15-letter words containing i, l, f
- pine leaf aphid — any of various homopterous insects of the family Adelgidae, as Adelges abietis (spruce gall aphid) and Pineus pinifoliae (pine leaf aphid) that feed and form galls on conifers.
- pinkster flower — a wild azalea, Rhododendron periclymenoides, of the U.S., having pink or purplish flowers.
- plain of sharon — a plain in W Israel, between the Mediterranean and the hills of Samaria, extending from Haifa to Tel Aviv
- plant-hire firm — a company that hires out mobile mechanical equipment for construction, road-making, etc
- 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.
- platform ticket — a pass allowing a visitor to enter upon a railroad platform from which those not traveling are ordinarily excluded.
- play favourites — to display favouritism
- play kissy-face — to engage in kissing, caressing, etc., esp. overtly or publicly
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- pontifical mass — (sometimes lowercase) Roman Catholic Church. a High Mass celebrated by a bishop or other prelate.
- poultry farming — breeding and keeping fowl
- power amplifier — an amplifier for increasing the power of a signal.
- preferentialism — the economic system of preference, esp amongst British commonwealth countries
- preferentialist — someone who believes in preferentialism
- preprofessional — of or relating to the time preceding one's concentrated study or practice of a profession: preprofessional training.
- price inflation — inflation fuelled by rising prices
- primrose family — the plant family Primulaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants having simple, opposite, whorled, or basal leaves, flowers with a five-lobed corolla, and capsular fruit, and including cyclamen, loosestrife of the genus Lysimachia, pimpernel, primrose, and shooting star.
- prince of wales — Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall ("The Black Prince") 1330–76, English military leader (son of Edward III).
- principal focus — focal point (def 1).
- professionalism — professional character, spirit, or methods.
- professionalist — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- professionalize — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- profit and loss — the gain and loss arising from commercial or other transactions, applied especially to an account or statement of account in bookkeeping showing gains and losses in business.
- public defender — a lawyer appointed or elected by a city or county as a full-time, official defender to represent indigents in criminal cases at public expense.
- public footpath — a footpath along which the public has right of way
- public offering — a sale of a new issue of securities to the general public through a managing underwriter (opposed to private placement): required to be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
- purslane family — the plant family Portulacaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, often fleshy leaves, sometimes showy flowers, and capsular fruit, and including bitterroot, purslane, red maids, rose moss, and spring beauty.
- qualifying exam — any examination that one needs to pass in order to begin or continue with a course of study
- quality of life — comfort and enjoyment in one's existence
- quality-of-life — affecting the quality of urban life: such quality-of-life crimes as fare-beating and graffiti writing.
- quantifiability — (uncountable) The condition of being quantifiable.
- quarantine flag — a yellow flag, designating the letter Q in the International Code of Signals: flown by itself to signify that a ship has no disease on board and requests a pratique, or flown with another flag to signify that there is disease on board ship.
- quarterfinalist — a participant in a quarterfinal contest.
- question of law — a question concerning a rule or the legal effect or consequence of an event or circumstance, usually determined by a court or judge.
- ranfurly shield — (in New Zealand) the premier rugby trophy, competed for annually by provincial teams
- rayside-balfour — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
- read oneself in — to assume possession of a benefice by publicly reading the Thirty-nine Articles
- reality fiction — a satirical parody of a reality TV show
- redfin pickerel — See under pickerel (def 1).
- redial facility — a means of dialling a number again by pressing a button
- refamiliarizing — to make (onself or another) well-acquainted or conversant with something.
- reflexivization — to make (a verb or pronoun) reflexive.
- refuelling stop — a stop made so that fresh fuel can be supplied (to an aircraft, vehicle, etc)
- refugee capital — money from abroad invested, esp for a short term, in the country offering the highest interest rate
- refuse disposal — the act of disposing of rubbish and waste
- relapsing fever — one of a group of fevers characterized by relapses, occurring in many tropical countries, and caused by several species of spirochetes transmitted by several species of lice and ticks.
- relief supplies — food, water, medication, clothes, etc given to people in need, esp in disaster areas
- relief-printing — prominence, distinctness, or vividness due to contrast.
- relieve oneself — to ease or alleviate (pain, distress, anxiety, need, etc.).
- religion of chi — /ki:/ [Case Western Reserve University] Yet another hackish parody religion (see also Church of the SubGenius, Discordianism). In the mid-70s, the canonical "Introduction to Programming" courses at CWRU were taught in ALGOL, and student exercises were punched on cards and run on a Univac 1108 system using a homebrew operating system named CHI. The religion had no doctrines and but one ritual: whenever the worshipper noted that a digital clock read 11:08, he or she would recite the phrase "It is 11:08; ABS, ALPHABETIC, ARCSIN, ARCCOS, ARCTAN." The last five words were the first five functions in the appropriate chapter of the ALGOL manual; note the special pronunciations /obz/ and /ark'sin/ rather than the more common /ahbz/ and /ark'si:n/. Using an alarm clock to warn of 11:08's arrival was considered harmful.