14-letter words containing p, e, c, a
- panic reaction — a widespread and excessive response of panic
- panic-stricken — overcome with, characterized by, or resulting from fear, panic, or the like: panic-stricken parents looking for their child; a panic-stricken phone call.
- panoramic view — wide vista or landscape
- paperback book — a book with covers made of flexible card, sold relatively cheaply
- papilionaceous — having an irregular corolla shaped somewhat like a butterfly, as the pea and other leguminous plants.
- par excellence — being an example of excellence; superior; preeminent (used postpositively): a chef par excellence.
- parachute jump — leaping from aircraft with a parachute
- parametrically — in terms of a parameter
- parasitic male — a male animal that is much smaller than the female and is totally dependent on the female for its nutrition, such as the male of some species of deep-sea angler fish
- parcel gilding — the gilding of only some areas or ornaments of a piece of furniture.
- parchment worm — any of several polychaete worms of the genus Chaetopterus that secrete and live in a U -shaped, parchmentlike tube.
- parenchymatous — Botany. the fundamental tissue of plants, composed of thin-walled cells able to divide.
- parent company — a corporation or other business enterprise that owns controlling interests in one or more subsidiary companies (distinguished from holding company).
- parent process — (operating system) The Unix process that created one or more other processes. Every process except process 0 is created when another process executes the fork system call. The process that invoked fork is the parent process, and the newly created process is the child process. Every process has one parent process, but can have many child processes. The kernel identifies each process by its process identifier (PID). Process 0 is a special process that is created when the system boots; after forking a child process (process 1), process 0 becomes the swapper process. Process 1, known as init, is the ancestor of every other process in the system and enjoys a special relationship with them.
- parish records — historical documents of a district
- park chung hee — 1917–79, South Korean politician: president 1963–79 (assassinated).
- parking ticket — written notice of a parking violation
- parole officer — an official who supervises a prisoner who is on parole
- parquet circle — parterre (def 1).
- part of speech — any of the classes into which words in some languages, as Latin and English, have traditionally been divided on the basis of their meaning, form, or syntactic function, as, in English, noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
- parti-coloured — having different colours in different parts; variegated
- participialize — to form (a word) into a participle; make participial.
- particle board — any of various composition boards formed from small particles of wood, as flakes or shavings, tightly compressed and bonded together with a resin.
- particularized — individualized
- particularness — the quality of being exceptional or individual
- parturifacient — inducing or accelerating labor, or childbirth; oxytocic.
- pascal's wager — the argument put forth by Blaise Pascal that it is in one's best interest to believe in the existence of God, as it is a rational assumption and does no harm, and the possibility of eternal punishment in hell outweighs any advantage of believing otherwise.
- paschal letter — (in the early Christian church) a letter, written by a patriarch, archbishop, or bishop to a cleric under his authority, announcing the date of the next Easter festival.
- paschen series — a series of lines in the infrared spectrum of hydrogen.
- passenger cell — the inside of a vehicle, in which people sit
- pasteur effect — the inhibiting of fermentation by oxygen.
- patch together — assemble roughly
- patheticalness — causing or evoking pity, sympathetic sadness, sorrow, etc.; pitiful; pitiable: a pathetic letter; a pathetic sight.
- payback period — the period in which money owed, debts, etc, have to be paid back
- peace activist — someone who advocates for peace or an end to conflicts
- peace campaign — a campaign for peace or an end to conflict
- peace dividend — money cut by a government from its defense budget as a result of the cessation of hostilities with other countries.
- peace movement — a movement seeking to end wars and reduce nuclear weapons
- peace offering — any offering made to procure peace.
- peacock's tail — a handsome brown seaweed, Padina pavonia (though coloured yellow-olive, red, and green) whose fan-shaped fronds have concentric bands of iridescent hairs
- peacock-flower — royal poinciana.
- pearl necklace — jewelry: string of pearls
- peck's bad boy — the mischievous boy in a series of newspaper stories and collected volumes by the American newspaperman and humorist George Wilbur Peck (1840–1916).
- pectinesterase — an enzyme present in plants, and some bacteria and fungi, which hydrolyses pectin
- pectoral cross — a cross worn on the breast by various prelates, as a designation of office.
- pedanticalness — ostentatious in one's learning.
- peel-and-stick — ready to be applied after peeling off the backing to expose an adhesive surface: peel-and-stick labels.
- pelican-flower — a woody vine, Aristolochia grandiflora, of the West Indies, having heart-shaped leaves and purple-spotted, purple-veined flowers from 18 to 24 inches (46 to 61 cm) wide with a long, taillike structure at the tip of the corolla.
- penalty clause — part of contract specifying a forfeit
- penalty corner — a free hit from the goal line taken by the attacking side