12-letter words containing e, p, a, s, o
- phonasthenia — difficult or abnormal voice production; vocal weakness.
- photo spread — a picture spread. See under spread (def 33).
- photo-stated — a camera for making facsimile copies of documents, drawings, etc., in the form of paper negatives on which the positions of lines, objects, etc., in the originals are maintained.
- photoelastic — displaying photoelasticity; of or relating to photoelasticity
- photorealism — a style of painting flourishing in the 1970s, especially in the U.S., England, and France, and depicting commonplace scenes or ordinary people, with a meticulously detailed realism, flat images, and barely discernible brushwork that suggests and often is based on or incorporates an actual photograph.
- phrasemonger — phrasemaker (def 2).
- phraseograph — a phrase for which there is a phraseogram.
- piano lesson — music class in playing the piano
- piece of ass — a separate or limited portion or quantity of something: a piece of land; a piece of chocolate.
- pirate coast — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- plain-spoken — candid; frank; blunt.
- plainclothes — Plainclothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
- plasterboard — a material used for insulating or covering walls, or as a lath, consisting of paper-covered sheets of gypsum and felt.
- platanaceous — relating to the family Platanaceae
- play clothes — clothes that are suitable for playing in
- pleiochasium — a flowering system in which several buds come out at the same time
- plumulaceous — having the texture of down.
- pneumatocyst — the cavity of a pneumatophore.
- poetastering — the profession of being a poetaster
- poeticalness — the characteristic of being poetical
- point spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- point-spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- pole compass — (formerly) a ship's compass elevated on a wooden pole to isolate it as much as possible from local magnetism.
- 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.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- polish wheat — a wheat, Triticum polonicum, grown chiefly in S Europe, N Africa, and Turkestan.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polychaetous — of or relating to the genus Polychaeta
- polypetalous — having a corolla of separate petals.
- polysepalous — having a calyx of separate or unconnected sepals.
- polysiloxane — a polymer composed of silicon and oxygen atoms
- polysyllable — a polysyllabic word.
- pontificates — the office or term of office of a pontiff.
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcelaneous — a strong, vitreous, translucent ceramic material, biscuit-fired at a low temperature, the glaze then fired at a very high temperature.
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- pork sausage — a sausage made with pork
- port angeles — a city in NW Washington, on the Juan de Fuca Strait.
- port de bras — (used with a singular verb) the technique of moving the arms properly.
- positive law — customary law or law enacted by governmental authority (as distinguished from natural law).
- possessional — of, relating to, or characterized by possession
- post-harvest — Also, harvesting. the gathering of crops.
- post-nuclear — pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
- post-weaning — to accustom (a child or young animal) to food other than its mother's milk; cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.
- postaccident — occurring after an accident
- postage paid — stamped ready for mailing
- postal meter — a postal franking machine
- postal order — money order.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard
- postcardware — Shareware that borders on freeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate "sales" in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)