12-letter words containing a, r, i, o, s, t
- outsider art — art produced by untutored artists working by themselves and for themselves
- outspreading — Present participle of outspread.
- ovariotomies — Plural form of ovariotomy.
- ovariotomist — a surgeon who performs ovariotomies
- over against — in opposition to; contrary to; adverse or hostile to: twenty votes against ten; against reason.
- overcautious — excessively or unnecessarily cautious: Sometimes it doesn't pay to be overcautious in business.
- overestimate — to estimate at too high a value, amount, rate, or the like: Don't overestimate the car's trade-in value.
- oversedation — the calming of mental excitement or abatement of physiological function, especially by the administration of a drug.
- overstaffing — the provision of an excessive number of staff for (a factory, hotel, etc)
- overstrained — exerted, taxed, or used to an excessive extent
- palindromist — a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc., reading the same backward as forward, as Madam, I'm Adam or Poor Dan is in a droop.
- pantisocracy — a community, social group, etc, in which all have rule and everyone is equal
- parasitology — the branch of biology dealing with parasites and the effects of parasitism.
- parochialist — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- paronomastic — the use of a word in different senses or the use of words similar in sound to achieve a specific effect, as humor or a dual meaning; punning.
- parting shot — a threat, insult, condemnation, sarcastic retort, or the like, uttered upon leaving.
- pas de trois — a dance for three dancers.
- passionfruit — any edible fruit of a passionflower, as the maypop.
- patroclinous — inheritance in which the traits of the offspring are derived primarily from the paternal parent (opposed to matrocliny).
- patron saint — a saint regarded as the special guardian of a person, group, trade, country, etc.
- perforations — the holes punched that allow individual stamps, coupons, etc to be easily separated
- periostracum — the external, chitinlike covering of the shell of certain mollusks that protects the limy portion from acids.
- peristomatic — surrounding a leaf's stoma or stomata
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- physogastric — pertaining to the swollen, membranous abdomen of certain insects, especially termite and ant queens.
- 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.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- 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