17-letter words containing p, e, l, a, n
- paternalistically — the system, principle, or practice of managing or governing individuals, businesses, nations, etc., in the manner of a father dealing benevolently and often intrusively with his children: The employees objected to the paternalism of the old president.
- pauline privilege — (in canon law) the privilege given to converts to dissolve a marriage with an unbaptized spouse if either obstructs the religious practices of the other.
- pay-cable channel — a television channel that has to be paid for
- paymaster general — a government minister responsible for making payments by government departments
- peloponnesian war — a war between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 b.c., that resulted in the transfer of hegemony in Greece from Athens to Sparta.
- penalty shoot-out — In football, a penalty shoot-out is a way of deciding the result of a game that has ended in a draw. Players from each team try to score a goal in turn until one player fails to score and their team loses the game.
- penitential psalm — any of the Psalms (the 6th, 32nd, 38th, 51st, 102nd, 130th, and 143rd) that give expression to feelings of penitence and that are used in various Christian liturgical services.
- pentachlorophenol — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble powder, C 6 Cl 5 OH, used chiefly in fungicides, disinfectants, and wood preservatives.
- pentylenetetrazol — a white, crystalline, bitter-tasting, water-soluble powder, C 6 H 1 0 N 4 , used as a respiratory and circulatory stimulant, especially in the treatment of barbiturate poisoning, and to induce a convulsive state in the treatment of certain mental diseases.
- peripheral vision — all that is visible to the eye outside the central area of focus; side vision.
- perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
- personal computer — a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use, as by a person in an office or at home or school, for such applications as word processing, data management, financial analysis, or computer games. Abbreviation: PC.
- personal distance — personal space.
- personal equation — the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.
- personal property — an estate or property consisting of movable articles both corporeal, as furniture or jewelry, or incorporeal, as stocks or bonds (distinguished from real property).
- personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
- personnel carrier — a vehicle used for transporting troops
- personnel manager — head of Human Resources department
- phenethyl alcohol — a colorless, viscous, slightly water-soluble liquid, C 8 H 1 0 O, having a faint roselike odor: used chiefly in perfumery.
- phenyl isocyanate — a liquid reagent, C 7 H 5 NO, having an unpleasant, irritating odor: used chiefly for identifying alcohols and amines.
- phenylacetic acid — a white crystalline, aromatic acid, C 8 H 8 O 2 , used in the manufacture of penicillin and in perfumes.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- phonetic alphabet — an alphabet containing a separate character for each distinguishable speech sound.
- phonological rule — an operation in generative phonology that substitutes one sound or class of sounds for another in a phonological derivation.
- phumiphon aduldet — (Phumiphon Aduldet; Bhumibol Adulyadej) born 1927, king of Thailand since 1946.
- physical medicine — the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury by means of physical agents, as manipulation, massage, exercise, heat, or water.
- physical pendulum — any apparatus consisting of a body of possibly irregular shape allowed to rotate freely about a horizontal axis on which it is pivoted (distinguished from simple pendulum).
- pile on the agony — to exaggerate one's distress for sympathy or greater effect
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- pillion passenger — a person who travels in a seat or place behind the rider of a motorcycle, scooter, horse, etc
- pipeline capacity — The pipeline capacity is the volume of oil or gas which is needed to maintain a full pipeline.
- platinic chloride — chloroplatinic acid.
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- pluvius insurance — insurance against rain
- point reyes lilac — a prostrate shrub, Ceanothus gloriosus, of southern California, having leathery, roundish leaves and purplish or deep-blue flowers.
- polar continental — a type of cold, dry air mass originating at high latitudes over land areas
- polar coordinates — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
- polarizing filter — a camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.
- police department — A police department is an official organization which is responsible for making sure that people obey the law.
- polioencephalitis — a disease characterized by inflammation of the gray matter of the brain.
- political economy — a social science dealing with political policies and economic processes, their interrelations, and their influence on social institutions.
- political science — a social science dealing with political institutions and with the principles and conduct of government.
- polyacrylonitrile — a polymer of acrylonitrile used in the manufacture of Orlon and other synthetic textiles.
- polyadenylic acid — a homopolymer of adenylic acid enzymatically added to messenger RNA in eukaryotic cells to inhibit the hydrolytic breakdown of messenger RNA.
- polymorphonuclear — (of a leukocyte) having a lobulate nucleus.
- polyvinyl acetate — a colorless, odorless, nontoxic, transparent, thermoplastic, water-insoluble resin used as an adhesive in certain paints and as an intermediate in the synthesis of polyvinyl acetal and polyvinyl alcohol.
- portfolio manager — a person employed by others to make investments for them
- post-and-rail tea — (in the 19th century) a coarse tea in which floating particles resembled a post-and-rail fence
- post-depositional — removal from an office or position.