16-letter words containing b, p, e, l
- police constable — police officer
- portable airtime — (communications, wireless) A wireless, digital communications system enabling user-to-user voice communication, "quicknotes", and alphanumeric messaging.
- post-elizabethan — of or relating to the reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England, or to her times: Elizabethan diplomacy; Elizabethan music.
- 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.
- publication date — the date on which a book or periodical is or is planned to be published.
- publicity agency — an advertising agency; a firm that gets publicity for people or products
- publishing house — a company that publishes books, pamphlets, engravings, or the like: a venerable publishing house in Boston.
- 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.
- slap on the back — to congratulate
- 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.
- spanish bluebell — a bulbous plant, Endymion hispanicus, of the lily family, native to Spain and Portugal, having blue, white, or pink, bell-shaped flowers.
- spectacled cobra — Indian cobra.
- spectrobolometer — an instrument consisting of a spectroscope and a bolometer, for determining the distribution of radiant energy in a spectrum.
- stalked puffball — a puffball-like mushroom of the genus Tulestoma, maturing in early winter.
- 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.
- susceptibilities — emotional sensibilities; feelings
- telephone number — digits dialled to reach sb by phone
- the body politic — the people of a nation or the nation itself considered as a political entity; the state
- 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.
- unaccomplishable — to bring to its goal or conclusion; carry out; perform; finish: to accomplish one's mission.
- 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.
- up to the elbows — deeply engaged (in work, etc.)
- vegetable sponge — loofah (def 2).
- visible spectrum — the range of wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation that is normally visible, from 380 to 760 nm.