12-letter words containing a, n, i, s, o
- pertinacious — holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute.
- petrobrusian — a member of a 12th-century sect in S France that rejected the Mass, infant baptism, prayers for the dead, sacerdotalism, the veneration of the cross, and the building of churches.
- phalaenopsis — any of various epiphytic orchids of the genus Phalaenopsis, native to tropical Asia, having clusters of showy, variously colored flowers.
- phonasthenia — difficult or abnormal voice production; vocal weakness.
- phonotactics — the patterns in which the phonemes of a language may combine to form sequences.
- phosphamidon — a systemic and contact insecticide, C 1 0 H 1 9 ClNO 5 P, used against beetles, aphids, mites, and other crop pests.
- piano lesson — music class in playing the piano
- picornavirus — any of a group of small, RNA-containing viruses of the family Picornaviridae, infectious to humans and other animals, and including the poliovirus and the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold.
- pilot signal — a signal, as a flag or light, used to request a pilot.
- plain-spoken — candid; frank; blunt.
- plainclothes — Plainclothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
- plastination — a technique for embalming bodies by impregnating whole organs with silicon polymers
- plastocyanin — a blue protein found in green plants and in some bacteria
- plumbaginous — containing graphite.
- poetastering — the profession of being a poetaster
- poeticalness — the characteristic of being poetical
- pogson ratio — the brightness ratio of two celestial objects that differ by one magnitude. On the Pogson scale a difference of 5 magnitudes is defined as a difference of 100 in the intensities of two stars; therefore a difference of 1 magnitude is equal to the fifth root of 100, i.e. 2.512
- point spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- point-spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- poison gland — a gland in some fish and amphibians that secretes venomous material
- poison sumac — a shrub or small tree, Rhus vernix (or Toxicodendron vernix), of swampy areas of the eastern U.S., having pinnate leaves and causing severe dermatitis when touched by persons sensitive to it.
- pollyannaish — an excessively or blindly optimistic person.
- pollyannaism — an excessively or blindly optimistic person.
- polysiloxane — a polymer composed of silicon and oxygen atoms
- polysynaptic — having or involving more than one synapse.
- pons varolii — pons (def 1).
- pontificates — the office or term of office of a pontiff.
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- positionally — in terms of position, from a positional point of view
- possessional — of, relating to, or characterized by possession
- post captain — (formerly) a naval officer holding a commission as a captain, as distinct from an officer with the courtesy title of captain
- post-weaning — to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than its mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
- postabortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- postaccident — occurring after an accident
- postal union — an international agreement on postal rates and services.
- postcolonial — of or relating to the period following a state of colonialism.
- postdeadline — the time by which something must be finished or submitted; the latest time for finishing something: a five o'clock deadline.
- postdiluvian — existing or occurring after the Biblical Flood.
- poster paint — an opaque, water-based, typically bright-colored paint with a glue-size or gum binder, that is suitable for use on posters and is usually packaged in jars.
- postillation — the writing or preaching of postils
- postliminary — of or relating to postliminy
- postmeridian — of or relating to the afternoon.
- postprandial — after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
- postromantic — of or relating to the period after Romanticism
- postsynaptic — being or occurring on the receiving end of a discharge across the synapse.
- postvaccinal — occurring after a vaccine
- pratincolous — living in a meadow.
- praxinoscope — a toy in which a sequence of images, depicted on the inner surface of a cylinder and reflected in a series of mirrors, gives the illusion of motion as the cylinder rotates
- preadmission — (in a reciprocating engine) admission of steam or the like to the head of the cylinder near the end of the stroke, as to cushion the force of the stroke or to allow full pressure at the beginning of the return stroke.