16-letter words containing b, e, l, p, r
- pass-band filter — band-pass filter
- permafrost table — the variable surface constituting the upper limit of permafrost. Compare frostline (def 2).
- personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
- philip r. bagley — (person) A pioneer of computer document retrieval. See metadata.
- phlebothrombosis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein.
- pit bull terrier — American Staffordshire terrier.
- 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.
- platform-balance — a scale with a platform for holding the items to be weighed.
- plumber's helper — plunger (def 3).
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- portable airtime — (communications, wireless) A wireless, digital communications system enabling user-to-user voice communication, "quicknotes", and alphanumeric messaging.
- pourriture noble — noble rot.
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- prisoner of bill — (humour) (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
- proslambanomenos — the lowest note of the scale in ancient Greek music
- public ownership — ownership by the state; nationalization
- public relations — (used with a plural verb) the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
- query by example — (database, language) (QBE) A user-friendly query language developed by Moshé Zloof of IBM in 1975.
- ramen profitable — If a startup business is ramen profitable, it is barely profitable, just enough to allow the founder to live on the cheapest diet.
- raspberry sawfly — a black sawfly, Monophadnoides geniculatus, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of the raspberry and blackberry.
- republican party — one of the two major political parties in the U.S.: originated 1854–56.
- republican river — a river flowing E from E Colorado through Nebraska and Kansas into the Kansas River. 422 miles (680 km) long.
- responsibilities — the state or fact of being responsible, answerable, or accountable for something within one's power, control, or management.
- schaumburg-lippe — a former state in NW Germany.
- self-approbation — approval; commendation.
- showy crab apple — a large Japanese bush or tree, Malus floribunda, of the rose family, having red fruit and rose-colored flowers that fade to white.
- slave labor camp — labor camp (def 1).
- soapberry family — the plant family Sapindaceae, characterized by chiefly tropical trees, shrubs, or herbaceous vines having compound leaves, clustered flowers, and berrylike, fleshy, or capsular fruit, and including the balloon vine, golden rain tree, litchi, and soapberry.
- spectacled cobra — Indian cobra.
- spectrobolometer — an instrument consisting of a spectroscope and a bolometer, for determining the distribution of radiant energy in a spectrum.
- superb blue wren — a small Australian bird, Malurus cyaneus, the adult male of which has bright blue plumage
- superserviceable — overly disposed to be of service; officious.
- telephone number — digits dialled to reach sb by phone
- the public purse — money from or controlled by the government
- thrombophlebitis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein accompanied by inflammation of the vessel wall.
- to bite your lip — If you bite your lip or your tongue, you stop yourself from saying something that you want to say, because it would be the wrong thing to say in the circumstances.
- two-body problem — the problem of calculating the motions of two bodies in space moving solely under the influence of their mutual gravitational attraction.
- un-reprehensible — deserving of reproof, rebuke, or censure; blameworthy.
- uncomprehensible — capable of being comprehended or understood; intelligible.
- under bare poles — (of a sailing vessel) with no sails set
- under sb's spell — If you are under someone 's spell, you are so fascinated by them that you cannot think about anything else.
- unimpressionable — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
- unpredictability — not predictable; not to be foreseen or foretold: an unpredictable occurrence.
- unpublished work — a literary work that has not been reproduced for sale or publicly distributed.
- visible spectrum — the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that is normally visible, from 380 to 760 nm.