12-letter words containing p, e, n
- keep in with — to hold or retain in one's possession; hold as one's own: If you like it, keep it. Keep the change.
- keep tabs on — a small flap, strap, loop, or similar appendage, as on a garment, used for pulling, hanging, or decoration.
- keeping room — hall (def 11).
- ken thompson — (person) The principal inventor of the Unix operating system and author of the B language, the predecessor of C. In the early days Ken used to hand-cut Unix distribution tapes, often with a note that read "Love, ken". Old-timers still use his first name (sometimes uncapitalised, because it's a login name and mail address) in third-person reference; it is widely understood (on Usenet in particular) that without a last name "Ken" refers only to Ken Thompson. Similarly, Dennis without last name means Dennis Ritchie (and he is often known as dmr). Ken was first hired to work on the Multics project, which was a huge production with many people working on it. Multics was supposed to support hundreds of on-line logins but could barely handle three. In 1969, when Bell Labs withdrew from the project, Ken got fed up with Multics and went off to write his own operating system. People said "well, if zillions of people wrote Multics, then an OS written by one guy must be Unix!". There was some joking about eunichs as well. Ken's wife Bonnie and son Corey (then 18 months old) went to visit family in San Diego. Ken spent one week each on the kernel, file system, etc., and finished UNIX in one month along with developing SPACEWAR (or was it "Space Travel"?). See also back door, brute force, demigod, wumpus.
- keraunograph — an instrument for recording thunderstorms by detecting the radio waves generated
- ketone group — the characteristic group occurring in ketones that consists of the carbonyl group attached to two alkyl groups.
- keystone kop — Usually, Keystone Kops. (in early silent movies) a team of comic policemen noted for their slapstick routines.
- kidney punch — an illegal punch in the lower back.
- kindred-ship — a person's relatives collectively; kinfolk; kin.
- kinesipathic — of or relating to kinesipathy
- kinesophobia — Fear of movement.
- kinetography — a camera for taking pictures for a kinetoscope.
- kinetoplasts — Plural form of kinetoplast.
- king penguin — a large penguin, Aptenodytes patagonicus, found on islands bordering the Antarctic Circle.
- king's peace — (in early medieval England) the protection secured by the king for particular people or places
- kitchen soap — heavy-duty soap intended for use in the kitchen
- kleptomaniac — a person who has kleptomania.
- klipspringer — a small, agile African antelope, Oreotragus oreotragus, of mountainous regions from the Cape of Good Hope to Ethiopia.
- knee-capping — Knee-capping is the act of shooting someone in the knee and is carried out by some terrorist organizations as a form of punishment.
- knee-slapper — a joke evoking boisterous hilarity.
- kupfernickel — (archaic) cupronickel.
- lactoprotein — any protein existing in milk.
- lake nipigon — a lake in central Canada, in NW Ontario, draining into Lake Superior via the Nipigon River. Area: 4843 sq km (1870 sq miles)
- lamellaphone — Alt form lamellophone.
- lamellophone — (musical instruments) Any of several musical instruments in which the sound is produced by plucking a series of thin lamellaa attached to a sounding board.
- lamp chimney — a glass tube that surrounds the wick in an oil lamp
- land plaster — finely ground gypsum, used chiefly as a fertilizer.
- landed price — the price when delivered
- landing page — a web page that a user is directed to after clicking on an external hyperlink, often a page designed especially for marketing purposes: Their landing page asks for your email address and automatically enters you into a $1,000 cash drawing.
- lapidescence — a lapidescent quality or condition
- lapped joint — a joint made by placing one member over another and fastening them together
- lappeenranta — a city in SE Finland.
- laryngophone — A type of contact microphone that absorbs vibrations directly from the wearer's throat.
- laryngoscope — a rigid or flexible endoscope passed through the mouth and equipped with a source of light and magnification, for examining and performing local diagnostic and surgical procedures on the larynx.
- laser weapon — weapons which make use of lasers or lasers used as weapons
- leapfrogging — Present participle of leapfrog.
- led zeppelin — British rock group (1968–80); comprised Jimmy Page (born 1944), Robert Plant (born 1948), John Paul Jones (born 1946), and John Bonham (1948–80): recordings include Led Zeppelin I (1969), Led Zeppelin IV (1971), and Physical Graffiti (1975)
- lenni lenape — Delaware (defs 5, 6).
- leontopodium — any plant of the Eurasian alpine genus Leontopodium, esp L. alpinum
- lepenski vir — the site of an advanced Mesolithic fishing culture on the banks of the Danube in Serbia, characterized by trapezoidal buildings and large stone sculptures of human heads and torsos.
- leper colony — a place where people who have leprosy live in quarantine
- lepidomelane — (mineralogy) A black iron-potash mica, usually found in granitic rocks in small six-sided tables, or as an aggregation of minute opaque scales.
- lepidopteran — lepidopterous.
- lepidopteron — any lepidopterous insect.
- lepidosirens — Plural form of lepidosiren.
- lesser panda — panda (def 2).
- life partner — one member of a monogamous relationship.
- ligniperdous — (of insects) wood-destroying
- line printer — a printer that produces an entire line of output at a time.
- line probing — A feature of some V.34 modems that will allow them to identify the capacity and quality of the phone line and adjust themselves to allow, for each individual connection, for maximum throughput using the highest possible data transmission rate.