15-letter words containing e, s, m
- overpessimistic — excessively pessimistic or negative in outlook
- overstimulation — to rouse to action or effort, as by encouragement or pressure; spur on; incite: to stimulate his interest in mathematics.
- oyster mushroom — oyster cap.
- pac-man defense — a defensive tactic against a hostile takeover in which the targeted company makes its own bid to take over the hostile firm.
- pachymeningitis — inflammation of the dura mater of the brain and spinal cord
- palaeomagnetism — the study of the fossil magnetism in rocks, used to determine the past configurations of the continents and to investigate the past shape and magnitude of the earth's magnetic field
- palaeomagnetist — a student of or expert in palaeomagnetism
- pan-americanism — the idea or advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the countries of North, Central, and South America.
- parasympathetic — pertaining to that part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves and ganglia that arise from the cranial and sacral regions and function in opposition to the sympathetic system, as in inhibiting heartbeat or contracting the pupil of the eye.
- parish magazine — a magazine containing news and articles of interest to the people of a particular parish church or the local area
- parmesan cheese — of or from Parma, in northern Italy.
- pars intermedia — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- passive smoking — the inhaling of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke of others, especially by a nonsmoker in an enclosed area.
- paurometabolous — designating or of a group of insect orders, as orthopterans or hemipterans, in which metamorphosis to the adult state from the juvenile state is gradual and without any sudden, radical change of body form
- pavement artist — sidewalk artist.
- pectoral muscle — muscle of the chest
- pedestrian mall — A pedestrian mall is the same as a pedestrian precinct.
- pematangsiantar — a city on NE Sumatra, in Indonesia.
- performing arts — dance, drama, music
- pergamentaceous — (esp of plants) resembling parchment, whether in texture or composition
- periodic system — a system of classification of the elements based on the periodic law.
- permanent press — a process in which a fabric is chemically treated to make it wrinkle-resistant so as to require little or no ironing after washing.
- personal column — The personal column in a newspaper or magazine contains messages for individual people and advertisements of a private nature.
- peruvian balsam — Peru balsam.
- pessimistically — pertaining to or characterized by pessimism or the tendency to expect only bad outcomes; gloomy; joyless; unhopeful: His pessimistic outlook kept him from applying for jobs for which he was perfectly qualified.
- peter of amiens — c1050–1115, French monk: preacher of the first Crusade 1095–99.
- phenomenalistic — the doctrine that phenomena are the only objects of knowledge or the only form of reality.
- phenomenologies — the study of phenomena.
- phenomenologist — the study of phenomena.
- phloem necrosis — a disease of the American elm caused by a mycoplasmalike organism, characterized by yellowing and necrosis of the foliage and yellowish-brown discoloration of the phloem.
- photomicroscope — a microscope having an illuminator and a camera mechanism for producing a photomicrograph.
- phrasemongering — the act of coining memorable phrases
- physical memory — (memory management) The memory hardware (normally RAM) installed in a computer. The term is only used in contrast to virtual memory.
- physicochemical — physical and chemical: the physicochemical properties of an isomer.
- piero di cosimo — Piero di [pee-air-oh di;; Italian pye-raw dee] /piˈɛər oʊ dɪ;; Italian ˈpyɛ rɔ di/ (Show IPA), Piero di Cosimo.
- pilgrim fathers — the Pilgrims (of Plymouth Colony)
- pilgrimage site — a shrine or other sacred place that people travel to as an act of religious devotion
- plainclothesman — a police officer, especially a detective, who wears ordinary civilian clothes while on duty.
- plasma membrane — cell membrane.
- platform scales — a weighing machine which has a platform that you put something on to be weighed
- platform tennis — a variation of tennis played on a wooden platform enclosed with chicken wire in which the players hit a rubber ball with wooden paddles following the same basic rules as tennis except that only one serve is permitted and balls can be played off the back and side fences.
- platyhelminthes — a phylum of worms having bilateral symmetry and a soft, usually flattened body, comprising the flatworms.
- plethysmography — the tracking of changes measured in bodily volume
- plumbaginaceous — belonging to the Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family of plants.
- plumber's snake — snake (def 3a).
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- poikilothermism — the state or quality of being cold-blooded, as fishes and reptiles.
- police marksman — a police officer skilled in precision shooting, esp with a sniper rifle
- polyphemus moth — a large, yellowish-brown American silkworm moth, Antheraea polyphemus, having a prominent eyespot on each hind wing and feeding on cherry, apple, and other trees.
- pontine marshes — an area of W Italy, southeast of Rome: formerly malarial swamps, drained in 1932–34 after numerous attempts since 160 bc had failed