12-letter words containing a, o, r, i, s
- persian knot — a hand-tied knot, used in rug weaving, in which the ends of yarn looped around a warp thread appear at each of the interstices between adjacent threads and produce a compact and relatively even pile effect.
- personalised — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- personalized — customized
- perspiration — a salty, watery fluid secreted by the sweat glands of the skin, especially when very warm as a result of strenuous exertion; sweat.
- perspiratory — of, relating to, or stimulating perspiration.
- pertinacious — holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute.
- pervicacious — extremely willful; obstinate; stubborn.
- petaliferous — bearing or having petals.
- 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.
- phosphaturia — the presence of an excessive quantity of phosphates in the urine.
- photorealism — a style of painting flourishing in the 1970s, especially in the U.S., England, and France, and depicting commonplace scenes or ordinary people, with a meticulously detailed realism, flat images, and barely discernible brushwork that suggests and often is based on or incorporates an actual photograph.
- physiography — the science of physical geography.
- physogastric — pertaining to the swollen, membranous abdomen of certain insects, especially termite and ant queens.
- 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.
- pictorialism — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- pictorialist — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- pirate coast — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- poetastering — the profession of being a poetaster
- 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.
- polar lights — the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere or the aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere.
- polariscopic — relating to a polariscope
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- polyomavirus — any of a genus (Polyomavirus) of papovaviruses that naturally infect wild and laboratory mice, and that cause tumors when injected into newborn mice
- polysaprobic — flourishing in a body of water having a heavy load of decomposed organic matter and almost no free oxygen
- pons varolii — pons (def 1).
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- porismatical — porismatic
- post-primary — first or highest in rank or importance; chief; principal: his primary goals in life.
- postabortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- postbrachial — belonging to the arm, foreleg, wing, pectoral fin, or other forelimb of a vertebrate.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard
- 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.
- postimperial — of, relating to, or designating the period after an empire
- postliminary — of or relating to postliminy
- postliterate — of or relating to a (hypothetical) time or stage in society when literacy is no longer necessary or valued
- postmeridian — of or relating to the afternoon.
- postorgasmic — of or relating to the period after an orgasm
- postprandial — after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
- postromantic — of or relating to the period after Romanticism
- postsurgical — pertaining to or involving surgery or surgeons.
- potato crisp — potato chip.
- power assist — a procedure for supplementing or replacing the manual effort needed to operate a device or system, often by hydraulic, electrical, or mechanical means.
- prairie rose — a climbing rose, Rosa setigera, of the central U.S., having pinkish to white flowers: the state flower of North Dakota.
- prairie soil — a soil that forms in subhumid, temperate regions with tall grass as native vegetation.
- praiseworthy — deserving of praise; laudable: a praiseworthy motive.