16-letter words containing o, n, e, i, r
- pelican crossing — place to cross road
- pension mortgage — an arrangement whereby a person takes out a mortgage and pays the capital repayment instalments into a pension fund and the interest to the mortgagee. The loan is repaid out of the tax-free lump sum proceeds of the pension plan on the borrower's retirement
- pension provider — the company or organization that makes provision for a person's pension
- percentage point — difference: one per cent
- percussion drill — a drill that is operated by percussion
- peregrine falcon — a globally distributed falcon, Falco peregrinus, much used in falconry because of its swift flight: several subspecies are endangered.
- period furniture — furniture that was made during a particular period in time
- periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
- perpetual motion — the motion of a theoretical mechanism that, without any losses due to friction or other forms of dissipation of energy, would continue to operate indefinitely at the same rate without any external energy being applied to it.
- personal details — details about a person such as their name and address
- personal hygiene — bodily cleanliness
- personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
- personal pension — a private pension scheme in which an individual contributes part of his or her salary to a financial institution, which invests it so that a lump sum is available on retirement; this is then used to purchase an annuity
- personal stylist — a person employed by a rich or famous client to offer advice on clothes, hairstyles, and other aspects of personal appearance
- personal trainer — a person who works one-on-one with a client to plan or implement an exercise or fitness regimen.
- personal tuition — private tuition
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- personality test — an instrument, as a questionnaire or series of standardized tasks, used to measure personality characteristics or to discover personality disorders.
- personality type — a cluster of personality traits commonly occurring together
- petrol rationing — a scheme rationing the amount of petrol that an individual is allowed to purchase
- pharmacogenetics — the branch of pharmacology that examines the relation of genetic factors to variations in response to drugs.
- pharmacogenomics — the study of human genetic variability in relation to drug action and its application to medical treatment
- pharmacokinetics — the branch of pharmacology that studies the fate of pharmacological substances in the body, as their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
- philoprogenitive — producing offspring, especially abundantly; prolific.
- philosopher king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- philosopher-king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- photorespiration — the oxidation of carbohydrates in many higher plants in which they get oxygen from light and then release carbon dioxide, somewhat different from photosynthesis.
- phytoremediation — a process of decontaminating soil or water by using plants and trees to absorb or break down pollutants.
- picture moulding — the edge around a framed picture
- pincers movement — a military maneuver in which both flanks of an enemy force are attacked with the aim of attaining complete encirclement.
- pithecanthropine — of, belonging to, or resembling a former genus (Pithecanthropus, now classified as Homo erectus) of extinct early humans, who lived in Java, China, Europe, and Africa
- pithecanthropoid — of, relating to, or resembling the former genus Pithecanthropus or one of its members.
- pneumatic trough — a trough filled with liquid, especially water, for collecting gases in bell jars or the like by displacement.
- point de hongrie — flame stitch.
- poitou-charentes — a region of W central France, on the Bay of Biscay: mainly low-lying
- 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)
- 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 inspector — rank of police officer in the UK
- 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.
- ponderosa (pine) — a yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) of W North America, valued for its timber
- porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
- portrait painter — artist: paints likenesses
- 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.
- possession order — (in Britain) a court order that entitles a landlord legally to evict a tenant or squatter and regain possession of the property
- post-reformation — the act of reforming; state of being reformed.
- post-renaissance — the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
- postremogeniture — a system of inheritance under which the estate of a deceased person goes to his youngest son. Also called ultimogeniture. Compare primogeniture (def 2).
- 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.
- poverty-stricken — suffering from poverty; extremely poor: poverty-stricken refugees.