16-letter words containing e, p, a, s
- boston tea party — a raid in 1773 made by citizens of Boston (disguised as Indians) on three British ships in the harbour as a protest against taxes on tea and the monopoly given to the East India Company. The contents of several hundred chests of tea were dumped into the harbour
- boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
- bouquet larkspur — a plant, Delphinium grandiflorum, of eastern Asia, having blue or whitish flowers and hairy fruit.
- bowman's capsule — a membranous, double-walled capsule surrounding a glomerulus of a nephron.
- brake horsepower — the rate at which an engine does work, expressed in horsepower. It is measured by the resistance of an applied brake
- branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
- brittany spaniel — a short-tailed French bird dog that typically has a smooth orange- or liver-and-white coat
- buttercup squash — a small, usually dark-green squash that is a variety of Cucurbita maxima, having sweet orange flesh.
- bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
- cadmium sulphide — an orange or yellow insoluble solid used as a pigment in paints, etc (cadmium yellow). Formula: CdS
- camomile shampoo — a liquid or cream preparation of soap or detergent with camomile extract to wash the hair
- canine distemper — distemper1 (def 1a).
- capital reserves — the money which a company holds in reserve
- capital sentence — the punishment of death for a crime
- capsizing moment — the moment of an upsetting couple.
- capsule wardrobe — a collection of clothes and accessories that includes only items considered essential
- carbonless paper — a sheet of paper impregnated with dye which transfers writing or typing onto the copying surface below without the necessity for carbon pigment
- carboxypeptidase — any of several digestive enzymes that catalyze the removal of an amino acid from the end of a peptide chain having a free carbonyl group.
- cards and spades — a generous handicap
- career prospects — the probability or chance for future success in a profession
- caregiver speech — baby talk (def 2).
- caryophyllaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Caryophyllaceae, a family of flowering plants including the pink, carnation, sweet william, and chickweed
- cascade particle — the least massive member of the xi particle family.
- celestial empire — Chinese Empire
- celestial sphere — an imaginary sphere of infinitely large radius enclosing the universe so that all celestial bodies appear to be projected onto its surface
- chattel personal — an item of movable personal property, such as furniture, domestic animals, etc
- chemical weapons — toxic chemicals used as weapons
- chemoprophylaxis — the prevention of disease using chemical drugs
- chest specialist — a physician who specializes in diseases affecting the organs in the chest
- children's panel — (in Scotland) a group of representatives of relevant agencies, with the power to deal with a child under sixteen who is in criminal or family trouble. Its hearings are private and replace most of the functions of juvenile courts
- chinese fan palm — a fan palm, Livistona chinensis, of southern Japan, having very large, deeply cleft leaves and bluish-green, ovalish fruit.
- chinese pavilion — crescent (def 6).
- chinese shar-pei — Shar-Pei.
- chinese-pavilion — a shape resembling a segment of a ring tapering to points at the ends.
- chipped potatoes — chips
- cholecystography — radiography of the gall bladder after administration of a contrast medium
- chopped tomatoes — tomatoes cut into pieces
- christmas hamper — a collection of seasonal delicacies, often housed in a wicker hamper, which people or organizations give as Christmas presents
- chromatographies — Plural form of chromatography.
- chryselephantine — (of ancient Greek statues) made of or overlaid with gold and ivory
- chuvash republic — a constituent republic of W central Russia, in the middle Volga valley: generally low-lying with undulating plains and large areas of forest. Capital: Cheboksary. Pop: 1 313 900 (2002). Area: 18 300 sq km (7064 sq miles)
- clearance-papers — the act of clearing.
- closed-captioned — (of a video recording) having subtitles which appear on screen only if the cassette is played through a special decoder
- company of jesus — former name of the Society of Jesus.
- compartmentalise — to divide into categories or compartments.
- complex analysis — the branch of mathematics dealing with analytic functions of a complex variable.
- complexity class — (algorithm) A collection of algorithms or computable functions with the same complexity.
- composite family — the large and varied plant family Compositae (or Asteraceae), typified by herbaceous plants having alternate, opposite, or whorled leaves and a whorl of bracts surrounding the flower heads, which are usually composed of a disk containing tiny petalless flowers and a ray of petals extending from the flowers at the rim of the disk, some flower heads being composed only of a disk or a ray and some plants having clusters of flower heads, and including the aster, daisy, dandelion, goldenrod, marigold, ragweed, sunflower, thistle, and zinnia.
- compression wave — a shock wave that compresses the medium through which it is transmitted.
- conspicuity tape — a highly reflective strip or tape used on a vehicle, clothing, etc., to make it more visible in low light.