinin — a lectin, obtained from the red kidney bean, that binds to the membranes of T cells and stimulates metabolic activity, cell division, etc.
- plane trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry dealing with plane triangles.
- play cat and mouse — Also called cat and rat. a children's game in which players in a circle keep a player from moving into or out of the circle and permit a second player to move into or out of the circle to escape the pursuing first player.
- play someone false — to deceive, cheat, hoodwink, or betray someone
- plenum ventilation — a system of mechanical ventilation in which fresh air is forced into the spaces to be ventilated from a chamber (plenum chamber) at a pressure slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, so as to expel foul air.
- plumber's merchant — a shop or business that sells things needed for the job of installing and repairing pipes, fixtures, etc, for water, drainage, and gas
- pneumatic conveyor — a tube through which powdered or granular material, such as cement, grain, etc is transported by a flow of air
- policeman's helmet — a Himalayan balsaminaceous plant, Impatiens glandulifera, with large purplish-pink flowers, introduced into Britain
- politically-minded — (of a person or group of people) interested in the way power is achieved and used in a country or society (through government, policy-making, etc)
- population pyramid — a graph showing the distribution of a population by sex, age, etc.
- portable equipment — Portable equipment is electrical equipment that can easily be moved from one place to another while in operation or while connected to the supply.
- postmaster general — the executive head of the postal system of a country.
- postmillenarianism — postmillennialism.
- postviral syndrome — debilitating condition occurring as a sequel to viral illness
- potassium myronate — sinigrin.
- pound the pavement — a paved road, highway, etc.
- pragmatic sanction — any one of various imperial decrees with the effect of fundamental law.
- prayer of manasses — a book of the Apocrypha.