16-letter words containing i, r, d, e, a
- on the breadline — impoverished; living at subsistence level
- one-armed bandit — slot machine (def 1).
- operating budget — money allocated to a project
- ordinary jubilee — the celebration of any of certain anniversaries, as the twenty-fifth (silver jubilee) fiftieth (golden jubilee) or sixtieth or seventy-fifth (diamond jubilee)
- organized labour — labour carried out by workers in trade unions, or the workers themselves
- oriental emerald — a green variety of corundum used as a gemstone
- outboard profile — an exterior side elevation of a vessel, showing all deck structures, rigging, fittings, etc.
- overdramatically — In an overdramatic manner.
- overhead railway — elevated railroad.
- oxidation number — the state of an element or ion in a compound with regard to the electrons gained or lost by the element or ion in the reaction that formed the compound, expressed as a positive or negative number indicating the ionic charge of the element or ion.
- paediatric nurse — a nurse who specializes in the care of children
- painted trillium — a North American trillium, Trillium undulatum, having white flowers streaked with pink or purple.
- para-phenetidine — a colorless organic liquid, C 8 H 1 1 NO, used chiefly in its para form (para-phenetidine) in the synthesis of phenacetin, dyes, and other compounds.
- parallelepipedon — a prism with six faces, all parallelograms.
- partial ordering — a relation defined on a set, having the properties that each element is in relation to itself, the relation is transitive, and if two elements are in relation to each other, the two elements are equal.
- parts of lindsey — an area in E England constituting a former administrative division of Lincolnshire
- pass-band filter — band-pass filter
- pays de la loire — a region of W France, on the Bay of Biscay: generally low-lying, drained by the River Loire and its tributaries; agricultural
- pearls of wisdom — good advice, wise words
- pencil and paper — An archaic information storage and transmission device that works by depositing smears of graphite on bleached wood pulp. More recent developments in paper-based technology include improved "write-once" update devices which use tiny rolling heads similar to mouse balls to deposit coloured pigment. All these devices require an operator skilled at so-called "handwriting" technique. These technologies are ubiquitous outside hackerdom, but nearly forgotten inside it. Most hackers had terrible handwriting to begin with, and years of keyboarding tend to have encouraged it to degrade further. Perhaps for this reason, hackers deprecate pencil-and-paper technology and often resist using it in any but the most trivial contexts.
- periodic decimal — repeating decimal.
- periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
- permanganic acid — an acid, HMnO 4 , known only in solution.
- perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
- personal details — details about a person such as their name and address
- persulfuric acid — Also called Caro's acid, permonosulfuric acid, peroxymonosulfuric acid, peroxysulfuric acid. a white, crystalline solid, H 2 SO 5 , used as an oxidizing agent for certain organic compounds.
- phase difference — the difference between two sinusoidally varying quantities that have the same frequency, measured either as an angle or a time
- physical address — (memory management) The address presented to a computer's main memory in a virtual memory system, in contrast to the virtual address which is the address generated by the CPU. A memory management unit translates virtual addresses into physical addresses.
- phytoremediation — a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants.
- picture postcard — postcard (def 1).
- pierce's disease — a disease of grapes caused by a rickettsialike organism, characterized by dwarfing of vines, mottling of woody tissues, and plant death.
- pithecanthropoid — of, relating to, or resembling the former genus Pithecanthropus or one of its members.
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- 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)
- ponderosa (pine) — a yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) of W North America, valued for its timber
- portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
- posigrade rocket — an auxiliary rocket used to separate the sections of a multistage rocket, fired in the direction of flight.
- praetorian guard — the bodyguard of a military commander, especially the imperial guard stationed in Rome.
- predetermination — to settle or decide in advance: He had predetermined his answer to the offer.
- predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
- prescription pad — a pad of prescriptions used by doctors, etc
- prestidigitation — sleight of hand; legerdemain.
- preunderstanding — to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.
- price leadership — the setting of the price of a product or service by a dominant firm at a level that competitors can match, in order to avoid a price war
- primary deviance — the violation of a norm or rule that does not result in the violator's being stigmatized as deviant.
- primary producer — any green plant or any of various microorganisms that can convert light energy or chemical energy into organic matter.
- printer's reader — a person employed to read proofs and indicate errors
- private judgment — personal opinion formed independently of the expressed position of an institution, as in matters of religion or politics.
- private viewdata — an interactive video text system with restricted access
- privet andromeda — a spreading shrub, Lyonia ligustrina, of the eastern U.S., having leafless, white flowers in terminal clusters.