16-letter words containing c, a, p, i, e
- pain in the neck — source of annoyance
- palaeolithic man — any of various primitive types of man, such as Neanderthal man and Java man, who lived in the Palaeolithic
- paleoclimatology — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.
- palmitoleic acid — a colorless, unsaturated fatty acid, C 1 6 H 3 0 O 2 , occurring in oils and fats of plants and animals.
- pancreatic juice — a thick, colorless, very alkaline fluid secreted by the pancreas, containing enzymes that break down protein, fat, and starch.
- panel discussion — a formal discussion before an audience for which the topic, speakers, etc., have been selected in advance.
- panoramic camera — a still camera having a movable lens that horizontally scans a view while exposing a long photographic plate or strip of film.
- panoramic screen — a very wide screen, as of a television, etc
- pantothenic acid — a hydroxy acid, C 9 H 1 7 O 5 N, found in plant and animal tissues, rice, bran, etc., that is part of the B complex of vitamins and is essential for cell growth.
- papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.
- parachute rigger — a person who inspects, repairs, and packs or folds parachutes.
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- particle physics — the branch of physics that deals with the properties and behavior of elementary particles.
- pathetic fallacy — the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.
- pattern matching — 1. A function is defined to take arguments of a particular type, form or value. When applying the function to its actual arguments it is necessary to match the type, form or value of the actual arguments against the formal arguments in some definition. For example, the function length [] = 0 length (x:xs) = 1 + length xs uses pattern matching in its argument to distinguish a null list from a non-null one. There are well known algorithm for translating pattern matching into conditional expressions such as "if" or "case". E.g. the above function could be transformed to 2. Descriptive of a type of language or utility such as awk or Perl which is suited to searching for strings or patterns in input data, usually using some kind of regular expression.
- pattern practice — (in foreign-language learning) a technique for practicing a linguistic structure in which students repeat a sentence or other structure, each time substituting a new element, such as a new verb, as directed by the teacher, or transforming the original structure, as in changing a statement to a question.
- peace campaigner — someone who campaigns for peace or an end to conflict
- peace initiative — the first or opening move in negotiating an end to conflict or negotiating peace
- peano arithmetic — (mathematics) Giuseppe Peano's system for representing natural numbers inductively using only two symbols, "0" (zero) and "S" (successor). This system could be expressed as a recursive data type with the following Haskell definition: data Peano = Zero | Succ Peano The number three, usually written "SSS0", would be Succ (Succ (Succ Zero)). Addition of Peano numbers can be expressed as a simple syntactic transformation: plus Zero n = n plus (Succ m) n = Succ (plus m n) (1995-03-28)
- pectoralis major — the larger of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
- pectoralis minor — the smaller of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
- pelagic division — the biogeographic realm or zone that comprises the open seas and oceans, including water of all depths.
- pelican crossing — place to cross road
- pencil and paper — An archaic information storage and transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent developments in paper-based technology include improved "write-once" update devices which use tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to deposit coloured pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled at so-called "handwriting" technique. These technologies are ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.
- pencil sharpener — tool for sharpening pencils to a point
- pentatonic scale — a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave.
- percentage point — difference: one per cent
- peregrine falcon — a globally distributed falcon, Falco peregrinus, much used in falconry because of its swift flight: several subspecies are endangered.
- periodic decimal — repeating decimal.
- periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
- permaculturalist — a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.
- permanganic acid — an acid, HMnO 4 , known only in solution.
- perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
- 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.
- phagocytic index — the average number of bacteria ingested per phagocyte in an incubated mixture of bacteria, phagocytes, and blood serum: used in determining the opsonic index.
- pharmacogenetics — the branch of pharmacology that examines the relation of genetic factors to variations in response to drugs.
- pharmacogenomics — the study of human genetic variability in relation to drug action and its application to medical treatment
- pharmacokinetics — the branch of pharmacology that studies the fate of pharmacological substances in the body, as their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
- phase difference — the difference between two sinusoidally varying quantities that have the same frequency, measured either as an angle or a time
- phase microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
- phenomenological — the study of phenomena.
- phylogenetically — the development or evolution of a particular group of organisms.
- physical address — (memory management) The address presented to a computer's main memory in a virtual memory system, in contrast to the virtual address which is the address generated by the CPU. A memory management unit translates virtual addresses into physical addresses.
- physical fitness — good physical condition
- physical science — any of the natural sciences dealing with inanimate matter or with energy, as physics, chemistry, and astronomy.
- physical therapy — the treatment or management of physical disability, malfunction, or pain by exercise, massage, hydrotherapy, etc., without the use of medicines, surgery, or radiation.
- pico de sao tome — an island in the Gulf of Guinea, off the W coast of Gabon, just N of the equator: the larger component of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe. 318 sq. mi. (824 sq. km).
- picture postcard — postcard (def 1).
- piece d'occasion — something prepared or used for a special occasion.