12-letter words containing s, c, a, r
- percussional — of or relating to percussion
- percutaneous — administered, removed, or absorbed by way of the skin, as an injection, needle biopsy, or transdermal drug.
- pericarditis — inflammation of the pericardium.
- periostracum — the external, chitinlike covering of the shell of certain mollusks that protects the limy portion from acids.
- periphrastic — circumlocutory; roundabout.
- peristomatic — surrounding a leaf's stoma or stomata
- perivisceral — surrounding or situated about the viscera.
- perseverance — steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
- perspectival — a technique of depicting volumes and spatial relationships on a flat surface. Compare aerial perspective, linear perspective.
- perspicacity — keenness of mental perception and understanding; discernment; penetration.
- pertinacious — holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute.
- pervicacious — extremely willful; obstinate; stubborn.
- phylacteries — Judaism. either of two small, black, leather cubes containing a piece of parchment inscribed with verses 4–9 of Deut. 6, 13–21 of Deut. 11, and 1–16 of Ex. 13: one is attached with straps to the left arm and the other to the forehead during weekday morning prayers by Orthodox and Conservative Jewish men.
- physogastric — pertaining to the swollen, membranous abdomen of certain insects, especially termite and ant queens.
- picnic races — horse races for amateur riders held in rural areas
- picornavirus — any of a group of small, RNA-containing viruses of the family Picornaviridae, infectious to humans and other animals, and including the poliovirus and the rhinoviruses that cause the common cold.
- pictorialism — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- pictorialist — Fine Arts. the creation or use of pictures or visual images, especially of recognizable or realistic representations.
- picture sash — a large window sash, as for a picture window.
- piercing saw — a small, fine-gauge saw blade with uniformly spaced, angled teeth, inserted in a jeweler's saw frame and used to cut precious metal and such soft materials as ivory and shell.
- pirate coast — an independent federation in E Arabia, formed in 1971, now comprising seven emirates on the S coast (formerly, Pirate Coast or Trucial Coast) of the Persian Gulf, formerly under British protection: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972), and Fujairah. About 32,300 sq. mi. (83,657 sq. km). Capital: Abu Dhabi. Abbreviation: U.A.E.
- plagiaristic — an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author: It is said that he plagiarized Thoreau's plagiarism of a line written by Montaigne. Synonyms: appropriation, infringement, piracy, counterfeiting; theft, borrowing, cribbing, passing off.
- plaid screen — [XEROX PARC] A "special effect" that occurs when certain kinds of memory smashes overwrite the control blocks or image memory of a bit-mapped display. The term "salt and pepper" may refer to a different pattern of similar origin. Though the term as coined at PARC refers to the result of an error, some of the X demos induce plaid-screen effects deliberately as a display hack.
- plasma torch — an electrical device for converting a gas into a plasma, used for melting metal
- plaster cast — any piece of sculpture reproduced in plaster of Paris.
- plastic arts — arts producing works or effects that are three-dimensional, as sculpture or ceramics
- plastic wrap — a very thin, transparent sheet of plastic, usually packaged in rolls and often having the ability to cling to other substances, used especially to wrap and store food and for microwave cooking.
- polariscopic — relating to a polariscope
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polysaprobic — flourishing in a body of water having a heavy load of decomposed organic matter and almost no free oxygen
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcelaneous — a strong, vitreous, translucent ceramic material, biscuit-fired at a low temperature, the glaze then fired at a very high temperature.
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- porismatical — porismatic
- port jackson — an inlet of the Pacific in SE Australia: the harbor of Sydney.
- post-nuclear — pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
- postbrachial — belonging to the arm, foreleg, wing, pectoral fin, or other forelimb of a vertebrate.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard
- postcardware — Shareware that borders on freeware, in that the author requests only that satisfied users send a postcard of their home town or something. (This practice, silly as it might seem, serves to remind users that they are otherwise getting something for nothing, and may also be psychologically related to real estate "sales" in which $1 changes hands just to keep the transaction from being a gift.)
- postcoronary — of, relating to, or occurring after a heart attack
- postdoctoral — of or relating to study or professional work undertaken after the receipt of a doctorate: postdoctoral courses.
- postfracture — taking place after a fracture
- postorgasmic — of or relating to the period after an orgasm
- postromantic — of or relating to the period after Romanticism
- postsurgical — pertaining to or involving surgery or surgeons.
- potato crisp — potato chip.
- practicalism — devotion to practical matters.
- practicalist — 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.