16-letter words containing p, e, r, i, l, o
- pelican crossing — place to cross road
- percussion drill — a drill that is operated by percussion
- peregrine falcon — a globally distributed falcon, Falco peregrinus, much used in falconry because of its swift flight: several subspecies are endangered.
- periodic decimal — repeating decimal.
- perpetual motion — the motion of a theoretical mechanism that, without any losses due to friction or other forms of dissipation of energy, would continue to operate indefinitely at the same rate without any external energy being applied to it.
- personal details — details about a person such as their name and address
- personal hygiene — bodily cleanliness
- personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
- personal pension — a private pension scheme in which an individual contributes part of his or her salary to a financial institution, which invests it so that a lump sum is available on retirement; this is then used to purchase an annuity
- personal stylist — a person employed by a rich or famous client to offer advice on clothes, hairstyles, and other aspects of personal appearance
- personal trainer — a person who works one-on-one with a client to plan or implement an exercise or fitness regimen.
- personal tuition — private tuition
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- personality test — an instrument, as a questionnaire or series of standardized tasks, used to measure personality characteristics or to discover personality disorders.
- personality type — a cluster of personality traits commonly occurring together
- petrol rationing — a scheme rationing the amount of petrol that an individual is allowed to purchase
- philoprogenitive — producing offspring, especially abundantly; prolific.
- philosopher king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- philosopher-king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- phlebothrombosis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein.
- photoelectricity — electricity induced by electromagnetic radiation, as in certain processes, as the photoelectric and photovoltaic effects, photoconductivity, and photoionization.
- photopolarimeter — a polarimeter that uses a photocell.
- picture moulding — the edge around a framed picture
- piezoelectricity — electricity, or electric polarity, produced by the piezoelectric effect.
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- plaster of paris — calcined gypsum in white, powdery form, used as a base for gypsum plasters, as an additive of lime plasters, and as a material for making fine and ornamental casts: characterized by its ability to set rapidly when mixed with water.
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- polar coordinate — 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 angle — the law that light will receive maximum polarization from a reflecting surface when it is incident to the surface at an angle (angle of polarization or polarizing angle) having a tangent equal to the index of refraction of the surface.
- police inspector — rank of police officer in the UK
- polyphonic prose — prose characterized by the use of poetic devices, as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, etc., and especially by an emphasis on rhythm not strictly metered.
- porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
- portable airtime — (communications, wireless) A wireless, digital communications system enabling user-to-user voice communication, "quicknotes", and alphanumeric messaging.
- portfolio worker — a person in portfolio employment
- portrait gallery — a gallery where pictures are displayed
- potential energy — the energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
- pourriture noble — noble rot.
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- practical reason — (in Kantian ethics) reason applied to the problem of action and choice, especially in ethical matters.
- pre-solicitation — the act of soliciting.
- precontemplation — the act of contemplating; thoughtful observation.
- predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
- prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
- prevost d'exiles — Antoine François [ahn-twan frahn-swa] /ɑ̃ˈtwan frɑ̃ˈswa/ (Show IPA), ("Abbé Prévost") 1697–1763, French novelist.
- pride oneself on — to be proud of
- primary election — primary (def 15a).
- primary electron — in thermionics, any of the electrons falling on a body, distinguished from those emitted by it
- prisoner of bill — (humour) (PoB) A derisory term, in use generally among Unix users, for anyone who uses Microsoft products either because they don't know there is anything better (i.e. Unix) or because they would be incapable of working anything more complex (i.e. Unix). The interesting and widespread presumption among users of the term is that (at least at the time of writing, 1998) using anything other than Unix or a Microsoft OS (whether VMS, Macintosh, Amiga) is so eccentric a choice as to be at least somewhat praiseworthy.
- processing plant — a factory where raw materials are treated or prepared by a special method, esp one where food is treated in order to preserve it
- proenvironmental — the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.