14-letter words containing a, l, k
- packed decimal — binary coded decimal
- palisades park — a borough in NE New Jersey.
- parking lights — the parking lights on a vehicle are the small lights at the front that help other drivers to notice the vehicle and to judge its width
- passion killer — something that is sexually unattractive or inhibiting
- peacock's tail — a handsome brown seaweed, Padina pavonia (though coloured yellow-olive, red, and green) whose fan-shaped fronds have concentric bands of iridescent hairs
- peacock-flower — royal poinciana.
- pearl necklace — jewelry: string of pearls
- pedal keyboard — pedal (def 3a).
- peel-and-stick — ready to be applied after peeling off the backing to expose an adhesive surface: peel-and-stick labels.
- pembroke table — a drop-leaf table with fly rails and with a drawer at one end or each end of the skirt.
- penalty killer — a player used when the player's team is short-handed as a result of a penalty, especially a player skilled at defense and employed regularly in such situations.
- penalty stroke — a stroke added to a score for a rule infraction.
- permanent link — (web) A URL that always points to the same piece of web content. Web pages that appear for a limited time at their main URL, such as web logs or news sites, often display an alternative, permanent link. Readers can quote, bookmark, or link to this URL in order to refer to a particular item, rather than the page displaying the latest item. For example, the URL http://news.bbc.co.uk/ points to the latest news from the BBC whereas http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/2614839.stm is a permanent link to a particular news story.
- pink elephants — a facetious name applied to hallucinations caused by drunkenness
- pipeline break — (architecture) (Or "pipeline stall") The delay caused on a processor using pipelines when a transfer of control is taken. Normally when a control-transfer instruction (a branch, conditional branch, call or trap) is taken, any following instructions which have been loaded into the processor's pipeline must be discarded or "flushed" and new instructions loaded from the branch destination. This introduces a delay before the processor can resume execution. "Delayed control-transfer" is a technique used to reduce this effect.
- placido's disk — a device marked with concentric black rings, used to detect corneal irregularities.
- plain speaking — expressing oneself directly
- platinum black — a black powder consisting of very finely divided metallic platinum, used as a catalyst, especially in organic synthesis.
- play for keeps — to do something seriously and without showing any mercy
- poikiloblastic — (of metamorphic rocks) having small grains of one mineral embedded in metacrysts of another mineral.
- poikilothermal — cold-blooded (def 1 .) (opposed to homoiothermal).
- poikilothermia — Medicine/Medical. the inability to regulate core body temperature (as by sweating to cool off or by putting on clothes to warm up), found especially in some spinal cord injury patients and in patients under general anesthesia.
- polar outbreak — a vigorous thrust of cold, polar air across temperate regions.
- portrait flask — a glass flask of the 19th century having a portrait molded onto the side.
- potamoplankton — plankton living in freshwater streams.
- practical joke — a playful trick, often involving some physical agent or means, in which the victim is placed in an embarrassing or disadvantageous position.
- prawn cocktail — A prawn cocktail is a dish that consists of prawns, salad, and a sauce. It is usually eaten at the beginning of a meal.
- protocol stack — (protocol) A layered set of protocols which work together to provide a set of network functions. Each intermediate protocol layer uses the layer below it to provide a service to the layer above. The OSI seven layer model is an attempt to provide a standard framework within which to describe protocol stacks.
- pull up stakes — a stick or post pointed at one end for driving into the ground as a boundary mark, part of a fence, support for a plant, etc.
- purbeck marble — a fossil-rich limestone that takes a high polish: used for building, etc
- purple grackle — the eastern subspecies of the common grackle, Quiscalus quiscula, of North America, having an iridescent purple back.
- pyramidal peak — a sharp peak formed where the ridges separating three or more cirques intersect; horn
- ragnar lodbrok — a possibly historical Danish king of the 9th century, the subject of an Old Icelandic saga and of accounts in the Danish history by Saxo Grammaticus: also associated with the story of Sigurd and the Volsungs.
- railroad track — railway line
- railway worker — railroad employee
- rangeley lakes — chain of lakes in W Me. & NE N.H.
- rank-and-filer — a member of the rank and file.
- recklinghausen — a city in NW Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany.
- remarkableness — notably or conspicuously unusual; extraordinary: a remarkable change.
- removable disk — removable hard disk
- retail banking — banking for individual customers
- rip van winkle — (in a story by Washington Irving) a ne'er-do-well who sleeps 20 years and upon waking is startled to find how much the world has changed.
- roanoke island — an island off the NE coast of North Carolina, S of Albemarle Sound: site of Raleigh's unsuccessful colonizing attempts 1585, 1587.
- roller-skating — the act of moving on roller skates
- ryukyu islands — a chain of 55 islands in the W Pacific, extending almost 650 km (400 miles) from S Japan to N Taiwan: an ancient kingdom, under Chinese rule from the late 14th century, invaded by Japan in the early 17th century, under full Japanese sovereignty from 1879 to 1945, and US control from 1945 to 1972; now part of Japan again. They are subject to frequent typhoons. Chief town: Naha (on Okinawa). Pop: 1 318 220 (2000). Area: 2196 sq km (849 sq miles)
- sackville-west — Dame Victoria Mary ("Vita") 1892–1962, English poet and novelist (wife of Harold Nicolson).
- saddle blanket — a saddle-shaped pad, as of felt or sheepskin, placed beneath the saddle to prevent it from irritating the horse's skin.
- sakha republic — an administrative division in E Russia, in NE Siberia on the Arctic Ocean: the coldest inhabited region of the world; it has rich mineral resources. Capital: Yakutsk. Pop: 948 100 (2002). Area: 3 103 200 sq km (1 197 760 sq miles)
- salary bracket — a given range or bracket of salaries within which the amount of pay earned by someone falls
- salt lake city — a state in the W United States. 84,916 sq. mi. (219,930 sq. km). Capital: Salt Lake City. Abbreviation: UT (for use with zip code), Ut.