14-letter words containing p, l, e, n
- backflap hinge — Building Trades. flap (def 20a).
- balance spring — hairspring.
- banana problem — (programming, humour) From the story of the little girl who said "I know how to spell "banana", but I don't know when to stop". Not knowing where or when to bring a production to a close (compare fencepost error). One may say "there is a banana problem" of an algorithm with poorly defined or incorrect termination conditions, or in discussing the evolution of a design that may be succumbing to featuritis (see also creeping elegance, creeping featuritis).
- baptismal name — Christian name (def 1).
- be in the loop — If someone is in the loop, they are part of a group of people who make decisions about important things, or they know about these decisions. If they are out of the loop, they do not make or know about important decisions.
- beveridge plan — the plan for comprehensive social insurance, proposed by Sir William Beveridge in Great Britain in 1941.
- bible-thumping — an evangelist or other person who quotes the Bible frequently, especially as a means of exhortation or rebuke.
- bite one's lip — If you bite your lip or your tongue, you stop yourself from saying something that you want to say, because it would be the wrong thing to say in the circumstances.
- black panthers — (in the US) a militant Black political party founded in 1965 to end the political dominance of White people
- blotting paper — Blotting paper is thick soft paper that you use for soaking up and drying ink on a piece of paper.
- blow one's top — to lose one's temper
- bomb explosion — an explosion caused by the detonation of a bomb
- bone porcelain — bone china.
- breast implant — an object such as a sachet filled with gel introduced surgically into a woman's breast to enlarge it
- bubble company — a company whose shares are highly valued and then plummet
- bubonic plague — Bubonic plague is a serious infectious disease spread by rats. It killed many people during the Middle Ages.
- building paper — any of various types of heavy-duty paper that usually consist of bitumen reinforced with fibre sandwiched between two sheets of kraft paper: used in damp-proofing or as insulation between the soil and a road surface
- business reply — a form of mail, as a postcard, letter, or envelope, usually sent as an enclosure, and which can be mailed back by respondents without their having to pay postage.
- businesspeople — a person regularly employed in business, especially a white-collar worker, executive, or owner.
- butylene group — any of four bivalent isomeric groups having the formula –C 4 H 8 –.
- cafeteria plan — a fringe-benefit plan under which employees may choose from among various benefits those that best fit their needs, up to a specified dollar value.
- camp counselor — activities supervisor
- camp pendleton — a U.S. Marine Corps base in SW California on the Gulf of Santa Catalina.
- campaign medal — a medal awarded for performance of specified service, usually in time of war or national emergency.
- campanulaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Campanulaceae, a family of temperate and subtropical plants, including the campanulas, having bell-shaped nodding flowers
- can't help but — to give or provide what is necessary to accomplish a task or satisfy a need; contribute strength or means to; render assistance to; cooperate effectively with; aid; assist: He planned to help me with my work. Let me help you with those packages.
- can't help sth — If you can't help the way you feel or behave, you cannot control it or stop it happening. You can also say that you can't help yourself.
- cape canaveral — a cape on the E coast of Florida: site of the US Air Force Missile Test Centre, from which the majority of US space missions have been launched
- cape cod canal — a canal in SE Massachusetts, connecting Buzzards Bay and Cape Cod Bay. 8 miles (13 km) long.
- cape peninsula — (in South Africa) the peninsula and the part of the mainland on which Cape Town and most of its suburbs are located
- carpet bowling — a form of bowls played indoors on a strip of carpet, at the centre of which lies an obstacle round which the bowl has to pass
- carrying place — portage (def 3).
- cellular phone — A cellular phone or cellular telephone is a type of telephone which does not need wires to connect it to a telephone system.
- central europe — an area between Eastern and Western Europe, generally accepted as comprising Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland
- central powers — (before World War I) Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary after they were linked by the Triple Alliance in 1882
- centripetalism — the movement of things towards a centre
- cephalic index — the ratio of the greatest width of the human head to its greatest length, multiplied by 100
- cephalosporins — Plural form of cephalosporin.
- chain pickerel — See under pickerel (def 1).
- chancellorship — The chancellorship is the position of chancellor. Someone's chancellorship is the period of time when they are chancellor.
- chemical plant — a factory that produces or processes chemicals
- chenille plant — an East Indian plant, Acalypha hispida, of the spurge family, having long, drooping, reddish-purple spikes of flowers.
- chinese puzzle — an intricate puzzle, esp one consisting of boxes within boxes
- chlorpromazine — a drug derived from phenothiazine, used as a tranquillizer and sedative, esp in psychotic disorders. Formula: C17H19ClN2S
- chronicle play — a drama based on a historical subject
- cinema complex — a building containing several cinemas
- cisalpine gaul — (in the ancient world) that part of Gaul between the Alps and the Apennines
- cislunar space — the region beyond the earth's atmosphere occurring between the earth and moon
- clapperclawing — Present participle of clapperclaw.
- clean up after — If you clean up after someone, you clean or tidy a place that they have made dirty or untidy.