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16-letter words containing p, u, e, t

  • period furniture — furniture that was made during a particular period in time
  • permaculturalist — a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.
  • perpendicularity — vertical; straight up and down; upright.
  • 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.
  • personal tuition — private tuition
  • personality cult — deliberately cultivated adulation of a person, esp a political leader
  • peruvian rhatany — See under rhatany (def 1).
  • peter stuyvesant — Peter, 1592–1672, Dutch colonial administrator in the Americas: last governor of New Netherlands 1646–64.
  • phase modulation — radio transmission in which the carrier wave is modulated by changing its phase to transmit the amplitude and pitch of the signal.
  • phosphor fatigue — screen saver
  • photoluminescent — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
  • phrase structure — the hierarchical arrangement of the constituent words and phrases of a sentence.
  • pick up stompies — to come late to a conversation and so misunderstand what is being discussed
  • picture moulding — the edge around a framed picture
  • picture postcard — postcard (def 1).
  • pietermaritzburg — a province in the E part of the Republic of South Africa. 35,284 sq. mi. (91,886 sq. km). Capital: Pietermaritzburg.
  • pigeon guillemot — a black or brown-speckled seabird of the genus Cepphus, of northern seas, having a sharply pointed black bill, red legs, and white wing patches, as C. grylle (black guillemot) of the North Atlantic and the similar C. columba (pigeon guillemot) of the North Pacific.
  • pineal apparatus — a median outgrowth of the roof of the diencephalon in vertebrates that in some develops into the pineal eye and in others into the pineal gland.
  • pit bull terrier — American Staffordshire terrier.
  • place in the sun — (often initial capital letter) the star that is the central body of the solar system, around which the planets revolve and from which they receive light and heat: its mean distance from the earth is about 93 million miles (150 million km), its diameter about 864,000 miles (1.4 million km), and its mass about 330,000 times that of the earth; its period of surface rotation is about 26 days at its equator but longer at higher latitudes.
  • planetary nebula — an expanding shell of thin ionized gas that is ejected from and surrounds a hot, dying star of about the same mass as the sun; the gas absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the central star and reemits it as visible light by the process of fluorescence.
  • pleasure steamer — a boat powered by steam, used for recreational purposes
  • plutarch's lives — (Parallel Lives) a collection (a.d. 105–15) by Plutarch of short biographies of the leading political figures of ancient Greece and Rome.
  • pneumatic trough — a trough filled with liquid, especially water, for collecting gases in bell jars or the like by displacement.
  • poitou-charentes — a region of W central France, on the Bay of Biscay: mainly low-lying
  • pop the question — to make a short, quick, explosive sound: The cork popped.
  • port authorities — the body with overall responsibility for a port
  • portmanteau word — a case or bag to carry clothing in while traveling, especially a leather trunk or suitcase that opens into two halves.
  • 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
  • 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).
  • 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.
  • potato tuberworm — the larva of the potato moth.
  • pourriture noble — noble rot.
  • powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
  • praetorian guard — the bodyguard of a military commander, especially the imperial guard stationed in Rome.
  • pre-subscription — a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.
  • prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
  • pressure-treated — (of wood) treated with a chemical or chemicals applied under pressure to reduce such problems as insect infestation, decay, and rotting.
  • pressurized suit — an airtight suit that can be inflated to maintain approximately normal atmospheric pressure on a person in space or at high altitudes.
  • presumptive heir — heir presumptive.
  • presumptuousness — full of, characterized by, or showing presumption or readiness to presume in conduct or thought, as by saying or doing something without right or permission.
  • preunderstanding — to perceive the meaning of; grasp the idea of; comprehend: to understand Spanish; I didn't understand your question.
  • primitive church — the early Christian church, especially in reference to its earliest form and organization.
  • private judgment — personal opinion formed independently of the expressed position of an institution, as in matters of religion or politics.
  • private language — a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another
  • process industry — business of treating raw materials
  • project guardian — (project, security)   A project which grew out of the ARPA support for Multics and the sale of Multics systems to the US Air Force. The USAF wanted a system that could be used to handle more than one security classification of data at a time. They contracted with Honeywell and MITRE Corporation to figure out how to do this. Project Guardian led to the creation of the Access Isolation Mechanism, the forerunner of the B2 labeling and star property support in Multics. The DoD Orange Book was influenced by the experience in building secure systems gained in Project Guardian.
  • prometheus bound — a tragedy (c457 b.c.) by Aeschylus.
  • prosecution case — the case brought against someone by a legal authority
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