16-letter words containing p, e, n, r
- autoethnographic — Using ethnographic techniques to describe one's own life, or events in which one is a participant.
- aversion therapy — a method of suppressing an undesirable habit, such as excessive smoking, by causing the subject to associate an unpleasant effect, such as an electric shock or nausea, with the habit
- avian diphtheria — a virus disease of chickens and other birds characterized by warty excrescences on the comb and wattles, and often by diphtherialike changes in the mucous membranes of the head.
- axminster carpet — a type of patterned carpet with a cut pile
- azuero peninsula — a peninsula in SW Panama, bordered on the E by the Gulf of Panama.
- background paper — a report or other piece of writing that is intended to provide contextual and historical information that will help people understand a particular topic or situation
- bacterioplankton — (biology) The bacterial component of marine plankton.
- balance of power — The balance of power is the way in which power is distributed between rival groups or countries.
- ball-peen hammer — a hammer with one end of the head rounded and the other end flat
- banana republics — any of the small countries in the tropics, especially in the Western Hemisphere, whose economies are largely dependent on fruit exports, tourism, and foreign investors.
- band-pass filter — a filter that transmits only those currents having a frequency lying within specified limits
- bankruptcy order — a court order appointing a receiver to manage the property of a debtor or bankrupt
- bargaining power — the ability of a person, group, or organization to exert influence over another party in a negotiation in order to achieve a deal which is favourable to themselves
- bargaining scope — the range of topics within the scope of a particular set of negotiations leading to a collective agreement
- basque provinces — an autonomous region of N Spain, comprising the provinces of Álava, Guipúzcoa, and Vizcaya: inhabited mainly by Basques, who retained virtual autonomy from the 9th to the 19th century. Pop: 1 840 700 (2003 est). Area: about 7250 sq km (2800 sq miles)
- batch processing — manufacturing products or treating materials in batches, by passing the output of one process to subsequent processes
- bayonet practice — drill in the use of a bayonet
- bearing pedestal — an independent support for a bearing, usually incorporating a bearing housing
- behavior pattern — a recurrent way of acting by an individual or group toward a given object or in a given situation.
- benzoyl peroxide — a white, crystalline, water-insoluble, explosive solid, C 7 H 5 O 4 , used chiefly as a bleaching agent for flour, fats, oils, and waxes, and as a catalyst in polymerization reactions.
- bicyclic terpene — (originally) any of a class of monocyclic hydrocarbons of the formula C 10 H 16 , obtained from plants.
- binary operation — a mathematical operation in which two elements are combined to yield a single result: Addition and multiplication are binary operations on the set of real numbers.
- bird's-nest soup — a rich spicy Chinese soup made from the outer part of the nests of SE Asian swifts of the genus Collocalia
- birthday present — a gift given to someone on their birthday
- bitter principle — any of various bitter-tasting substances, such as aloin, usually extracted from plants
- bleaching powder — a white powder with the odour of chlorine, consisting of chlorinated calcium hydroxide with an approximate formula CaCl(OCl).4H2O. It is used in solution as a bleaching agent and disinfectant
- boolean-operator — any operation in which each of the operands and the result take one of two values.
- boston cream pie — a cake of two layers with icing and a creamy filling
- boston tea party — a raid in 1773 made by citizens of Boston (disguised as Indians) on three British ships in the harbour as a protest against taxes on tea and the monopoly given to the East India Company. The contents of several hundred chests of tea were dumped into the harbour
- boundary dispute — dispute between neighbours about the boundary between their properties
- branchiopneustic — breathing by means of gills, as certain aquatic insect larvae.
- brand acceptance — the extent to which consumers recognize and welcome a brand
- break-even point — When a company reaches break-even point, the money it makes from the sale of goods or services is just enough to cover the cost of supplying those goods or services, but not enough to make a profit.
- breeding plumage — the plumage assumed by a male bird during the courtship period, especially in those species that are more colorful at this period.
- bristlecone pine — a coniferous tree, Pinus aristata, of the western US, bearing cones with bristle-like prickles: one of the longest-lived trees, useful in radiocarbon dating
- brittany spaniel — a short-tailed French bird dog that typically has a smooth orange- or liver-and-white coat
- brompton mixture — a mixture of narcotics, tranquilizers, and alcohol, used to kill pain for terminally ill patients
- bronchopneumonia — inflammation of the lungs, originating in the bronchioles
- bypass operation — an operation involving redirection of blood flow, either to avoid a diseased blood vessel or in order to perform heart surgery
- byzantine empire — the continuation of the Roman Empire in the East, esp after the deposition of the last emperor in Rome (476 ad). It was finally extinguished by the fall of Constantinople, its capital, in 1453
- cameo appearance — a single and often brief dramatic scene played by a well-known actor or actress in a film or television play
- can't tell apart — If you can't tell two people or things apart, they look exactly the same to you.
- canine distemper — distemper1 (def 1a).
- captive breeding — Captive breeding is the breeding of wild animals in places such as zoos, especially animals which have become rare in the wild.
- carbonless paper — a sheet of paper impregnated with dye which transfers writing or typing onto the copying surface below without the necessity for carbon pigment
- cards and spades — a generous handicap
- caricature plant — a tropical Old World shrub, Graptophyllum pictum, of the acanthus family, characterized by purple or red tubular flowers and leaf markings resembling the profile of a human face.
- carnot principle — the principle that no heat engine can be more efficient than one operating on a Carnot cycle of reversible changes
- carpatho-ukraine — a region in W Ukraine: ceded by Czechoslovakia in 1945.
- carpenter gothic — (sometimes initial capital letters) a style of Victorian Gothic architecture adapted to the resources of contemporary woodworking tools and machinery.