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16-letter words containing i, n, p, l

  • pins and needles — a tingly, prickly sensation in a limb that is recovering from numbness.
  • pique oneself on — to be proud of
  • pitch-cone angle — (in a bevel gear) the apex angle of the truncated cone (pitch cone) which forms the reference surface on which the teeth of a bevel gear are cut
  • place in the sun — (often initial capital letter) the star that is the central body of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heat: its mean distance from the earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km), its diameter about 864,000 miles (1.4 million km), and its mass about 330,000 times that of the earth; its period of surface rotation is about 26 days at its equator but longer at higher latitudes.
  • placement office — an office in a university that offers students careers advice and help to find employment
  • plain-spokenness — the quality or characteristic of being plain-spoken
  • plainclothes man — a detective or police officer who wears civilian clothes while on duty
  • plant bargaining — a form of bargaining within industry, involving either informal small groups of employees or collective agreements at plant level
  • platinum-iridium — (standard)   A standard, against which all others of the same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris, as the bar defining the standard metre once was. "This garbage collection algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare golden.
  • play off against — If you play people off against each other, you make them compete or argue, so that you gain some advantage.
  • play-action pass — a pass play designed to deceive the defense by appearing to be a running play, in which the quarterback fakes a hand-off to a back before throwing a forward pass.
  • pleasure-seeking — always looking for pleasure
  • pneumonic plague — a form of plague characterized by lung involvement.
  • point of sailing — the bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.
  • poisoned chalice — If you refer to a job or an opportunity as a poisoned chalice, you mean that it seems to be very attractive but you believe it will lead to failure.
  • polar coordinate — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
  • polar opposition — the relation between a pair of antonyms that denote relatively higher and lower degrees of a quality with respect to an explicit or implicit norm rather than absolute values, as the relation between tall and short or light and dark, but not between true and false.
  • polarizing angle — the law that light will receive maximum polarization from a reflecting surface when it is incident to the surface at an angle (angle of polarization or polarizing angle) having a tangent equal to the index of refraction of the surface.
  • police constable — police officer
  • police inspector — rank of police officer in the UK
  • policy statement — a declaration of the plans and intentions of an organization or government
  • politicalization — to cause to be political; color with politics.
  • polycondensation — formation of a polymer by chemical condensation with the elimination of a small molecule, such as water.
  • polyphonic prose — prose characterized by the use of poetic devices, as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, etc., and especially by an emphasis on rhythm not strictly metered.
  • polyvinyl acetal — any of the class of thermoplastic resins derived by the condensation of an aldehyde with polyvinyl alcohol.
  • polyvinyl formal — a colorless, water-insoluble, polyvinyl acetal produced from partially hydrolyzed polyvinyl acetate and formaldehyde, used chiefly in the manufacture of lacquers.
  • porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
  • post-elizabethan — of or relating to the reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England, or to her times: Elizabethan diplomacy; Elizabethan music.
  • post-pleistocene — noting or pertaining to the epoch forming the earlier half of the Quaternary Period, beginning about two million years ago and ending 10,000 years ago, characterized by widespread glacial ice and the advent of modern humans.
  • postencephalitic — inflammation of the substance of the brain.
  • potemkin village — a pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition.
  • potential energy — the energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
  • pourriture noble — noble rot.
  • practical reason — (in Kantian ethics) reason applied to the problem of action and choice, especially in ethical matters.
  • pre-solicitation — the act of soliciting.
  • precontemplation — the act of contemplating; thoughtful observation.
  • predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
  • premillennialism — the doctrine or belief that the Second Coming of Christ will precede the millennium.
  • premillennialize — to support or believe in premillennialism.
  • prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
  • pressure flaking — a method of manufacturing a flint tool by pressing flakes from a stone core with a pointed implement, usually of wood tipped with antler or copper.
  • pressure welding — the welding together of two objects by holding them together under pressure.
  • pribilof islands — a group of islands in the Bering Sea, off SW Alaska, belonging to the US: the breeding ground of the northern fur seal. Area: about 168 sq km (65 sq miles)
  • pride oneself on — to be proud of
  • primary election — primary (def 15a).
  • primary electron — in thermionics, any of the electrons falling on a body, distinguished from those emitted by it
  • principal clause — the main clause.
  • principal rafter — a diagonal member of a roof principal, usually forming part of a truss and supporting the purlins on which the common rafters rest.
  • print journalism — journalism as practiced in newspapers and magazines.
  • prisoner of bill — (humour)   (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
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