12-letter words containing o, s, p, r, e
- policeperson — a member of a police force.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- poliorcetics — the science of siegecraft
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- pollen brush — the mass of stiff hairs on the legs or abdomen of an insect, for collecting pollen.
- polycentrism — the doctrine that a plurality of independent centers of leadership, power, or ideology may exist within a single political system, especially Communism.
- polydisperse — of or noting a sol that contains particles of different sizes.
- polyhedrosis — an often fatal disease of certain insect larvae or decapod crustaceans, caused by viruses containing DNA.
- polyisoprene — a thermoplastic polymer, (C 5 H 8) n , the major constituent of natural rubber and also obtained synthetically.
- polyneuritis — inflammation of several nerves at the same time; multiple neuritis.
- polyoestrous — polyestrous.
- polyribosome — polysome.
- pommel horse — a padded, somewhat cylindrical floor-supported apparatus, similar to a vaulting horse but having two graspable pommels on top, used by men for hand-supported balancing, rotating, and swinging maneuvers.
- pony express — a former system in the American West of carrying mail and express by relays of riders mounted on ponies, especially the system operating (1860–61) between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
- poodle skirt — 1950s-style woman's circular skirt
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcelaneous — a strong, vitreous, translucent ceramic material, biscuit-fired at a low temperature, the glaze then fired at a very high temperature.
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- pork sausage — a sausage made with pork
- port angeles — a city in NW Washington, on the Juan de Fuca Strait.
- port chester — a city in SE New York, on Long Island Sound.
- port de bras — (used with a singular verb) the technique of moving the arms properly.
- port moresby — an independent republic in the W Pacific Ocean, comprising the E part of New Guinea and numerous near-lying islands, including the Bismarck Archipelago, the Admiralty Islands, the Trobriand Islands, and Bougainville and Buka in the Solomon Islands: a former Australian Trusteeship Territory; independent since 1975; member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 178,260 sq. mi. (461,693 sq. km). Capital: Port Moresby.
- portentously — of the nature of a portent; momentous.
- post-harvest — Also, harvesting. the gathering of crops.
- post-nuclear — pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
- post-puberty — the period or age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction of offspring: in common law, presumed to be 14 years in the male and 12 years in the female.
- postal meter — a postal franking machine
- postal order — money order.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard
- postcardware — Shareware that borders on freeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate "sales" in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)
- postconsumer — noting or pertaining to a product after it has been used and recycled: a chair made of postconsumer plastic.
- postdelivery — of, relating to, or occurring after a delivery
- poster board — a thick, fairly stiff cardboard composed of layers of paper or paper pulp compressed together and typically used to support displays.
- poster child — a child appearing on a poster for a charitable organization.
- poster color — poster paint.
- poster paint — an opaque, water-based, typically bright-colored paint with a glue-size or gum binder, that is suitable for use on posters and is usually packaged in jars.
- posteriority — the state or quality of being posterior.
- posteruptive — occurring after a volcanic eruption
- postexercise — bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement of health: Walking is good exercise.
- postexposure — occurring after a photo or image has been taken
- postfracture — taking place after a fracture
- postgraduate — of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or consisting of post-graduates: a postgraduate seminar.
- postimperial — of, relating to, or designating the period after an empire
- postliterate — of or relating to a (hypothetical) time or stage in society when literacy is no longer necessary or valued
- postmeridian — of or relating to the afternoon.
- postmistress — a woman in charge of a post office.
- powder chest — a small wooden box containing a charge of powder, old nails, scrap iron, etc., formerly secured over the side of a ship and exploded on the attempt of an enemy to board.
- powder flask — a small flask of gunpowder formerly carried by soldiers and hunters.
- power assist — a procedure for supplementing or replacing the manual effort needed to operate a device or system, often by hydraulic, electrical, or mechanical means.