15-letter words containing p, a, n, s
- pachymeningitis — inflammation of the dura mater of the brain and spinal cord
- pacific islands — a U.S. trust territory in the Pacific Ocean, comprising the Mariana, Marshall, and Caroline Islands: approved by the United Nations 1947; since 1976 constituents of the trusteeship have established or moved toward self-government. 717 sq. mi. (1857 sq. km).
- pack one's bags — If you pack your bags, you leave a place where you have been staying or living.
- packing density — a measure of the amount of data that can be held by unit length of a storage medium, such as magnetic tape
- paid-in surplus — surplus paid in by purchasers of stock certificates sold at a premium.
- painter's colic — Pathology. lead poisoning causing intense intestinal pain.
- pairs champions — competitors in or winners of a pairs championship
- palaeomagnetism — the study of the fossil magnetism in rocks, used to determine the past configurations of the continents and to investigate the past shape and magnitude of the earth's magnetic field
- palaeomagnetist — a student of or expert in palaeomagnetism
- palais de danse — a dance hall
- pan-americanism — the idea or advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the countries of North, Central, and South America.
- panhandle state — West Virginia (used as a nickname).
- panophthalmitis — the inflammation of all eye tissue
- panoramic sight — an artillery sight that can be rotated horizontally in a full circle.
- pantopragmatics — universal intervention in the affairs of others
- panzer division — an armored division of the German army, especially in World War II, consisting chiefly of tanks and organized for making rapid attacks.
- paphian goddess — Aphrodite, worshiped in Cyprus as the goddess of sexual love.
- paracel islands — a group of uninhabited islets and reefs in the N South China Sea, the subject of territorial claims by China and Vietnam
- paraffin series — methane series
- paralation lisp — Embeds the paralation model in Common LISP. Available from MIT Press, (800)356-0343.
- paralinguistics — the study of paralanguage.
- parallel cousin — a cousin who is the child either of one's mother's sister or of one's father's brother.
- parasiticalness — the condition or characteristic of being parasitic
- parish magazine — a magazine containing news and articles of interest to the people of a particular parish church or the local area
- parkinson's law — the statement, expressed facetiously as if a law of physics, that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.
- parmesan cheese — of or from Parma, in northern Italy.
- pars intermedia — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- parthenogenesis — development of an egg without fertilization.
- partners---desk — a desk constructed so that two people may work at it face-to-face, as one having a kneehole and drawers on two fronts.
- passenger coach — a carriage in which passengers sit
- passenger ferry — a ferry that carries passengers
- passenger train — railway train that carries people
- passive smoking — the inhaling of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke of others, especially by a nonsmoker in an enclosed area.
- past continuous — past progressive.
- pastoralization — to make pastoral or rural.
- pattypan squash — a flat, whitish variety of squash, Cucurbita pepo melopepo, having a scalloped edge.
- pavement artist — sidewalk artist.
- pay as you earn — a method of paying tax in which the tax is taken off your wages before they are paid to you
- pay-and-display — denoting a car-parking system in which a motorist buys a permit to park for a specified period from a coin-operated machine and displays the permit on or near the windscreen of his or her car so that it can be seen by a parking attendant
- peace offensive — an active program, policy, propaganda campaign, etc., by a national government for the purpose of terminating a war or period of hostility, lessening international tensions, or promoting peaceful cooperation with other nations.
- pearly nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- pedagoguishness — the quality of being pedagoguish
- pedestrian mall — A pedestrian mall is the same as a pedestrian precinct.
- pematangsiantar — a city on NE Sumatra, in Indonesia.
- penal servitude — imprisonment together with hard labor.
- penetrativeness — the quality or condition of being penetrative
- penshurst place — a 14th-century mansion near Tunbridge Wells in Kent: birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney; gardens laid out from 1560
- pepper-and-salt — composed of a fine mixture of black with white: pepper-and-salt hair.
- performing arts — dance, drama, music
- pergamentaceous — (esp of plants) resembling parchment, whether in texture or composition