12-letter words containing s, c, p, i
- picture disc — a phonograph record with a picture on the vinyl.
- picture sash — a large window sash, as for a picture window.
- picture show — motion picture.
- piece of ass — a separate or limited portion or quantity of something: a piece of land; a piece of chocolate.
- 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.
- piercingness — the quality or condition of being piercing
- pigeon-chest — chicken breast.
- pinchcommons — a person who is frugal with food
- 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.
- pisciculture — the breeding, rearing, and transplantation of fish by artificial means.
- pitch chisel — a broad-edged chisel for cutting plane surfaces on stones.
- 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.
- plainclothes — Plainclothes police officers wear ordinary clothes instead of a police uniform.
- plastic arts — arts producing works or effects that are three-dimensional, as sculpture or ceramics
- plastic bomb — a bomb made of plastic explosive.
- plastic flow — deformation of a material that remains rigid under stresses of less than a certain intensity but that behaves under severer stresses approximately as a Newtonian fluid.
- plastic foam — expanded plastic.
- 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.
- plastocyanin — a blue protein found in green plants and in some bacteria
- pleiochasium — a flowering system in which several buds come out at the same time
- plug casting — bait casting in which a plug is used as the lure.
- pneumocystis — any protozoan of the genus Pneumocystis, esp P. carinii, which is a cause of pneumonia in people whose immune defences have been lowered by drugs or a disease
- pocket-sized — If you describe something as pocket-sized, you approve of it because it is small enough to fit in your pocket.
- podoconiosis — elephantiasis of the lower legs
- poeticalness — the characteristic of being poetical
- point source — a source of radiation sufficiently distant compared to its length and width that it can be considered as a point.
- 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.
- polariscopic — relating to a polariscope
- police state — a nation in which the police, especially a secret police, summarily suppresses any social, economic, or political act that conflicts with governmental policy.
- policeperson — a member of a police force.
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- poliorcetics — the science of siegecraft
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polycentrism — the doctrine that a plurality of independent centers of leadership, power, or ideology may exist within a single political system, especially Communism.
- polygamistic — a person who practices or favors polygamy.
- polyhistoric — relating to a polyhistor
- polysaprobic — flourishing in a body of water having a heavy load of decomposed organic matter and almost no free oxygen
- polystichous — arranged in rows or series.
- polysyllabic — consisting of several, especially four or more, syllables, as a word.
- polysynaptic — having or involving more than one synapse.
- polytheistic — pertaining to, characterized by, or adhering to polytheism, the doctrine that there is more than one god or many gods: Science thrived in the polytheistic culture of ancient Greece.
- pontificates — the office or term of office of a pontiff.
- ponzi scheme — a swindle in which a quick return, made up of money from new investors, on an initial investment lures the victim into much bigger risks.
- porcelainous — made of or resembling porcelain
- porcellanise — to bake into porcelain
- porismatical — porismatic
- posing pouch — a thong that emphasizes the genitals
- positivistic — the state or quality of being positive; definiteness; assurance.
- post captain — (formerly) a naval officer holding a commission as a captain, as distinct from an officer with the courtesy title of captain