16-letter words containing p, i, c, o
- oversubscription — to subscribe for more of than is available, expected, or required: The charity drive was oversubscribed by several thousand dollars.
- oxonium compound — a salt formed by the reaction of an acid with an organic compound containing a basic oxygen atom.
- pacific sturgeon — a dark gray sturgeon, Acipenser transmontanus, inhabiting marine and fresh waters along the northwestern coast of North America, valued as a food and sport fish.
- packing fraction — Physics. a measure of the stability of an atomic nucleus, equal to 10 4 multiplied by the mass defect and divided by the mass number.
- pair of scissors — two-bladed cutting tool
- palaeolithic man — any of various primitive types of man, such as Neanderthal man and Java man, who lived in the Palaeolithic
- paleoclimatology — the branch of paleogeography dealing with the study of paleoclimates.
- palmitoleic acid — a colorless, unsaturated fatty acid, C 1 6 H 3 0 O 2 , occurring in oils and fats of plants and animals.
- panel discussion — a formal discussion before an audience for which the topic, speakers, etc., have been selected in advance.
- panoramic camera — a still camera having a movable lens that horizontally scans a view while exposing a long photographic plate or strip of film.
- panoramic screen — a very wide screen, as of a television, etc
- pantothenic acid — a hydroxy acid, C 9 H 1 7 O 5 N, found in plant and animal tissues, rice, bran, etc., that is part of the B complex of vitamins and is essential for cell growth.
- paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
- parochial school — a primary or secondary private school supervised by a religious organization, especially a Roman Catholic day school affiliated with a parish or a holy order.
- parochialization — a parochial character, spirit, or tendency; excessive narrowness of interests or view; provincialism.
- partial fraction — one of the fractions into which a given fraction can be resolved, the sum of such simpler fractions being equal to the given fraction: Partial fractions of 5/(x2−x) are 5/(x−1) and −5/x.
- partial function — A function which is not defined for all arguments of its input type. E.g. f(x) = 1/x if x /= 0. The opposite of a total function. In denotational semantics, a partial function f : D -> C may be represented as a total function ft : D' -> lift(C) where D' is a superset of D and ft x = f x if x in D ft x = bottom otherwise where lift(C) = C U bottom. Bottom (LaTeX \perp) denotes "undefined".
- pascal's limacon — limaçon.
- pavillon chinois — crescent (def 6).
- peano arithmetic — (mathematics) Giuseppe Peano's system for representing natural numbers inductively using only two symbols, "0" (zero) and "S" (successor). This system could be expressed as a recursive data type with the following Haskell definition: data Peano = Zero | Succ Peano The number three, usually written "SSS0", would be Succ (Succ (Succ Zero)). Addition of Peano numbers can be expressed as a simple syntactic transformation: plus Zero n = n plus (Succ m) n = Succ (plus m n) (1995-03-28)
- pectoralis major — the larger of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
- pectoralis minor — the smaller of the two large chest muscles that assist in movements of the shoulder and upper arm
- pelagic division — the biogeographic realm or zone that comprises the open seas and oceans, including water of all depths.
- pelican crossing — place to cross road
- pentatonic scale — a scale having five tones to an octave, as one having intervals that correspond to the five black keys of a piano octave.
- percentage point — difference: one per cent
- 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.
- periodic tenancy — the letting of a dwelling for a repeated short term, as by the week, month, or quarter, with no end date
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- phagocytic index — the average number of bacteria ingested per phagocyte in an incubated mixture of bacteria, phagocytes, and blood serum: used in determining the opsonic index.
- phantasmagorical — having a fantastic or deceptive appearance, as something in a dream or created by the imagination.
- pharmacodynamics — the branch of pharmacology dealing with the course of action, effect, and breakdown of drugs within the body.
- pharmacogenetics — the branch of pharmacology that examines the relation of genetic factors to variations in response to drugs.
- pharmacogenomics — the study of human genetic variability in relation to drug action and its application to medical treatment
- pharmacokinetics — the branch of pharmacology that studies the fate of pharmacological substances in the body, as their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination.
- phase microscope — a microscope that utilizes the phase differences of light rays transmitted by different portions of an object to create an image in which the details of the object are distinct despite their near-uniformity of refractive index.
- phenomenological — the study of phenomena.
- philanthropistic — a person who practices philanthropy.
- phonocardiograph — an instrument for graphically recording the sound of the heartbeat.
- phosphorous acid — a colorless, crystalline, water-soluble acid of phosphorus, H 3 PO 3 , from which phosphites are derived.
- photoautotrophic — any organism that derives its energy for food synthesis from light and is capable of using carbon dioxide as its principal source of carbon.
- photocoagulation — a surgical technique using an intense beam of light from a laser or a xenon-arc bulb to seal blood vessels or coagulate tissue, used primarily in ophthalmology to repair detached retinas or to treat certain kinds of retinopathy.
- photocomposition — any method of composition using photography, as composition by means of a photocomposer.
- photoelectricity — electricity induced by electromagnetic radiation, as in certain processes, as the photoelectric and photovoltaic effects, photoconductivity, and photoionization.
- photoluminescent — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
- photoperiodicity — the response, as affecting growth or reproduction, of an organism to the length of exposure to light in a 24-hour period.
- photozincography — a type of photoengraving using a sensitized zinc plate.
- phylogenetically — the development or evolution of a particular group of organisms.