12-letter words containing l, i, p, s, a
- parochialism — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- parochialist — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- particulates — very small particles of a substance, esp those that are produced when fuel is burned
- pascal-linda — Ian Flockhart, U Edinburgh, 1991. Under development.
- passing bell — a bell tolled to announce a death or funeral.
- passing lane — a highway lane in which a driver may pass other vehicles legally.
- passion play — a dramatic representation of the passion of Christ, as that given every ten years at the Bavarian village of Oberammergau.
- passionately — having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid: a passionate advocate of socialism.
- patent still — a type of still in which the distillation is continuous
- patroclinous — inheritance in which the traits of the offspring are derived primarily from the paternal parent (opposed to matrocliny).
- pearl primus — Pearl, 1919–1994, U.S. dancer, born in Trinidad.
- peccadilloes — a very minor or slight sin or offense; a trifling fault.
- pennine alps — a range of the Alps between Switzerland and Italy. Highest peak: Monte Rosa, 4634 m (15 204 ft)
- pennsylvania — a state in the E United States. 45,333 sq. mi. (117,410 sq. km). Capital: Harrisburg. Abbreviation: PA (for use with zip code), Pa., Penn., Penna.
- pension plan — a systematic plan created and maintained, as by a corporation, to make regular payments of benefits to retired or disabled employees, either on a contributory or a noncontributory basis.
- penthesileia — the daughter of Ares and queen of the Amazons, whom she led to the aid of Troy. She was slain by Achilles
- percussional — of or relating to percussion
- perivisceral — surrounding or situated about the viscera.
- 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
- perpetualist — someone who holds to any form of perpetualism
- persian gulf — strait in the Indian Ocean
- persian lamb — the young lamb of the Karakul sheep.
- personalised — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- personalized — customized
- perspectival — a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface. Compare aerial perspective, linear perspective.
- persuasively — able, fitted, or intended to persuade: a very persuasive argument.
- pestilential — producing or tending to produce pestilence.
- pestological — relating to pestology
- petaliferous — bearing or having petals.
- phalaenopsis — any of various epiphytic orchids of the genus Phalaenopsis, native to tropical Asia, having clusters of showy, variously colored flowers.
- phantasmical — pertaining to or of the nature of a phantasm; unreal; illusory; spectral: phantasmal creatures of nightmare.
- philadelphus — (Philadelphus) king of Pergamum c159–138 b.c.
- phosphatidyl — an atom or group of atoms containing one or more unpaired electrons derived from a phosphatide
- photoelastic — displaying photoelasticity; of or relating to photoelasticity
- 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.
- phylacteries — Judaism. either of two small, black, leather cubes containing a piece of parchment inscribed with verses 4–9 of Deut. 6, 13–21 of Deut. 11, and 1–16 of Ex. 13: one is attached with straps to the left arm and the other to the forehead during weekday morning prayers by Orthodox and Conservative Jewish men.
- physicalness — of or relating to the body: physical exercise.
- piano lesson — music class in playing the piano
- pictorialism — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- pictorialist — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- pig islander — a New Zealander
- pilot signal — a signal, as a flag or light, used to request a pilot.
- piss-elegant — displaying a contrived, often pretentious, sophistication, opulence, etc.
- plagiarising — to take and use by plagiarism.
- plagiaristic — an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne. Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft, borrowing, cribbing, passing off.
- plaid screen — [XEROX PARC] A "special effect" that occurs when certain kinds of memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error, some of the X demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately as a display hack.
- plain as day — obvious
- plain-spoken — candid; frank; blunt.
- plainclothes — Plainclothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
- plane strain — Plane strain is a two-dimensional state of strain in which all the shape changes of a material happen on a single plane.