12-letter words containing c, e, l, p
- pisciculture — the breeding, rearing, and transplantation of fish by artificial means.
- pitch a tale — to tell a story, usually of a fantastic nature
- pitch chisel — a broad-edged chisel for cutting plane surfaces on stones.
- pitch circle — an imaginary circle within the profiles of the teeth of a gear, such that it rotates against a similar circle rotating at the same rate on a meshing gear.
- place-holder — Mathematics, Logic. a symbol in an expression that may be replaced by the name of any element of the set.
- placentation — Anatomy, Zoology. the formation of a placenta. the manner of placement or construction of a placenta.
- placentiform — shaped like a placenta, with a flat rounded form
- placentology — the scientific study of the placenta
- plaid screen — [XEROX PARC] A "special effect" that occurs when certain kinds of memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error, some of the X demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately as a display hack.
- plainclothes — Plainclothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
- plane ticket — entitlement to travel by aircraft
- plano-convex — pertaining to or noting a lens that is plane on one side and convex on the other.
- planoconcave — pertaining to or noting a lens that is plane on one side and concave on the other.
- plant-cutter — any of several South American, passerine birds of the family Phytotomidae, superficially resembling grosbeaks but having serrated edges on the bill that aid in cutting leaves and other plant food.
- plaster cast — any piece of sculpture reproduced in plaster of Paris.
- platanaceous — relating to the family Platanaceae
- plattdeutsch — the Low German vernacular dialects spoken in northern Germany.
- play chicken — to engage in a test of courage in which, typically, two vehicles are driven directly toward one another in order to see which driver will swerve away first
- play clothes — clothes that are suitable for playing in
- plecopterous — relating to the order Plecoptera or stoneflies
- pleiochasium — a flowering system in which several buds come out at the same time
- plenipotence — the possession of total authority
- plenipotency — the state of being plenipotent
- plenum cable — (hardware) Cable that can be (legally) installed in the plenum (the space between a ceiling and the floor above it). Such cable is (usually) teflon-coated so that it will not give off toxic fumes when burned. In some parts of the world such cable is required by law.
- plerocercoid — the wormlike larval stage of some tapeworms, intermediate between the first parasitic larval stage and adult.
- plumulaceous — having the texture of down.
- pneumococcal — a bacterium, Diplococcus pneumoniae, causing lobar pneumonia and associated with certain other diseases, as pericarditis and meningitis.
- poeticalness — the characteristic of being poetical
- polar circle — either the Arctic or the Antarctic Circle.
- pole compass — (formerly) a ship's compass elevated on a wooden pole to isolate it as much as possible from local magnetism.
- pole dancing — Pole dancing is a type of entertainment in a bar or club in which a woman who is wearing very few clothes dances around a pole in a sexy way.
- police chief — chief of police: head of a US police force
- police court — an inferior court with summary jurisdiction for the trial of persons accused of any of certain minor offenses, and with power to examine those charged with more serious offenses and hold them for trial in a superior court or for a grand jury.
- police force — police (def 1).
- police power — the power of a nation, within the limits of its constitution, to regulate the conduct of its citizens in the interest of the common good.
- police state — a nation in which the police, especially a secret police, summarily suppresses any social, economic, or political act that conflicts with governmental policy.
- policeperson — a member of a police force.
- policyholder — the individual or firm in whose name an insurance policy is written; an insured.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- poliorcetics — the science of siegecraft
- politicalize — to cause to be political; color with politics.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- poll watcher — a representative of a political party or of an organization running a candidate who is assigned to the polls on an election day to watch for violations of the laws that regulate voting, campaigning, etc.
- pollen count — a count of the amount of pollen in the air, based on the average of the number of pollen grains that collect on slides exposed to the air for a given period of time.
- polycentrism — the doctrine that a plurality of independent centers of leadership, power, or ideology may exist within a single political system, especially Communism.
- polychaetous — of or relating to the genus Polychaeta
- polycythemia — an abnormal increase in the number and concentration of circulating red blood corpuscles
- polycythemic — relating to polycythemia
- polynucleate — having many nuclei.
- polypeptidic — relating to a polypeptide