16-letter words containing p, a, v, e, r
- lever escapement — an escapement in which a pivoted lever, made to oscillate by the escape wheel, engages a balance staff and causes it to oscillate.
- mangrove snapper — gray snapper.
- manic-depressive — suffering from bipolar disorder.
- mechanoreceptive — Responsive to mechanical stimuli such as sound and touch.
- nuclear envelope — the double membrane surrounding the nucleus within a cell.
- observation post — a forward position, often on high ground, from which enemy activity can be observed and, particularly, from which artillery or mortar fire can be directed.
- over-application — the act of putting to a special use or purpose: the application of common sense to a problem.
- over-expectation — the act or the state of expecting: to wait in expectation.
- over-explanation — the act or process of explaining.
- over-speculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
- overcapitalizing — Present participle of overcapitalize.
- overcompensating — Present participle of overcompensate.
- overcompensation — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overcompensatory — a pronounced striving to neutralize and conceal a strong but unacceptable character trait by substituting for it an opposite trait.
- overcomplicating — Present participle of overcomplicate.
- overexploitation — use or utilization, especially for profit: the exploitation of newly discovered oil fields.
- parents' evening — an occasion when the parents of children at a school and their teachers come together (outside normal school hours, in the evening) in order to discuss the progress or work of the children
- parole violation — an illegal act or offence that breaches the conditions of a prisoner's parole
- passive transfer — Immunology. injection of lymphocytes or antibody from an immune or sensitized donor to a nonimmune host in order to impart immunity or test for allergic reactions.
- past progressive — a verb form consisting of an auxiliary be in the past tense followed by a present participle and used especially to indicate that an action or event was incomplete or in progress at a point of reference in the past, as was sleeping in I was sleeping when the phone rang.
- peasants' revolt — the first great popular rebellion in English history (1381), caused by the imposition of an unpopular poll tax: it lasted less than a month and failed as a social revolution
- peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
- peter stuyvesant — Peter, 1592–1672, Dutch colonial administrator in the Americas: last governor of New Netherlands 1646–64.
- plutarch's lives — (Parallel Lives) a collection (a.d. 105–15) by Plutarch of short biographies of the leading political figures of ancient Greece and Rome.
- pre-conversation — informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.
- prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- prevenient grace — divine grace operating on the human will prior to its turning to God.
- primary deviance — the violation of a norm or rule that does not result in the violator's being stigmatized as deviant.
- private judgment — personal opinion formed independently of the expressed position of an institution, as in matters of religion or politics.
- private language — a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another
- private practice — the practice of one's profession as an independent rather than as an employee.
- private property — land or belongings owned by a person or group and kept for their exclusive use
- private viewdata — an interactive video text system with restricted access
- private-line car — a freight car owned by a company other than a railroad but operated over the tracks of railroads.
- privet andromeda — a spreading shrub, Lyonia ligustrina, of the eastern U.S., having leafless, white flowers in terminal clusters.
- privileged altar — an altar at which a plenary indulgence for a departed soul may be granted upon celebration of a Mass.
- proenvironmental — the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.
- progressive jazz — an experimental, nonmelodic, and often free-flowing style of modern jazz, especially in the form of highly dissonant, rhythmically complex orchestral arrangements. Compare bop1 , cool jazz, hard bop, modern jazz.
- projective plane — (mathematics) The space of equivalence classes of vectors under non-zero scalar multiplication. Elements are sets of the form {kv: k != 0, k scalar, v != O, v a vector} where O is the origin. v is a representative member of this equivalence class. The projective plane of a vector space is the collection of its 1-dimensional subspaces. The properties of the vector space induce a topology and notions of smoothness on the projective plane. A projective plane is in no meaningful sense a plane and would therefore be (but isn't) better described as a "projective space".
- proper adjective — an adjective formed from a proper noun, as American from America.
- provost sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer of a prison or other confinement facility whose chief duty is the supervision of prisoners and of the military police unit.
- pyruvic aldehyde — a yellow, liquid compound, C 3 H 4 O 2 , containing both an aldehyde and a ketone group, usually obtained in a polymeric form: used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- reap the harvest — If you reap the harvest, you benefit or suffer from the results of your past actions or of someone else's past actions.
- redemption value — the price at which the issuing company may choose to repurchase a security before its maturity date
- relative pronoun — one of the pronouns who, whom, which, what, their compounds with -ever or -soever, or that used as the subordinating word to introduce a subordinate clause, especially such a pronoun referring to an antecedent.
- relatively prime — (mathematics) Having no common divisors (greater than 1). Two numbers are said to be relativey prime if there is no number greater than unity that divides both of them evenly. For example, 10 and 33 are relativly prime. 15 and 33 are not relatively prime, since 3 is a divisor of both.
- representatively — a person or thing that represents another or others.
- republican river — a river flowing E from E Colorado through Nebraska and Kansas into the Kansas River. 422 miles (680 km) long.
- reserve capacity — the capacity of a battery, measured in minutes, to keep a vehicle operating if the charging system fails.
- reversal process — a process for converting the negative on a film or plate to a positive by bleaching and redeveloping.