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16-letter words containing p, o, t, s

  • 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.
  • platoon sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer in a platoon, equivalent to sergeant first class.
  • play off against — If you play people off against each other, you make them compete or argue, so that you gain some advantage.
  • play-action pass — a pass play designed to deceive the defense by appearing to be a running play, in which the quarterback fakes a hand-off to a back before throwing a forward pass.
  • pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
  • pocket secretary — a long, narrow walletlike case, usually of leather and containing pockets for credit and business cards, paper money, etc., and sometimes a notepad and pencil.
  • pocono mountains — ridge of the Appalachians, in E Pa.: resort area: c. 2,000 ft (610 m) high
  • point estimation — the process of determining a single estimated value (point estimate) of a parameter of a given population.
  • point of sailing — the bearing of a sailing vessel, considered with relation to the direction of the wind.
  • poitou-charentes — a region of W central France, on the Bay of Biscay: mainly low-lying
  • polar opposition — the relation between a pair of antonyms that denote relatively higher and lower degrees of a quality with respect to an explicit or implicit norm rather than absolute values, as the relation between tall and short or light and dark, but not between true and false.
  • police constable — police officer
  • police inspector — rank of police officer in the UK
  • policy statement — a declaration of the plans and intentions of an organization or government
  • political asylum — asylum provided by one nation to refugees, especially political refugees, from another nation.
  • political system — a coordinated set of principles, laws, ideas, and procedures relating to a particular form of government, or the form of government itself: Democracy is a political system in which citizens govern themselves.
  • polycondensation — formation of a polymer by chemical condensation with the elimination of a small molecule, such as water.
  • poor boy sweater — a snug-fitting, pullover sweater with ribbing on both the body and sleeves, worn by girls and women.
  • poor white trash — white trash.
  • pop the question — to make a short, quick, explosive sound: The cork popped.
  • pork scratchings — small pieces of crisply cooked pork crackling, eaten cold as an appetizer with drinks
  • port authorities — the body with overall responsibility for a port
  • portuguese india — a former Portuguese overseas territory on the W coast of India, consisting of the districts of Gôa, Daman, and Diu: annexed by India December 1961. Capital: Gôa.
  • portuguese timor — former (1914-75) Portuguese territory in the Malay Archipelago
  • posigrade rocket — an auxiliary rocket used to separate the sections of a multistage rocket, fired in the direction of flight.
  • positive vetting — the checking of a person's background, political affiliation, etc, to assess his suitability for a position that may involve national security
  • post-apocalyptic — of or like an apocalypse; affording a revelation or prophecy.
  • post-boost phase — the part of a multistage missile flight when the warheads are released.
  • post-elizabethan — of or relating to the reign of Elizabeth I, queen of England, or to her times: Elizabethan diplomacy; Elizabethan music.
  • post-pleistocene — noting or pertaining to the epoch forming the earlier half of the Quaternary Period, beginning about two million years ago and ending 10,000 years ago, characterized by widespread glacial ice and the advent of modern humans.
  • post-reformation — the act of reforming; state of being reformed.
  • post-renaissance — the activity, spirit, or time of the great revival of art, literature, and learning in Europe beginning in the 14th century and extending to the 17th century, marking the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
  • post-romanticism — romantic spirit or tendency.
  • postcode lottery — a situation in which the standard of medical care, education, etc, received by the public varies from area to area, depending on the funding policies of various health boards, local authorities, etc
  • postencephalitic — inflammation of the substance of the brain.
  • postfix notation — (language)   (Or "Reverse Polish Notation", RPN) One of the possible orderings of functions and operands: in postfix notation the functions are preceded by all their operands. For example, what may normally be written as "1+2" becomes "1 2 +". Postfix notation is well suited for stack based architectures but modern compilers reduced this advantage considerably. The best-known language with postfix syntax is FORTH. Some Hewlett-Packard calculators use it, e.g. HP-25, HP-29C, HP-41C, HP-23SII. Compare: infix notation, prefix notation.
  • postindependence — Also, independency. the state or quality of being independent.
  • postremogeniture — a system of inheritance under which the estate of a deceased person goes to his youngest son. Also called ultimogeniture. Compare primogeniture (def 2).
  • postscript point — (unit, text)   The variant of the point used by Postscript, equal to 0.3527777778 mm, or 1/72 inch.
  • potassium iodide — a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder, KI, having a bitter saline taste: used chiefly in the manufacture of photographic emulsions, as a laboratory reagent, in the preparation of Gram's solution for biological staining, and in medicine as an expectorant and to treat thyroid conditions.
  • poverty-stricken — suffering from poverty; extremely poor: poverty-stricken refugees.
  • practical reason — (in Kantian ethics) reason applied to the problem of action and choice, especially in ethical matters.
  • practice session — a period of training that takes place over a set period of time, for example an hour or several hours
  • pre-conversation — informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy.
  • pre-registration — the act of registering.
  • pre-solicitation — the act of soliciting.
  • pre-subscription — a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.
  • precast concrete — ready-formed cement mixture
  • precinct station — a police station for police responsible for a district of a city
  • predispositional — the fact or condition of being predisposed: a predisposition to think optimistically.
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