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

  • plainclothes man — a detective or police officer who wears civilian clothes while on duty
  • 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 a lone hand — to operate without assistance
  • play off against — If you play people off against each other, you make them compete or argue, so that you gain some advantage.
  • play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
  • play-action pass — a pass play designed to deceive the defense by appearing to be a running play, in which the quarterback fakes a hand-off to a back before throwing a forward pass.
  • pleased as punch — the chief male character in a Punch-and-Judy show.
  • pleasure-seeking — always looking for pleasure
  • plymouth company — a company, formed in England in 1606 to establish colonies in America and that founded a colony in Maine in 1607.
  • pneumonic plague — a form of plague characterized by lung involvement.
  • point of sailing — the bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.
  • poisoned chalice — If you refer to a job or an opportunity as a poisoned chalice, you mean that it seems to be very attractive but you believe it will lead to failure.
  • 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.
  • police constable — police officer
  • policy statement — a declaration of the plans and intentions of an organization or government
  • politicalization — to cause to be political; color with politics.
  • polycondensation — formation of a polymer by chemical condensation with the elimination of a small molecule, such as water.
  • 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 acetal — any of the class of thermoplastic resins derived by the condensation of an aldehyde with polyvinyl alcohol.
  • polyvinyl formal — a colorless, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal produced from partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate and formaldehyde, used chiefly in the manufacture of lacquers.
  • porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
  • post-elizabethan — of or relating to the reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England, or to her times: Elizabethan diplomacy; Elizabethan music.
  • postencephalitic — inflammation of the substance of the brain.
  • potemkin village — a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.
  • 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.
  • practical reason — (in Kantian ethics) reason applied to the problem of action and choice, especially in ethical matters.
  • pre-solicitation — the act of soliciting.
  • precontemplation — the act of contemplating; thoughtful observation.
  • predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
  • premillennialism — the doctrine or belief that the Second Coming of Christ will precede the millennium.
  • premillennialize — to support or believe in premillennialism.
  • prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
  • pressure flaking — a method of manufacturing a flint tool by pressing flakes from a stone core with a pointed implement, usually of wood tipped with antler or copper.
  • pribilof islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, off SW Alaska, belonging to the US: the breeding ground of the northern fur seal. Area: about 168 sq km (65 sq miles)
  • primary election — primary (def 15a).
  • primary electron — in thermionics, any of the electrons falling on a body, distinguished from those emitted by it
  • principal clause — the main clause.
  • principal rafter — a diagonal member of a roof principal, usually forming part of a truss and supporting the purlins on which the common rafters rest.
  • print journalism — journalism as practiced in newspapers and magazines.
  • private language — a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another
  • private-line car — a freight car owned by a company other than a railroad but operated over the tracks of railroads.
  • pro-abolitionist — (especially prior to the Civil War) a person who advocated or supported the abolition of slavery in the U.S.
  • processing plant — a factory where raw materials are treated or prepared by a special method, esp one where food is treated in order to preserve it
  • proenvironmental — the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.
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