18-letter words containing a, p, r, e
- pileolated warbler — either of two western subspecies of Wilson's warbler.
- pilotless aircraft — an aircraft equipped for operation by radio or by robot control, without a human pilot aboard; drone.
- plains grasshopper — a large, destructive short-horned grasshopper, Brachystola magna, of the western U.S., marked by pinkish hind wings.
- plane polarization — a type of polarization in which the electric vector of waves of light or other electromagnetic radiation is restricted to vibration in a single plane
- plane trigonometry — the branch of trigonometry dealing with plane triangles.
- planned parenthood — an organization that gives out information on the planning of the number and spacing of the births of one's children, as through the use of birth-control measures
- play silly buggers — to fool around and waste time
- play the race card — to introduce the subject of race into a public discussion, esp to gain a strategic advantage
- pleasure principle — an automatic mental drive or instinct seeking to avoid pain and to obtain pleasure.
- plenary indulgence — a remission of the total temporal punishment that is still due to sin after absolution. Compare indulgence (def 6).
- plumber's merchant — a shop or business that sells things needed for the job of installing and repairing pipes, fixtures, etc, for water, drainage, and gas
- pneumatic conveyor — a tube through which powdered or granular material, such as cement, grain, etc is transported by a flow of air
- point d'angleterre — a bobbin lace in which the design is worked out with either a needle or bobbin.
- point of departure — Nautical. the precise location of a vessel, established in order to set a course, especially in beginning a voyage in open water.
- point-bearing pile — a pile depending on the soil or rock beneath its foot for support.
- political prisoner — sb imprisoned for political dissidence
- polynesian tattler — a sandpiper, H. incanus, native to the Pacific coastal regions
- population figures — population totals; statistics relating to the size of populations
- porcupine anteater — an echidna or spiny anteater.
- portable equipment — Portable equipment is electrical equipment that can easily be moved from one place to another while in operation or while connected to the supply.
- portage la prairie — a city in S Manitoba, in S central Canada, W of Winnipeg.
- porter-house steak — Also called porterhouse steak. a choice cut of beef from between the prime ribs and the sirloin.
- portuguese guinean — of or relating to Portuguese Guinea, a former name for Guinea-Bissau, or its inhabitants
- positively charged — having a positive charge
- post-revolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- postal storage car — a railroad car for transporting unsorted mail.
- postmaster general — the executive head of the postal system of a country.
- postmillenarianism — postmillennialism.
- postviral syndrome — debilitating condition occurring as a sequel to viral illness
- potassium chlorate — a white or colorless, crystalline, water-soluble, poisonous solid, KClO 3 , used chiefly as an oxidizing agent in the manufacture of explosives, fireworks, matches, bleaches, and disinfectants.
- potassium chloride — a white or colorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, KCl, used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers and mineral water, and as a source of other potassium compounds.
- potassium fluoride — a white, crystalline, hygroscopic, toxic powder, KF, used chiefly as an insecticide, a disinfectant, and in etching glass.
- potassium myronate — sinigrin.
- potential gradient — the rate of change of potential with respect to distance in the direction of greatest change.
- pour cold water on — If someone pours cold water on a plan or idea, they criticize it so much that people lose their enthusiasm for it.
- prairie crab apple — a tree, Malus ioensis, of the rose family, native to the central U.S., having downy branchlets, white or rose-tinted flowers, and round, waxy, greenish fruit.
- prairie wake-robin — a woodland trillium, Trillium recurvatum, of the central U.S., having purple-mottled leaves and brown-purple flowers.
- prayer of manasses — a book of the Apocrypha.
- preantepenultimate — third from the end.
- precedence lossage — /pre's*-dens los'*j/ A misunderstanding of operator precedence resulting in unintended grouping of arithmetic or logical operators when coding an expression. Used especially of mistakes in C code due to the nonintuitively low precedence of "&", "|", "^", "<<" and ">>". For example, the following C expression, intended to test the least significant bit of x, x & 1 == 0 is parsed as x & (1 == 0) which is always zero (false). Some lazy programmers ignore precedence and parenthesise everything. Lisp fans enjoy pointing out that this can't happen in *their* favourite language, which eschews precedence entirely, requiring one to use explicit parentheses everywhere.
- precipitable water — the total water vapor contained in a unit vertical column of the atmosphere.
- predation pressure — the effect of predation upon a population, resulting in the decrease in size of that population.
- predicate calculus — predicate logic
- preparatory school — a private or parochial secondary school, especially one boarding its students and providing a college-preparatory education.
- prepare the ground — make conditions ready
- prepositional verb — a combination of verb and preposition, often with idiomatic meaning, differing from other phrasal verbs in that an object must always follow the preposition, as take after in The children take after their mother.
- prerelease showing — a showing of a film before it goes on general release
- presenile dementia — a form of dementia, of unknown cause, starting before a person is old
- present participle — Grammar. a participle form, in English having the suffix -ing, denoting repetition or duration of an activity or event: used as an adjective, as in the growing weeds, and in forming progressive verb forms, as in The weeds are growing.
- presentation layer — (networking) The second highest layer (layer 6) in the OSI seven layer model. Performs functions such as text compression, code or format conversion to try to smooth out differences between hosts. Allows incompatible processes in the application layer to communicate via the session layer. Documents: ITU Rec. X.226 (ISO 8823), ITU Rec. X.216 (ISO 8822).