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16-letter words containing p, u, i, l

  • optical computer — an experimental computer that uses photons rather than electrical impulses to process data a thousand times faster than with conventional integrated circuits.
  • optical illusion — something that deceives by producing a false or misleading impression of reality.
  • orographic cloud — any cloud whose existence and form are largely controlled by the disturbed flow of air over and around mountains, as the banner cloud and crest cloud.
  • osculating plane — the plane containing the circle of curvature of a point on a given curve.
  • outboard profile — an exterior side elevation of a vessel, showing all deck structures, rigging, fittings, etc.
  • over-speculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
  • painted trillium — a North American trillium, Trillium undulatum, having white flowers streaked with pink or purple.
  • palmer peninsula — former name of Antarctic Peninsula.
  • palomar mountain — mountain in SW Calif., near San Diego: site of an astronomical observatory: 6,140 ft (1,871 m)
  • panel discussion — a formal discussion before an audience for which the topic, speakers, etc., have been selected in advance.
  • papillary muscle — one of the small bundles of muscles attached to the ventricle walls and to the chordae tendineae that tighten these tendons during ventricular contraction.
  • paratuberculosis — Johne's disease.
  • partial function — A function which is not defined for all arguments of its input type. E.g. f(x) = 1/x if x /= 0. The opposite of a total function. In denotational semantics, a partial function f : D -> C may be represented as a total function ft : D' -> lift(C) where D' is a superset of D and ft x = f x if x in D ft x = bottom otherwise where lift(C) = C U bottom. Bottom (LaTeX \perp) denotes "undefined".
  • partial pressure — the pressure that a gas in a mixture of gases would exert if it occupied the same volume as the mixture at the same temperature.
  • paulinus of nola — Saint. ?353–431 ad, Roman consul and Christian poet; bishop of Nola (409–431). Feast day: June 22
  • peninsular state — Florida (used as a nickname).
  • pentothal sodium — thiopental sodium
  • people smuggling — People smuggling or people trafficking is the practice of bringing immigrants into a country illegally.
  • percussion drill — a drill that is operated by percussion
  • 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
  • persulfuric acid — Also called Caro's acid, permonosulfuric acid, peroxymonosulfuric acid, peroxysulfuric acid. a white, crystalline solid, H 2 SO 5 , used as an oxidizing agent for certain organic compounds.
  • phase modulation — radio transmission in which the carrier wave is modulated by changing its phase to transmit the amplitude and pitch of the signal.
  • photocoagulation — a surgical technique using an intense beam of light from a laser or a xenon-arc bulb to seal blood vessels or coagulate tissue, used primarily in ophthalmology to repair detached retinas or to treat certain kinds of retinopathy.
  • photoluminescent — luminescence induced by the absorption of infrared radiation, visible light, or ultraviolet radiation.
  • picture moulding — the edge around a framed picture
  • 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.
  • pilot production — sth produced on a trial basis
  • 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.
  • pique oneself on — to be proud of
  • 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.
  • platinum-iridium — (standard)   A standard, against which all others of the same category are measured. Usage: silly. The notion is that one of whatever it is has actually been cast in platinum-iridium alloy and placed in the vault beside the Standard Kilogram at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris, as the bar defining the standard metre once was. "This garbage collection algorithm has been tested against the platinum-iridium cons cell in Paris." Compare golden.
  • pleasure-seeking — always looking for pleasure
  • 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.
  • pneumonic plague — a form of plague characterized by lung involvement.
  • poiseuille's law — the law that the velocity of a liquid flowing through a capillary is directly proportional to the pressure of the liquid and the fourth power of the radius of the capillary and is inversely proportional to the viscosity of the liquid and the length of the capillary.
  • political asylum — asylum provided by one nation to refugees, especially political refugees, from another nation.
  • pourriture noble — noble rot.
  • powerfully built — (of a person, esp a man) big and physically strong, with large muscles
  • prerevolutionary — of, pertaining to, characterized by, or of the nature of a revolution, or a sudden, complete, or marked change: a revolutionary junta.
  • pressure flaking — a method of manufacturing a flint tool by pressing flakes from a stone core with a pointed implement, usually of wood tipped with antler or copper.
  • pressure welding — the welding together of two objects by holding them together under pressure.
  • principal clause — the main clause.
  • print journalism — journalism as practiced in newspapers and magazines.
  • private language — a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another
  • pro bono publico — for the public good or welfare.
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