15-letter words containing p, a, l, e
- bouillotte lamp — a table lamp of the 18th century, having two or three adjustable candle brackets and a common shade sliding on a central shaft.
- bowel complaint — bowel disease or condition
- brachial plexus — a network of nerves in the armpits and neck, innervating the shoulders, arms, and hands.
- brachiocephalic — of, relating to, or supplying the arm and head
- braille display — (hardware) (Or "refreshable braille display", "refreshable display") An electromechanical device that renders braille with tiny, independently controlled pins used to represent the state of dots in braille cells. Each pin, in its "on" state, raises above the top of its hole in the screen; in its "off" state, it drops below the top of its hole. Older systems used tiny solenoids to control the state of the pins; modern systems are piezoelectric. Typical dimensions of a braille display are 1 line of 40 cells, each cell of two-by-eight dots.
- braille printer — (printer) (Or "(Braille) embosser") A printer, necessarily an impact printer, that renders text as Braille. Blind users call other printers ink printers.
- brazilian plume — a tropical American plant, Justicia carnea, of the acanthus family, having hairy, prominently veined leaves and a short, dense cluster of purple or pink flowers, grown in greenhouses or outdoors in warm regions.
- breaking plough — a plough with a long shallow mouldboard for turning virgin land or sod land
- brussels carpet — a worsted carpet with a heavy pile formed by uncut loops of wool on a linen warp
- buryat republic — a constituent republic of SE central Russia, on Lake Baikal: mountainous, with forests covering over half the total area. Capital: Ulan-Ude. Pop: 981 000 (2002). Area: 351 300 sq km (135 608 sq miles)
- butler's pantry — a pantry in a large house where crockery, glassware, cutlery, etc is kept
- cache la poudre — a river in N Colorado, flowing N and E to the South Platte River. 126 miles (203 km) long.
- calf diphtheria — a disease of the throat in young calves caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum, resulting in breathing difficulty and a painful cough
- calliper splint — a splint consisting of two metal rods with straps attached, for supporting or exerting tension on the leg
- callippic cycle — a period equal to four Metonic cycles less one day, proposed by Callippus to correct the Metonic cycle.
- camp counsellor — an adult supervisor assigned to a group of campers at a summer camp
- camphorated oil — a liniment consisting of camphor and peanut oil, used as a counterirritant
- cancel a policy — If you cancel a policy, you terminate a contract of insurance.
- cannot help but — to be unable to do anything else except
- cape chelyuskin — a cape in N central Russia, in N Siberia at the end of the Taimyr Peninsula: the northernmost point of Asia
- capital expense — A capital expense is the cost of acquiring or making improvements to fixed assets.
- capital gearing — the ratio of a company's debt capital to its equity capital
- capital letters — a letter of the alphabet that usually differs from its corresponding lowercase letter in form and height, as A, B, Q, and R as distinguished from a, b, q, and r : used as the initial letter of a proper name, the first word of a sentence, etc.
- capital offence — a crime for which the death penalty is used
- caprifoliaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Caprifoliaceae, a family of N temperate shrubs, small trees, and climbers including honeysuckle, elder, and guelder-rose
- cardinal spider — a large house spider, Tegenaria parietina
- caribbean plate — a major tectonic division of the earth's crust, encompassing the Central American portion of North America, the Caribbean Sea, and the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico, as well as the Leeward and Windward Islands; bordered north and south by the North and South American Plates and west by the Cocos Plate.
- carpentersville — a city in NE Illinois, near Chicago.
- carpometacarpal — Anatomy. of or relating to the carpus and the metacarpus.
- cartesian plane — Usually, Cartesian coordinates. a member of a system of coordinates for locating a point on a plane (Cartesian plane) by its distance from each of two intersecting lines, or in space by its distance from each of three planes intersecting at a point.
- cassette player — A cassette player is a machine that is used for playing cassettes and sometimes also recording them.
- cast a spell on — to put into, or as into, a trance
- celandine poppy — a poppy, Stylophorum diphyllum, of the east-central U.S., having one pair of deeply lobed leaves and yellow flowers.
- cephalochordate — any chordate animal of the subphylum Cephalochordata, having a fishlike body and no vertebral column; lancelet
- cephalohematoma — A hemorrhage of blood between the skull and periosteum of a newborn baby secondary to rupture of blood vessels crossing the periosteum.
- cephalothoracic — the anterior part of the body in certain arachnids and crustaceans, consisting of the coalesced head and thorax.
- cephalothoraxes — Plural form of cephalothorax.
- cervical plexus — a network of nerves branching from the spinal nerves of the neck region and innervating the neck, chest, diaphragm, and part of the face.
- champagne flute — a tall, thin champagne glass
- champagne glass — a glass for drinking champagne, either a glass with a wide mouth and a roughly triangular shape or a tall flute
- chandler period — the period of the oscillation (Chandler wobble) of the earth's axis, varying between 416 and 433 days.
- channel captain — the most powerful member, and often the one that decides specifications, in a channel for distributing goods (which usually consists of a manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer). The channel captain is sometimes the manufacturer but in the case of a chain store it may be the retailer
- channel hopping — (chat) To rapidly switch channels on IRC, or a GEnie chat board. This term may derive from the TV idiom, "channel surfing".
- channel-hopping — Channel-hopping means switching quickly between different television channels because you are looking for something interesting to watch.
- charleston peak — a mountain in SE Nevada: highest peak in the Spring Mountains. 11,919 feet (3635 meters).
- cheap assembler — (tool) (CHASM) A shareware assembler for MS-DOS.
- chile saltpeter — sodium nitrate, esp. as found naturally in Chile and Peru
- chile saltpetre — a naturally occurring form of sodium nitrate: a soluble white or colourless mineral occurring in arid regions, esp in Chile and Peru
- chinese parsley — coriander leaves used as an herb; cilantro
- chloramphenicol — a broad-spectrum antibiotic used esp in treating typhoid fever and rickettsial infections: obtained from the bacterium Streptomyces venezuelae or synthesized. Formula: C11H12N2O5Cl2