12-letter words containing r, o, t, a, l
- platform bed — a bed, originating in Scandinavia in the 1930s, consisting of a simple shallow box for holding a mattress situated on a slightly recessed pedestal.
- platform car — a railroad freight car having no enclosing sides or top; a flatcar.
- play through — to pass another foursome or group with their permission, while playing a round of golf
- polar lights — the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere or the aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere.
- polar vortex — a whirling mass of very cold air that sits over the North or South Pole: A displaced polar vortex is causing Arctic temperatures across the United States.
- polarization — a sharp division, as of a population or group, into opposing factions.
- pole vaulter — A pole vaulter is an athlete who performs the pole vault.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- poll watcher — a representative of a political party or of an organization running a candidate who is assigned to the polls on an election day to watch for violations of the laws that regulate voting, campaigning, etc.
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- polyurethane — a thermoplastic polymer containing the group NHCOO: used for padding and insulation in furniture, clothing, and packaging, and in the manufacture of resins for adhesives, elastomers, and fillers.
- popular vote — the vote for a U.S. presidential candidate made by the qualified voters, as opposed to that made by the electoral college. Compare electoral vote.
- porcelainite — Mineralogy. mullite.
- porcellanite — hard and dense rock resembling unglazed porcelain
- porismatical — porismatic
- port alberni — a port in SW British Columbia, in SW Canada, on the E central part of Vancouver Island, on an inlet of the Pacific Ocean.
- port angeles — a city in NW Washington, on the Juan de Fuca Strait.
- port of call — a port visited briefly by a ship, usually to take on or discharge passengers and cargo or to undergo repairs.
- portal frame — a frame, usually of steel, consisting of two uprights and a cross beam at the top: the simplest structural unit in a framed building or a doorway
- porto alegre — a state in S Brazil. 107,923 sq. mi. (279,520 sq. km). Capital: Pôrto Alegre.
- porto amelia — former name of Pemba (def 2).
- post-nuclear — pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
- postal meter — a postal franking machine
- postal order — money order.
- postbrachial — belonging to the arm, foreleg, wing, pectoral fin, or other forelimb of a vertebrate.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard
- postdoctoral — of or relating to study or professional work undertaken after the receipt of a doctorate: postdoctoral courses.
- postimperial — of, relating to, or designating the period after an empire
- postliminary — of or relating to postliminy
- postliterate — of or relating to a (hypothetical) time or stage in society when literacy is no longer necessary or valued
- postprandial — after a meal, especially after dinner: postprandial oratory; a postprandial brandy.
- postsurgical — pertaining to or involving surgery or surgeons.
- pot marigold — calendula (def 1).
- pot-walloper — (in some boroughs before the Reform Bill of 1832) a man who qualified as a householder, and therefore a voter, by virtue of ownership of his own fireplace at which to boil pots.
- potato flour — a type of flour made from potatoes
- poultry farm — place where fowl are bred
- pratincolous — living in a meadow.
- pre-rational — agreeable to reason; reasonable; sensible: a rational plan for economic development.
- preallotment — an allotment given in advance.
- prefectorial — of, relating to, or characteristic of a prefect: prefectorial powers.
- prefloration — the internal arrangement of a flower-bud's petals and sepals before it opens
- prefoliation — the arrangement of leaves within a vegetative bud
- preformulate — to describe an active pharmaceutical ingredient chemically
- preovulatory — to produce and discharge eggs from an ovary or ovarian follicle.
- primogenital — relating to primogeniture
- pro-catholic — of or relating to a Catholic church, especially the Roman Catholic Church.
- pro-equality — the state or quality of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability: promoting equality of opportunity in the workplace.
- pro-military — of, for, or pertaining to the army or armed forces, often as distinguished from the navy: from civilian to military life.
- problematics — problems or difficulties in a particular situation or subject
- problematize — to demonstrate to be unsettled or uncertain, or more complex than originally assumed or regarded; show to be problematic