15-letter words containing p, e, s, i
- palais de danse — a dance hall
- paleogeophysics — (used with a plural verb) inferred geophysical conditions or processes of designated periods of the geologic past.
- pan-americanism — the idea or advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the countries of North, Central, and South America.
- panzer division — an armored division of the German army, especially in World War II, consisting chiefly of tanks and organized for making rapid attacks.
- paphian goddess — Aphrodite, worshiped in Cyprus as the goddess of sexual love.
- paracel islands — a group of uninhabited islets and reefs in the N South China Sea, the subject of territorial claims by China and Vietnam
- paradise flower — a prickly vine, Solanum wendlandii, of the nightshade family, native to Costa Rica, having branched clusters of showy lilac-blue flowers.
- paradise valley — a town in SW Arizona.
- paraffin series — methane series
- parallel cousin — a cousin who is the child either of one's mother's sister or of one's father's brother.
- parasiticalness — the condition or characteristic of being parasitic
- parasympathetic — pertaining to that part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves and ganglia that arise from the cranial and sacral regions and function in opposition to the sympathetic system, as in inhibiting heartbeat or contracting the pupil of the eye.
- parish magazine — a magazine containing news and articles of interest to the people of a particular parish church or the local area
- parish register — the register of the christenings, marriages, and burials in a parish.
- pars intermedia — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- parthenogenesis — development of an egg without fertilization.
- parti québécois — (in Canada) a political party in Quebec, formed in 1968 and originally advocating the separation of Quebec from the rest of the country
- partial eclipse — astronomy
- passenger train — railway train that carries people
- passifloraceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Passifloraceae, a tropical and subtropical family of climbing plants including the passionflowers: the flowers have five petals and threadlike parts forming a dense mass (corona) around the central disc
- passive smoking — the inhaling of cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoke of others, especially by a nonsmoker in an enclosed area.
- passport office — an office which issues passports
- past participle — a participle with past, perfect, or passive meaning, as fallen, sung, defeated; perfect participle: used in English and other languages in forming the present perfect, pluperfect, and passive and as an adjective.
- patria potestas — the power vested in the paterfamilias or head of the Roman family with respect to his wife, natural or adopted children, and agnatic descendants: title to family property is vested exclusively in the paterfamilias. Property acquired by a family member becomes family property, and no family member can enter into a transaction in his or her own right.
- pavement artist — sidewalk artist.
- peace offensive — an active program, policy, propaganda campaign, etc., by a national government for the purpose of terminating a war or period of hostility, lessening international tensions, or promoting peaceful cooperation with other nations.
- pearly nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- pedagoguishness — the quality of being pedagoguish
- pedestrian mall — A pedestrian mall is the same as a pedestrian precinct.
- pematangsiantar — a city on NE Sumatra, in Indonesia.
- penal servitude — imprisonment together with hard labor.
- penetrativeness — the quality or condition of being penetrative
- pepin the short — ("Pepin the Short") died a.d. 768, king of the Franks 751–768 (father of Charlemagne).
- percussion lock — a gunlock on a firearm that fires by striking a percussion cap.
- percussion tool — a power driven tool which operates by striking rapid blows: the power may be electricity or compressed air
- perfectionistic — a person who adheres to or believes in perfectionism.
- performing arts — dance, drama, music
- perfunctoriness — performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy.
- periodic system — a system of classification of the elements based on the periodic law.
- perissosyllabic — (of a line of verse) containing more syllables than expected for the metre being used
- peroxysulphuric — as in peroxysulphuric acid
- personal friend — a person who is a friend, rather than a colleague or acquaintance
- personal injury — injury to an individual
- personalization — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- personification — the attribution of human nature or character to animals, inanimate objects, or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.
- peruvian balsam — Peru balsam.
- pessimistically — pertaining to or characterized by pessimism or the tendency to expect only bad outcomes; gloomy; joyless; unhopeful: His pessimistic outlook kept him from applying for jobs for which he was perfectly qualified.
- peter of amiens — c1050–1115, French monk: preacher of the first Crusade 1095–99.
- petit bourgeois — a person who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.
- petit serjeanty — serjeanty in which the tenant renders services of an impersonal nature to the king, as providing him annually with an implement of war, as a lance or bow.