19-letter words containing f, i, r, e
- perfect competition — when neither producer nor consumer controls price
- perfect progressive — a verb form including the auxiliary have followed by been and a present participle, noting the continuation of an activity or event, its incompleteness or interruption, and its connection to the temporal point of reference, as in I've been waiting for over an hour, They had been talking about her before she came into the room, or In July, he will have been living here for two years.
- perfoliate bellwort — a slender plant, Uvularia perfoliata, of the lily family, of eastern North America, having pale yellow, bell-shaped flowers.
- performance anxiety — the stage fright that a person feels when they are about to perform (a play, piece of music etc) in front of an audience
- performance figures — the statistics that indicate how well or badly a company or organization has performed
- peroxysulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
- persian gulf states — group of Arab sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, & United Arab Emirates
- persistent offender — a person who repeatedly breaks the law
- pilgrimage of grace — a rebellion in 1536 in N England against the Reformation and Henry VIII's government
- pillars of hercules — the two promontories at the E end of the Strait of Gibraltar: the Rock of Gibraltar on the European side and the Jebel Musa on the African side; according to legend, formed by Hercules
- pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
- plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
- pocket-handkerchief — handkerchief (def 1).
- point the finger at — to accuse or blame
- post office problem — (algorithm) Given a set of points (in N dimensions), find another point which minimises the sum of the distances from that point to each of the others.
- post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
- preferential voting — a system of voting designed to permit the voter to indicate an order of preference for the candidates on the ballot.
- presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
- pride-of-california — a shrubby plant, Lathyrus splendens, of the legume family, native to southern California, having showy clusters of pale rose-pink, violet, or magenta flowers and large, smooth, beaked pods.
- private first class — a soldier ranking above a private and below a corporal or specialist fourth class in the U.S. Army, and above a private and below a lance corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps.
- professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- professionalization — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- pseudo-professional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- put a figure on sth — When you put a figure on an amount, you say exactly how much it is.
- put one's finger on — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
- radioactive fallout — the settling to the ground of airborne particles ejected into the atmosphere from the earth by explosions, eruptions, forest fires, etc., especially such settling from nuclear explosions (radioactive fallout) Compare rainout.
- radius of curvature — the absolute value of the reciprocal of the curvature at a point on a curve.
- rate of penetration — The rate of penetration is the speed with which a drill bit can break the rock under it.
- reciprocity failure — a failure of the two exposure variables, light intensity and exposure time, to behave in a reciprocal fashion at very high or very low values
- reef whitetip shark — whitetip shark (def 1).
- reflux oesophagitis — inflammation of the gullet caused by regurgitation of stomach acids, producing heartburn: may be associated with a hiatus hernia
- refreshable display — braille display
- reinforced concrete — concrete containing steel bars, strands, mesh, etc., to absorb tensile and shearing stresses.
- relief organization — humanitarian group
- republic of ireland — John, 1838–1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888–1918.
- republic of letters — the collective body of literary people.
- republic of vietnam — the name (from 1955–75) for South Vietnam, as an independent republic, following the division of the country in 1954 into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
- research fellowship — the position or office of someone who conducts academic research into a subject at a university, etc
- resign oneself (to) — to submit or become reconciled (to); accept (something) passively
- respiratory failure — a condition in which the respiratory system is unable to provide an adequate supply of oxygen or to remove carbon dioxide efficiently
- reticular formation — a network of neurons in the brainstem involved in consciousness, regulation of breathing, the transmission of sensory stimuli to higher brain centers, and the constantly shifting muscular activity that supports the body against gravity.
- revival of learning — the Renaissance in its relation to learning, especially in literature (Revival of Literature or Revival of Letters)
- right-eyed flounder — any of several flatfishes of the family Pleuronectidae, having both eyes on the right side of the head.
- ring-spinning frame — a machine containing the ring, traveler, and bobbin used in spinning yarn.
- risk excess of loss — Risk excess of loss is a type of reinsurance that is given to an insurer to protect against a single loss or risk incurred at a specified amount.
- ruffini's corpuscle — an end organ of certain sensory neurons that branches out parallel to the skin and responds to steady pressure.
- rural free delivery — former name for rural delivery service. Abbreviation: R.F.D.
- saccharofarinaceous — pertaining to or consisting of sugar and meal.
- sacrifice operative — a euphemistic term for a suicide bomber