15-letter words containing a, t, p, o
- past continuous — past progressive.
- pastel-coloured — pale-coloured; in a shade such as pink or pale blue
- pastoral letter — pastoral (defs 11, 12).
- pastoral prayer — the main prayer in a church service.
- pastoralization — to make pastoral or rural.
- pat on the back — to strike lightly or gently with something flat, as with a paddle or the palm of the hand, usually in order to flatten, smooth, or shape: to pat dough into flat pastry forms.
- patagonian hare — a burrowing, gray, long-eared and long-legged cavy of the genus Dolichotis, native to South America.
- patchwork quilt — cover sewn from patches of cloth
- paternity order — a court order which declares a child's paternity
- pathophysiology — the physiology of abnormal or diseased organisms or their parts; the functional changes associated with a disease or syndrome.
- patio furniture — furniture in an area adjoining a house, esp one that is paved and used for outdoor activities
- patria potestas — the power vested in the paterfamilias or head of the Roman family with respect to his wife, natural or adopted children, and agnatic descendants: title to family property is vested exclusively in the paterfamilias. Property acquired by a family member becomes family property, and no family member can enter into a transaction in his or her own right.
- pattern bombing — aerial bombing in which bombs are dropped on a target in a predetermined pattern.
- paurometabolous — designating or of a group of insect orders, as orthopterans or hemipterans, in which metamorphosis to the adult state from the juvenile state is gradual and without any sudden, radical change of body form
- pavel petrovich — Paul I (def 2).
- payment holiday — a break taken from paying ( a debt etc) back
- peacock feather — a (distinctive and brightly coloured) feather from the peacock
- peak production — the maximum production
- pectoral girdle — (in vertebrates) a bony or cartilaginous arch supporting the forelimbs.
- pectoral muscle — muscle of the chest
- pedunculate oak — a large deciduous oak tree, Quercus robur, of Eurasia, having lobed leaves and stalked acorns
- penetration aid — a device or tactic, as the use of chaff or decoys or the maintaining of a low flight level, that helps an aircraft or missile to enter hostile air space.
- pentaerythritol — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, C 5 H 1 2 O 4 , used chiefly in the manufacture of alkyd resins, varnishes, plasticizers, and explosives.
- perchloroethane — hexachloroethane.
- perforating gun — A perforating gun is a device used to make holes in oil and gas wells in preparation for production.
- performance art — a collaborative art form originating in the 1970s as a fusion of several artistic media, as painting, film, video, music, drama, and dance, and deriving in part from the 1960s performance happenings.
- performing arts — dance, drama, music
- pergamentaceous — (esp of plants) resembling parchment, whether in texture or composition
- period-rotation — a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social unrest in Germany.
- permanent tooth — any of the 32 adult teeth that replace the 20 milk teeth.
- personal estate — movable property
- personal growth — development as an individual
- personal stereo — A personal stereo is a small cassette or CD player with very light headphones, which people carry round so that they can listen to music while doing something else.
- personalization — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- personification — the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.
- peter of amiens — c1050–1115, French monk: preacher of the first Crusade 1095–99.
- phantom circuit — a circuit derived from two suitably arranged pairs of wires, each pair being a circuit (side circuit) and also acting as one half of an additional derived circuit, the entire system providing the capabilities of three circuits while requiring wires for only two.
- pharmacotherapy — the treatment of disease through the administration of drugs.
- pheasant coucal — a brown and black, red-eyed Australian bird, Centropus phasianinus, with a pheasantlike tail.
- phenakistoscope — an early form of a zoetrope in which figures are depicted in different poses around the edge of a disc. When the disc is spun, and the figures observed through the apertures around the edge of the disc, they appear to be moving
- phenolphthalein — a white, crystalline compound, C 2 0 H 1 4 O 4 , used as an indicator in acid-base titration and as a laxative.
- phenomenalistic — the doctrine that phenomena are the only objects of knowledge or the only form of reality.
- phenylketonuria — an inherited disease due to faulty metabolism of phenylalanine, characterized by phenylketones in the urine and usually first noted by signs of mental retardation in infancy.
- philanthropical — of, pertaining to, engaged in, or characterized by philanthropy; benevolent: a philanthropic foundation.
- phonautographic — relating to a phonautograph or a piece of equipment that records sound visually by detecting the sound waves and indicating them on a graph
- phonemicization — a grouping of phonemes
- phoneticization — the representation of speech in writing using a system in which individual symbols reflect speech sounds in a regular manner
- phosphate group — the group or radical obtained by removal of one or more hydrogen atoms from phosphoric acid.
- phosphocreatine — a compound, C 4 H 1 0 O 5 N 3 P, found chiefly in muscle, formed by the enzymatic interaction of an organic phosphate and creatine, the breakdown of which provides energy for muscle contraction.
- phosphorylation — to introduce the phosphoryl group into (an organic compound).