12-letter words containing i, m, p, l, a
- optometrical — the practice or profession of examining the eyes, by means of suitable instruments or appliances, for defects in vision and eye disorders in order to prescribe corrective lenses or other appropriate treatment.
- paleoclimate — the climate of some former period of geologic time.
- palimpsestic — a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.
- palindromist — a word, line, verse, number, sentence, etc., reading the same backward as forward, as Madam, I'm Adam or Poor Dan is in a droop.
- palm islands — a group of three man-made island systems under construction just off the shore in Dubai, each in the shape of a palm tree
- palm springs — a city in S California: resort.
- pan-islamism — the idea or advocacy of a political union of all Muslim nations.
- panhellenism — the idea or advocacy of a union of all Greeks in one political body.
- panhellenium — an institution founded by the Roman Emperor Hadrian idealizing Greece's Classical history
- pansexualism — the belief that a sexual instinct drives all human behaviour
- para-medical — related to the medical profession in a secondary or supplementary capacity.
- paralipomena — Chronicles.
- paramilitary — noting or pertaining to an organization operating as, in place of, or as a supplement to a regular military force: a paramilitary police unit.
- parma violet — a variety of the sweet violet, Viola odorata, that is the source of an essential oil used in perfumery.
- parochialism — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- paroemiology — the study of proverbs
- party animal — person who frequents drinking parties
- pearl hominy — whole or ground hulled corn from which the bran and germ have been removed by bleaching the whole kernels in a lye bath (lye hominy) or by crushing and sifting (pearl hominy)
- pearl millet — a tall grass, Pennisetum americanum (or P. glaucum), cultivated in Africa, Asia, and the southern U.S. for its edible seeds and as a forage plant.
- pearl primus — Pearl, 1919–1994, U.S. dancer, born in Trinidad.
- pelecaniform — of, or having the nature of, an order (Pelecaniformes) of swimming birds having all four toes connected in a webbed foot, including pelicans and cormorants
- perimetrical — the border or outer boundary of a two-dimensional figure.
- permeability — the property or state of being permeable.
- perpetualism — a belief in the permanence of a given thing; the belief that a given thing (e.g. the world, a political system) will last forever
- persian lamb — the young lamb of the Karakul sheep.
- phaeomelanin — a variety of melanin that gives rise to a red-coloured pigment
- phantasmical — pertaining to or of the nature of a phantasm; unreal; illusory; spectral: phantasmal creatures of nightmare.
- phantom limb — a phenomenon characterized by the experience of pain, discomfort, or other sensation in the area of a missing limb or other body part, as a breast.
- pharmacolite — hydrous calcium arsenate, 2CaO⋅As 2 O 5 ⋅5H 2 O, formed by natural alteration of mineral deposits containing arsenopyrite and arsenical ores of cobalt and silver.
- phentolamine — an alpha blocker, C 1 7 H 1 9 N 3 O, used to reduce hypertensive states caused by a catecholamine excess, as in the treatment of pheochromocytoma.
- philharmonic — fond of or devoted to music; music-loving: used especially in the name of certain musical societies that sponsor symphony orchestras (Philharmonic Societies) and hence applied to their concerts (philharmonic concerts)
- phlegmagogic — a medication that is intended to dislodge and evacuate mucus from the respiratory system
- phlox family — the plant family Polemoniaceae, characterized by herbaceous or sometimes shrubby plants having simple or compound leaves, flowers with a five-lobed corolla, and capsular fruit, and including gilia, Jacob's-ladder, moss pink, and phlox.
- phonemically — of or relating to phonemes: a phonemic system.
- 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.
- phytoclimate — the climate of a small area, as of confined spaces such as caves or houses (cryptoclimate) of plant communities, wooded areas, etc. (phytoclimate) or of urban communities, which may be different from that in the general region.
- pictorialism — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- piltdown man — a hypothetical early modern human, assigned to the genus Eoanthropus, whose existence was inferred from skull fragments that were allegedly found at Piltdown, England, in 1912 but were exposed as fraudulent through chemical analysis in 1953.
- pimelic acid — a crystalline compound, C 7 H 1 2 O 4 , soluble in alcohol and ether: used in polymers and as a plasticizer.
- pinealectomy — a surgical operation to remove the pineal gland
- placentiform — shaped like a placenta, with a flat rounded form
- plagioclimax — the climax stage of a community, influenced by man or some other outside factor
- planetesimal — one of the small celestial bodies that, according to one theory (planetesimal hypothesis) were fused together to form the planets of the solar system.
- plastic bomb — a bomb made of plastic explosive.
- plastic foam — expanded plastic.
- pleiochasium — a flowering system in which several buds come out at the same time
- plumbaginous — containing graphite.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- policymaking — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- pollyannaism — an excessively or blindly optimistic person.