16-letter words containing a, c, e, y
- ordnance factory — a factory that makes military weapons and ammunition
- organoleptically — In an organoleptic manner.
- orthosympathetic — Of or pertaining to the sympathetic component of the autonomic nervous system.
- osteoarchaeology — the branch of archaeology that deals with the study of bones found at archaeological sites
- overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overdramatically — In an overdramatic manner.
- overexcitability — to excite too much.
- paleoclimatology — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.
- papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.
- particle physics — the branch of physics that deals with the properties and behavior of elementary particles.
- pathetic fallacy — the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.
- periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
- perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- personnel agency — an agency for placing employable persons in jobs; employment agency.
- phagocytic index — the average number of bacteria ingested per phagocyte in an incubated mixture of bacteria, phagocytes, and blood serum: used in determining the opsonic index.
- pheochromocytoma — a tumor of the sympathetic nervous system or adrenal medulla, that produces excess norepinephrine and epinephrine and causes hypertension, headaches, nausea, etc.
- phylogenetically — the development or evolution of a particular group of organisms.
- physical address — (memory management) The address presented to a computer's main memory in a virtual memory system, in contrast to the virtual address which is the address generated by the CPU. A memory management unit translates virtual addresses into physical addresses.
- physical fitness — good physical condition
- physical science — any of the natural sciences dealing with inanimate matter or with energy, as physics, chemistry, and astronomy.
- physical therapy — the treatment or management of physical disability, malfunction, or pain by exercise, massage, hydrotherapy, etc., without the use of medicines, surgery, or radiation.
- play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
- player character — a character in a role-playing game or video game who is controlled by the person playing the game. Abbreviation: PC. Compare nonplayer character.
- pocket secretary — a long, narrow walletlike case, usually of leather and containing pockets for credit and business cards, paper money, etc., and sometimes a notepad and pencil.
- policy statement — a declaration of the plans and intentions of an organization or government
- political system — a coordinated set of principles, laws, ideas, and procedures relating to a particular form of government, or the form of government itself: Democracy is a political system in which citizens govern themselves.
- polycondensation — formation of a polymer by chemical condensation with the elimination of a small molecule, such as water.
- polyvinyl acetal — any of the class of thermoplastic resins derived by the condensation of an aldehyde with polyvinyl alcohol.
- pragmatic theory — the theory of truth that the truth of a statement consists in its practical consequences, especially in its agreement with subsequent experience.
- primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
- primary deviance — the violation of a norm or rule that does not result in the violator's being stigmatized as deviant.
- primary election — primary (def 15a).
- primary electron — in thermionics, any of the electrons falling on a body, distinguished from those emitted by it
- primary producer — any green plant or any of various microorganisms that can convert light energy or chemical energy into organic matter.
- property company — a business that makes money by buying, selling, and renting out land and houses
- pseudoparenchyma — (in certain fungi and red algae) a compact mass of tissue, made up of interwoven hyphae or filaments, that superficially resembles plant tissue.
- psychic distance — the degree of emotional detachment maintained toward a person, group of people, event, etc.
- psychogeriatrics — the psychology of old age.
- ptolemaic system — a system elaborated by Ptolemy and subsequently modified by others, according to which the earth was the fixed center of the universe, with the heavenly bodies moving about it.
- publicity agency — an advertising agency; a firm that gets publicity for people or products
- pygmy chimpanzee — a small chimpanzee, Pan paniscus, primarily of swamp forests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: a threatened species.
- pyroracemic acid — pyruvic acid.
- pyruvic aldehyde — a yellow, liquid compound, C 3 H 4 O 2 , containing both an aldehyde and a ketone group, usually obtained in a polymeric form: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- racing certainty — a horse considered very likely or certain to win a race
- radiosymmetrical — radially symmetrical.
- railway carriage — a railway coach for passengers
- ramsden eyepiece — an eyepiece consisting of two plano-convex crown-glass lenses of equal focal length, placed with the convex sides facing each other and with a separation between the lenses of about two-thirds of the focal length of each.
- redundancy money — a sum of money given by an employer to an employee who has been made redundant: usually calculated on the basis of the employee's rate of pay and length of service
- relativistically — of or relating to relativity or relativism.