14-letter words containing p, a, r, e, l
- at one's peril — If you say that someone does something at their peril, you are warning them that they will probably suffer as a result of doing it.
- autotetraploid — an individual or strain whose chromosome complement consists of four copies of a single genome due to doubling of an ancestral chromosome complement
- bachelor party — A bachelor party is a party for a man who is getting married very soon, to which only men are invited.
- balance spring — hairspring.
- ballet slipper — a heelless cloth or leather slipper worn by ballet dancers.
- balsam of peru — an aromatic balsam that is obtained from the tropical South American leguminous tree Myroxylon pereirae and is similar to balsam of Tolu
- baltimore chop — a batted ball that takes a high bounce upon hitting the ground on or immediately in front of home plate, often enabling the batter to reach first base safely.
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- beauty parlour — A beauty parlour is a place where women can go to have beauty treatments, for example to have their hair, nails or make-up done.
- beveridge plan — the plan for comprehensive social insurance, proposed by Sir William Beveridge in Great Britain in 1941.
- black panthers — (in the US) a militant Black political party founded in 1965 to end the political dominance of White people
- blepharoplasty — cosmetic surgery performed on the eyelid
- bletchley park — the Buckinghamshire estate which was the centre of British code-breaking operations during World War II
- blister-packed — presented in a blister pack
- blotting paper — Blotting paper is thick soft paper that you use for soaking up and drying ink on a piece of paper.
- bone porcelain — bone china.
- brachycephalic — having a head nearly as broad from side to side as from front to back, esp one with a cephalic index over 80
- bread poultice — a poultice made from breadcrumbs
- break-up value — the value of an organization assuming that it will not continue to trade
- breast implant — an object such as a sachet filled with gel introduced surgically into a woman's breast to enlarge it
- building paper — any of various types of heavy-duty paper that usually consist of bitumen reinforced with fibre sandwiched between two sheets of kraft paper: used in damp-proofing or as insulation between the soil and a road surface
- bush telegraph — a means of communication between primitive peoples over large areas, as by drum beats
- cabbage looper — the larva of a noctuid moth, Trichoplusia ni, common throughout the U.S. and Canada, that feeds on a wide variety of vegetable crops, especially cabbage and lettuce.
- cafeteria plan — a fringe-benefit plan under which employees may choose from among various benefits those that best fit their needs, up to a specified dollar value.
- call-up papers — a letter containing order to report for service
- caller display — a facility which shows the number of an incoming call
- cambridge lisp — A flavour of Lisp using BCPL. Sources owned by Fitznorman partners.
- camelopardalis — a N constellation between Ursa Major and Cassiopeia; the Giraffe
- camp counselor — activities supervisor
- camp fire girl — a girl who is a member of Camp Fire, Inc., an organization for girls founded in 1910, and since 1975 also including boys, to promote character-building activities
- camphor laurel — an Australian name for the camphor tree, now occurring in the wild in parts of Australia
- campylobacters — Plural form of campylobacter.
- cape canaveral — a cape on the E coast of Florida: site of the US Air Force Missile Test Centre, from which the majority of US space missions have been launched
- cape trafalgar — a cape on the SW coast of Spain, south of Cádiz: scene of the decisive naval battle (1805) in which the French and Spanish fleets were defeated by the British under Nelson, who was mortally wounded
- capillary tube — a glass tube with a fine bore and thick walls, used in thermometers, etc
- capital letter — Capital letters are the same as capital s.
- capital market — the financial institutions collectively that deal with medium-term and long-term capital and loans
- carpet bowling — a form of bowls played indoors on a strip of carpet, at the centre of which lies an obstacle round which the bowl has to pass
- carpet slipper — Carpet slippers are soft, comfortable slippers.
- carrying place — portage (def 3).
- cartridge clip — a metallic container holding cartridges for an automatic firearm
- castrop-rauxel — an industrial city in W Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia. Pop: 78 208 (2003 est)
- cavalier poets — a group of mid-17th-century English lyric poets, mostly courtiers of Charles I. Chief among them were Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Sir John Suckling, and Richard Lovelace
- cellular phone — A cellular phone or cellular telephone is a type of telephone which does not need wires to connect it to a telephone system.
- central europe — an area between Eastern and Western Europe, generally accepted as comprising Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland
- central powers — (before World War I) Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary after they were linked by the Triple Alliance in 1882
- centripetalism — the movement of things towards a centre
- cephalometrics — The measurement and analysis of the craniofacial area, especially as an aid to dental or orthodontic procedures.
- cephalosporins — Plural form of cephalosporin.
- cerebral palsy — Cerebral palsy is a condition caused by damage to a baby's brain before or during its birth, which makes its limbs and muscles permanently weak.