12-letter words containing s, a, m, p
- photorealism — a style of painting flourishing in the 1970s, especially in the U.S., England, and France, and depicting commonplace scenes or ordinary people, with a meticulously detailed realism, flat images, and barely discernible brushwork that suggests and often is based on or incorporates an actual photograph.
- phragmoplast — the cytoplasmic structure that forms at the equator of the spindle after the chromosomes have divided during the anaphase of plant mitosis, and that initiates cell division.
- phrase-maker — a person who is skilled in coining well-turned phrases; phraseologist.
- phrasemaking — the making up or coining of memorable phrases or slogans
- phrasemonger — phrasemaker (def 2).
- pictorialism — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- planetesimal — one of the small celestial bodies that, according to one theory (planetesimal hypothesis) were fused together to form the planets of the solar system.
- plasma torch — an electrical device for converting a gas into a plasma, used for melting metal
- plasmasphere — a region of cool plasma surrounding the earth, extending 8000–25,000 miles (13,000–40,000 km) into space, and bounded by the plasmapause.
- plasmosomata — a kind of nucleoli
- plastic bomb — a bomb made of plastic explosive.
- plastic foam — expanded plastic.
- pleiochasium — a flowering system in which several buds come out at the same time
- plumbaginous — containing graphite.
- plumulaceous — having the texture of down.
- pneumatocyst — the cavity of a pneumatophore.
- poison sumac — a shrub or small tree, Rhus vernix (or Toxicodendron vernix), of swampy areas of the eastern U.S., having pinnate leaves and causing severe dermatitis when touched by persons sensitive to it.
- pole compass — (formerly) a ship's compass elevated on a wooden pole to isolate it as much as possible from local magnetism.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- pollyannaism — an excessively or blindly optimistic person.
- polygamistic — a person who practices or favors polygamy.
- polyomavirus — any of a genus (Polyomavirus) of papovaviruses that naturally infect wild and laboratory mice, and that cause tumors when injected into newborn mice
- pomona glass — an American art glass having one of its surfaces stained a pale amber color and the other surface etched.
- porismatical — porismatic
- post-primary — first or highest in rank or importance; chief; principal: his primary goals in life.
- postal meter — a postal franking machine
- postimperial — of, relating to, or designating the period after an empire
- postliminary — of or relating to postliminy
- postmedieval — occurring or existing after the Middle Ages, of or related to the period after the Middle Ages
- postmeridian — of or relating to the afternoon.
- postorgasmic — of or relating to the period after an orgasm
- postromantic — of or relating to the period after Romanticism
- postvagotomy — of or occurring in the period after a vagotomy
- potamologist — a specialist in potamology
- power-stream — to stream and watch (multiple videos, episodes of a TV show, etc.) in one sitting or over a short period of time.
- practicalism — devotion to practical matters.
- pragmaticism — the pragmatist philosophy of C. S. Peirce, chiefly a theory of meaning: so called by him to distinguish it from the pragmatism of William James.
- pragmaticist — a follower of the doctrine of pragmatism
- praseodymium — a rare-earth, metallic, trivalent element, named from its green salts. Symbol: Pr; atomic weight: 140.91; atomic number: 59; specific gravity: 6.77 at 20°C.
- pre-assembly — an assembling or coming together of a number of persons, usually for a particular purpose: The principal will speak to all the students at Friday's assembly.
- pre-estimate — to form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size, weight, etc., of; calculate approximately: to estimate the cost of a college education.
- preadmission — (in a reciprocating engine) admission of steam or the like to the head of the cylinder near the end of the stroke, as to cushion the force of the stroke or to allow full pressure at the beginning of the return stroke.
- preassembled — assembled prior to purchase
- preeclampsia — Pathology. a form of toxemia of pregnancy, characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, and albuminuria, sometimes progressing to eclampsia.
- premenstrual — of or relating to menstruation or to the menses.
- present arms — a position of salute in the manual of arms in which the rifle is held in both hands vertically in front of the body, with the muzzle upward and the trigger side forward.
- primal scene — a child's first real or imagined observation of parental sexual intercourse.
- primulaceous — belonging to the plant family Primulaceae.
- problematics — problems or difficulties in a particular situation or subject
- progymnasium — (in Europe) a school that prepares pupils for secondary education (the gymnasium)