19-letter words containing o, t, p, r
- particular solution — a solution of a differential equation containing no arbitrary constants.
- parting of the ways — When there is a parting of the ways, two or more people or groups of people stop working together or travelling together.
- party-column ballot — Indiana ballot.
- pastoral counseling — the use of psychotherapeutic techniques by trained members of the clergy to assist parishioners who seek help for personal or emotional problems.
- patrol torpedo boat — PT boat.
- pattern recognition — the automated identification of shapes or forms or patterns of speech.
- paumotu archipelago — Tuamotu Archipelago.
- pedestrian crossing — place to cross road
- penecontemporaneous — formed during or shortly after the formation of the containing rock stratum: penecontemporaneous minerals.
- perfect competition — when neither producer nor consumer controls price
- perfect progressive — a verb form including the auxiliary have followed by been and a present participle, noting the continuation of an activity or event, its incompleteness or interruption, and its connection to the temporal point of reference, as in I've been waiting for over an hour, They had been talking about her before she came into the room, or In July, he will have been living here for two years.
- perfoliate bellwort — a slender plant, Uvularia perfoliata, of the lily family, of eastern North America, having pale yellow, bell-shaped flowers.
- performance anxiety — the stage fright that a person feels when they are about to perform (a play, piece of music etc) in front of an audience
- performance targets — the expected or predicted success level of an individual, company or organization
- periodontal disease — any of various mixed bacterial infections that affect the soft tissues and bones supporting the teeth.
- peritoneal dialysis — a form of dialysis in which the peritoneum is used as an autogenous semipermeable membrane
- perpetual adoration — uninterrupted adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
- perpetual inventory — a form of stock control in which running records are kept of all acquisitions and disposals
- persecution complex — an acute irrational fear that other people are plotting one's downfall and that they are responsible for one's failures
- persistent offender — a person who repeatedly breaks the law
- personal stationery — headed notepaper
- personal watercraft — a jet-propelled boat ridden like a motorcycle.
- phenanthrenequinone — a yellowish-orange, crystalline, water-insoluble solid, C 1 4 H 8 O 2 , used chiefly in organic synthesis and the manufacture of dyes.
- phenylthiocarbamide — a crystalline, slightly water-soluble solid, C 6 H 5 NHCSNH 2 , that is either tasteless or bitter, depending upon the heredity of the taster, and is used in medical genetics and as a diagnostic.
- philosopher's stone — a substance sought by alchemists that would be capable of transmuting baser metals into gold or silver and of prolonging life.
- philosophers' stone — a substance sought by alchemists that would be capable of transmuting baser metals into gold or silver and of prolonging life.
- photodisintegration — the disintegration of a nucleus, induced by its absorption of a photon.
- photoelectric meter — an exposure meter using a photocell for the measurement of light intensity.
- photographic memory — total recall
- photopolymerization — polymerization induced by light.
- photoreconnaissance — reconnaissance using aerial photography.
- pileated woodpecker — a large, black-and-white American woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus, having a prominent red crest.
- pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
- pistachio ice cream — ice cream flavoured with pistachios
- plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
- play to the gallery — a raised area, often having a stepped or sloping floor, in a theater, church, or other public building to accommodate spectators, exhibits, etc.
- pneumogastric nerve — the vagus nerve.
- pocket-handkerchief — handkerchief (def 1).
- poincare conjecture — Mathematics. the question of whether a compact, simply connected three-dimensional manifold is topologically equivalent to a three-dimensional sphere.
- point the finger at — to accuse or blame
- pointe-aux-trembles — a city in S Quebec, in E Canada, N of Montreal, on the St. Lawrence.
- police headquarters — building where police are stationed
- police intervention — the physical involvement of police officers in an incident, esp where officers use force to control public disorder, such as a riot
- political geography — the branch of human geography that deals with the relationship between political processes and spatial structures (regions, territories, etc)
- politically correct — marked by or adhering to a typically progressive orthodoxy on issues involving especially ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or ecology: The actor’s comment about unattractive women was not politically correct. The CEO feels that people who care about being politically correct are overly sensitive. Abbreviations: PC, P.C.
- polyphonic ringtone — (in mobile phones) a ringtone in which more than one musical note is played at the same time
- polytene chromosome — a giant, cross-banded chromosome that results from multiple replication of its genetic material with the duplicated chromatin strands remaining closely associated.
- popular sovereignty — the doctrine that sovereign power is vested in the people and that those chosen to govern, as trustees of such power, must exercise it in conformity with the general will.
- population pressure — the force exerted by a growing population upon its environment, resulting in dispersal or reduction of the population.
- port jackson willow — an Australian acacia tree, Acacia cyanophylla, introduced in the 19th century into South Africa, where it is now regarded as a pest