17-letter words containing p, r, e
- peridot of ceylon — a honey-colored tourmaline, used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- period-revolution — a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social unrest in Germany.
- periodic function — a function of a real or complex variable that is periodic.
- periodic sentence — a sentence that, by leaving the completion of its main clause to the end, produces an effect of suspense, as in Unable to join the others at the dance because of my sprained ankle, I went to a movie.
- periodical cicada — seventeen-year locust.
- peripheral device — peripheral
- peripheral vision — all that is visible to the eye outside the central area of focus; side vision.
- permanent account — A permanent account is an account which carries its balance and is kept open from year to year.
- permanent address — a fixed address
- permutation group — a mathematical group whose elements are permutations and in which the product of two permutations is the same permutation as is obtained by performing them in succession.
- pernicious anemia — Pernicious anemia is a very severe blood disease.
- perpetual spinach — a variety of spinach that keeps producing edible leaves
- persistent memory — non-volatile storage
- persona non grata — a person who is not welcome: He has become persona non grata in our club since his angry outburst.
- personal computer — a compact computer that uses a microprocessor and is designed for individual use, as by a person in an office or at home or school, for such applications as word processing, data management, financial analysis, or computer games. Abbreviation: PC.
- personal distance — personal space.
- personal equation — the tendency to personal bias that accounts for variation in interpretation or approach and for which allowance must be made.
- personal property — an estate or property consisting of movable articles both corporeal, as furniture or jewelry, or incorporeal, as stocks or bonds (distinguished from real property).
- personality clash — friction between two people who have different personalities or points of view
- personnel carrier — a vehicle used for transporting troops
- personnel manager — head of Human Resources department
- personnel officer — a worker responsible for recruiting employees and dealing with matters relating to them
- perspicaciousness — having keen mental perception and understanding; discerning: to exhibit perspicacious judgment.
- perth and kinross — a council area of N central Scotland, corresponding mainly to the historical counties of Perthshire and Kinross-shire: part of Tayside Region from 1975 until 1996: chiefly mountainous, with agriculture, tourism, and forestry. Administrative centre: Perth. Pop: 135 990 (2003 est). Area: 5321 sq km (2019 sq miles)
- peterloo massacre — an incident at St Peter's Fields, Manchester, in 1819 in which a radical meeting was broken up by a cavalry charge, resulting in about 500 injuries and 11 deaths
- petit bourgeoisie — The petit bourgeoisie are people in the lower middle class.
- petite bourgeoise — a woman who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.
- petitio principii — a fallacy in reasoning resulting from the assumption of that which in the beginning was set forth to be proved; begging the question.
- petrarchan sonnet — a sonnet form popularized by Petrarch, consisting of an octave with the rhyme scheme abbaabba and of a sestet with one of several rhyme schemes, as cdecde or cdcdcd.
- petrol filler cap — a small cover that goes over the hole in a vehicle into which you put petrol
- petty bourgeoisie — the section of the middle class with the lowest social status, generally composed of shopkeepers, lower clerical staff, etc
- phantom pregnancy — the occurrence of signs of pregnancy, such as enlarged abdomen and absence of menstruation, when no embryo is present, due to hormonal imbalance
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- philosopher kings — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- phlebotomus fever — sandfly fever.
- phonological rule — an operation in generative phonology that substitutes one sound or class of sounds for another in a phonological derivation.
- photo-respiration — the oxidation of carbohydrates in many higher plants in which they get oxygen from light and then release carbon dioxide, somewhat different from photosynthesis.
- photoreactivation — a process that repairs DNA damaged by ultraviolet light using an enzyme that requires visible light.
- phototherapeutics — the branch of therapeutics that deals with the curative use of light rays.
- physical exercise — movements and activities done to keep your body healthy or make it stronger
- picture messaging — Picture messaging is the sending of photographs or pictures from one mobile phone to another.
- pied-billed grebe — an American grebe, Podilymbus podiceps, having a whitish bill with a black band around it.
- pietro da cortona — Pietro da [pye-traw dah] /ˈpyɛ trɔ dɑ/ (Show IPA), (Pietro Berrettini) 1596–1669, Italian painter and architect.
- pillar-and-breast — room-and-pillar.
- pillion passenger — a person who travels in a seat or place behind the rider of a motorcycle, scooter, horse, etc
- pinckney's treaty — an agreement in 1795 between Spain and the U.S. by which Spain recognized the 31st parallel as the southern boundary of the U.S. and permitted free navigation of the Mississippi to American ships.
- pincushion flower — scabious2 (def 1).
- pioneering spirit — a willingness to endure hardship in order to explore new places or try out new things
- pituitary extract — a preparation of the pituitary gland, used in medicine for the therapeutic effects of its hormones
- plateau's problem — the problem in the calculus of variations of finding the surface with the least area bounded by a given closed curve in space.