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16-letter words containing a, u, p, i

  • paulinus of nola — Saint. ?353–431 ad, Roman consul and Christian poet; bishop of Nola (409–431). Feast day: June 22
  • peninsular state — Florida (used as a nickname).
  • pentothal sodium — thiopental sodium
  • permaculturalist — a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.
  • perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
  • perpetual motion — the motion of a theoretical mechanism that, without any losses due to friction or other forms of dissipation of energy, would continue to operate indefinitely at the same rate without any external energy being applied to it.
  • personal tuition — private tuition
  • personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
  • persulfuric acid — Also called Caro's acid, permonosulfuric acid, peroxymonosulfuric acid, peroxysulfuric acid. a white, crystalline solid, H 2 SO 5 , used as an oxidizing agent for certain organic compounds.
  • peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
  • phase modulation — radio transmission in which the carrier wave is modulated by changing its phase to transmit the amplitude and pitch of the signal.
  • phosphor fatigue — screen saver
  • phosphorous acid — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble acid of phosphorus, H 3 PO 3 , from which phosphites are derived.
  • photoautotrophic — any organism that derives its energy for food synthesis from light and is capable of using carbon dioxide as its principal source of carbon.
  • photocoagulation — a surgical technique using an intense beam of light from a laser or a xenon-arc bulb to seal blood vessels or coagulate tissue, used primarily in ophthalmology to repair detached retinas or to treat certain kinds of retinopathy.
  • picture postcard — postcard (def 1).
  • pietermaritzburg — a province in the E part of the Republic of South Africa. 35,284 sq. mi. (91,886 sq. km). Capital: Pietermaritzburg.
  • pineal apparatus — a median outgrowth of the roof of the diencephalon in vertebrates that in some develops into the pineal eye and in others into the pineal gland.
  • piscis austrinus — a small constellation in the S hemisphere lying between Aquarius and Grus and containing the first-magnitude star Fomalhaut
  • place in the sun — (often initial capital letter) the star that is the central body of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heat: its mean distance from the earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km), its diameter about 864,000 miles (1.4 million km), and its mass about 330,000 times that of the earth; its period of surface rotation is about 26 days at its equator but longer at higher latitudes.
  • 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.
  • pleasure-seeking — always looking for pleasure
  • plutarch's lives — (Parallel Lives) a collection (a.d. 105–15) by Plutarch of short biographies of the leading political figures of ancient Greece and Rome.
  • pneumatic trough — a trough filled with liquid, especially water, for collecting gases in bell jars or the like by displacement.
  • pneumonic plague — a form of plague characterized by lung involvement.
  • pocono mountains — ridge of the Appalachians, in E Pa.: resort area: c. 2,000 ft (610 m) high
  • poiseuille's law — the law that the velocity of a liquid flowing through a capillary is directly proportional to the pressure of the liquid and the fourth power of the radius of the capillary and is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the liquid and the length of the capillary.
  • poitou-charentes — a region of W central France, on the Bay of Biscay: mainly low-lying
  • political asylum — asylum provided by one nation to refugees, especially political refugees, from another nation.
  • port authorities — the body with overall responsibility for a port
  • portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
  • potassium iodide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KI, having a bitter saline taste: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic emulsions, as a laboratory reagent, in the preparation of Gram's solution for biological staining, and in medicine as an expectorant and to treat thyroid conditions.
  • praetorian guard — the bodyguard of a military commander, especially the imperial guard stationed in Rome.
  • 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.
  • preunderstanding — to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.
  • primary consumer — (in the food chain) an animal that feeds on plants; a herbivore.
  • primary industry — an industry, as agriculture, forestry, or fishing, that deals in obtaining natural materials.
  • primary producer — any green plant or any of various microorganisms that can convert light energy or chemical energy into organic matter.
  • principal clause — the main clause.
  • print journalism — journalism as practiced in newspapers and magazines.
  • private judgment — personal opinion formed independently of the expressed position of an institution, as in matters of religion or politics.
  • private language — a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another
  • project guardian — (project, security)   A project which grew out of the ARPA support for Multics and the sale of Multics systems to the US Air Force. The USAF wanted a system that could be used to handle more than one security classification of data at a time. They contracted with Honeywell and MITRE Corporation to figure out how to do this. Project Guardian led to the creation of the Access Isolation Mechanism, the forerunner of the B2 labeling and star property support in Multics. The DoD Orange Book was influenced by the experience in building secure systems gained in Project Guardian.
  • propylthiouracil — a white crystalline compound, C 7 H 1 0 N 2 OS, that interferes with the synthesis of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland: used in the treatment of hyperthyroidism.
  • prosecution case — the case brought against someone by a legal authority
  • proto-algonquian — the unattested parent language from which the Algonquian languages are descended.
  • proxima centauri — the nearest star to the sun at a distance of 4.3 light-years, part of the Alpha Centauri triple-star system located in the constellation Centaurus.
  • pseudo-isidorian — of or relating to the collection of documents of the 9th century a.d. that consist chiefly of the Decretals, attributed to Isidore, archbishop of Seville, a.d. 600–36, and that were rejected as spurious in the 15th century.
  • pseudo-patriotic — of, like, suitable for, or characteristic of a patriot.
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