16-letter words containing p, r, o, e, l
- periodic decimal — repeating decimal.
- permafrost table — the variable surface constituting the upper limit of permafrost. Compare frostline (def 2).
- perpetual motion — the motion of a theoretical mechanism that, without any losses due to friction or other forms of dissipation of energy, would continue to operate indefinitely at the same rate without any external energy being applied to it.
- person of colour — a person who is not White
- personal details — details about a person such as their name and address
- personal effects — belongings
- personal hygiene — bodily cleanliness
- personal liberty — the liberty of an individual to do his or her will freely except for those restraints imposed by law to safeguard the physical, moral, political, and economic welfare of others.
- personal pension — a private pension scheme in which an individual contributes part of his or her salary to a financial institution, which invests it so that a lump sum is available on retirement; this is then used to purchase an annuity
- personal pronoun — any one of the pronouns used to refer to the speaker, or to one or more to or about whom or which he or she is speaking, as, in English, I, we, you, he, she, it, they.
- personal shopper — a person, often a store employee, whose job is to assist shoppers in selecting clothing or other merchandise.
- personal stylist — a person employed by a rich or famous client to offer advice on clothes, hairstyles, and other aspects of personal appearance
- personal trainer — a person who works one-on-one with a client to plan or implement an exercise or fitness regimen.
- personal tuition — private tuition
- personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
- personality test — an instrument, as a questionnaire or series of standardized tasks, used to measure personality characteristics or to discover personality disorders.
- personality type — a cluster of personality traits commonly occurring together
- personnel agency — an agency for placing employable persons in jobs; employment agency.
- peter pan collar — a close-fitting flat or rolled collar with rounded ends that meet in front of a high, round neckline.
- petrol rationing — a scheme rationing the amount of petrol that an individual is allowed to purchase
- philoprogenitive — producing offspring, especially abundantly; prolific.
- philosopher king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- philosopher-king — the Platonic ideal of a ruler, philosophically trained and enlightened.
- phlebothrombosis — the presence of a thrombus in a vein.
- photoelectricity — electricity induced by electromagnetic radiation, as in certain processes, as the photoelectric and photovoltaic effects, photoconductivity, and photoionization.
- photoelectrotype — an electrotype made by photographic means.
- photopolarimeter — a polarimeter that uses a photocell.
- picture moulding — the edge around a framed picture
- piezoelectricity — electricity, or electric polarity, produced by the piezoelectric effect.
- place of worship — religious house: church, temple
- 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.
- platform-balance — a scale with a platform for holding the items to be weighed.
- platoon sergeant — the senior noncommissioned officer in a platoon, equivalent to sergeant first class.
- play one's cards — to carry out one's plans; take action (esp in the phrase play one's cards right)
- pocket billiards — pool2 (def 1).
- polar coordinate — Usually, polar coordinates. one of two coordinates used to locate a point in a plane by the length of its radius vector and the angle this vector makes with the polar axis (polar angle)
- polarizing angle — the law that light will receive maximum polarization from a reflecting surface when it is incident to the surface at an angle (angle of polarization or polarizing angle) having a tangent equal to the index of refraction of the surface.
- police inspector — rank of police officer in the UK
- polyhedral angle — a configuration consisting of the lateral faces of a polyhedron around one of its vertices. The portion of a pyramid including one of its points is such a configuration.
- polyphonic prose — prose characterized by the use of poetic devices, as alliteration, assonance, rhyme, etc., and especially by an emphasis on rhythm not strictly metered.
- porcelain enamel — a glass coating, made to adhere to a metal or another enamel by fusion.
- portable airtime — (communications, wireless) A wireless, digital communications system enabling user-to-user voice communication, "quicknotes", and alphanumeric messaging.
- portfolio worker — a person in portfolio employment
- portrait gallery — a gallery where pictures are displayed
- 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
- potential energy — the energy of a body or a system with respect to the position of the body or the arrangement of the particles of the system.
- pourriture noble — noble rot.
- powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
- powerpc platform — (architecture, standard) (PPCP, PReP - PowerPC Reference Platform, formerly CHRP - Common Hardware Reference Platform) An open system standard, designed by IBM, intended to ensure compatibility among PowerPC-based systems built by different companies. The PReP standard specifies the PCI bus, but will also support ISA, MicroChannel and PCMCIA. PReP-compliant systems will be able to run the Macintosh OS, OS/2, WorkplaceOS, AIX, Solaris, Taligent and Windows NT. IBM systems will (of course) be PReP-compliant. Apple's first PowerPC Macintoshes will not be compliant, but future ones may be.
- practical reason — (in Kantian ethics) reason applied to the problem of action and choice, especially in ethical matters.