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16-letter words containing a, n, p, r

  • personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
  • personality test — an instrument, as a questionnaire or series of standardized tasks, used to measure personality characteristics or to discover personality disorders.
  • personality type — a cluster of personality traits commonly occurring together
  • personnel agency — an agency for placing employable persons in jobs; employment agency.
  • peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
  • peter pan collar — a close-fitting flat or rolled collar with rounded ends that meet in front of a high, round neckline.
  • peter stuyvesant — Peter, 1592–1672, Dutch colonial administrator in the Americas: last governor of New Netherlands 1646–64.
  • petrol rationing — a scheme rationing the amount of petrol that an individual is allowed to purchase
  • phalansterianism — a system by which society would be reorganized into units comprising their own social and industrial elements; Fourierism.
  • phantasmagorical — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
  • pharmacodynamics — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the course of action, effect, and breakdown of drugs within the body.
  • pharmacogenetics — the branch of pharmacology that examines the relation of genetic factors to variations in response to drugs.
  • pharmacogenomics — the study of human genetic variability in relation to drug action and its application to medical treatment
  • pharmacokinetics — the branch of pharmacology that studies the fate of pharmacological substances in the body, as their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
  • phase difference — the difference between two sinusoidally varying quantities that have the same frequency, measured either as an angle or a time
  • philanthropistic — a person who practices philanthropy.
  • phonocardiograph — an instrument for graphically recording the sound of the heartbeat.
  • photochronograph — a device formerly used for taking a series of instantaneous photographs of a rapidly moving object.
  • photorespiration — the oxidation of carbohydrates in many higher plants in which they get oxygen from light and then release carbon dioxide, somewhat different from photosynthesis.
  • photozincography — a type of photoengraving using a sensitized zinc plate.
  • phytoremediation — a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants.
  • pineal apparatus — a median outgrowth of the roof of the diencephalon in vertebrates that in some develops into the pineal eye and in others into the pineal gland.
  • pinot chardonnay — Chardonnay.
  • piscis austrinus — a small constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Aquarius and Grus and containing the first-magnitude star Fomalhaut
  • pithecanthropine — of, belonging to, or resembling a former genus (Pithecanthropus, now classified as Homo erectus) of extinct early humans, who lived in Java, China, Europe, and Africa
  • pithecanthropoid — of, relating to, or resembling the former genus Pithecanthropus or one of its members.
  • planetary nebula — an expanding shell of thin ionized gas that is ejected from and surrounds a hot, dying star of about the same mass as the sun; the gas absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the central star and reemits it as visible light by the process of fluorescence.
  • plant bargaining — a form of bargaining within industry, involving either informal small groups of employees or collective agreements at plant level
  • platform-balance — a scale with a platform for holding the items to be weighed.
  • platinum-iridium — (standard)   A standard, against which all others of the same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris, as the bar defining the standard metre once was. "This garbage collection algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare golden.
  • platoon sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer in a platoon, equivalent to sergeant first class.
  • play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
  • pleasure-seeking — always looking for pleasure
  • pneumatic trough — a trough filled with liquid, especially water, for collecting gases in bell jars or the like by displacement.
  • poitou-charentes — a region of W central France, on the Bay of Biscay: mainly low-lying
  • polar coordinate — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
  • polar opposition — the relation between a pair of antonyms that denote relatively higher and lower degrees of a quality with respect to an explicit or implicit norm rather than absolute values, as the relation between tall and short or light and dark, but not between true and false.
  • polarizing angle — the law that light will receive maximum polarization from a reflecting surface when it is incident to the surface at an angle (angle of polarization or polarizing angle) having a tangent equal to the index of refraction of the surface.
  • polyhedral angle — a configuration consisting of the lateral faces of a polyhedron around one of its vertices. The portion of a pyramid including one of its points is such a configuration.
  • polyvinyl formal — a colorless, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal produced from partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate and formaldehyde, used chiefly in the manufacture of lacquers.
  • ponderosa (pine) — a yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) of W North America, valued for its timber
  • porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
  • pork scratchings — small pieces of crisply cooked pork crackling, eaten cold as an appetizer with drinks
  • portmanteau word — a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
  • portrait painter — artist: paints likenesses
  • portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
  • post-reformation — the act of reforming; state of being reformed.
  • post-renaissance — the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
  • post-romanticism — romantic spirit or tendency.
  • potential energy — the energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
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