13-letter words containing s, e, m, i, p
- pick up steam — If a belief, a plan, or a project picks up steam, it starts to develop and become more important.
- piers plowman — (The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman) an alliterative poem written in three versions (1360–99), ascribed to William Langland.
- pilaster mass — an engaged pier, usually plain, used as a buttress.
- plasma engine — an engine that generates thrust by reaction to the emission of a jet of plasma
- plastic money — credit cards, used instead of cash
- playing games — If you say that someone is playing games or playing silly games, you mean that they are not treating a situation seriously and you are annoyed with them.
- plimsoll line — load line (def 1).
- pneumatolysis — the process by which rocks are altered or minerals and ores are formed by the action of vapors given off by magma.
- pneumogastric — of or relating to the lungs and stomach.
- points system — a system used to assess applicants' eligibility for local authority housing, based on (points awarded for) such factors as the length of time the applicant has lived in the area, how many children are in the family, etc
- poliomyelitis — an acute viral disease, usually affecting children and young adults, caused by any of three polioviruses, characterized by inflammation of the motor neurons of the brain stem and spinal cord, and resulting in a motor paralysis, followed by muscular atrophy and often permanent deformities.
- polydaemonism — the belief in many evil spirits.
- pommes frites — French fries
- post feminist — relating to or occurring in the period after the feminist movement of the 1970s.
- post meridiem — p.m.
- post-feminism — a way of thinking that develops, or reacts to or against previous feminist ideology
- post-feminist — relating to or occurring in the period after the feminist movement of the 1970s.
- post-marriage — (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage: Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times. See Word Story at the current entry.
- postembryonic — occurring after the embryonic phase.
- postmodernism — (sometimes initial capital letter) any of a number of trends or movements in the arts and literature developing in the 1970s in reaction to or rejection of the dogma, principles, or practices of established modernism, especially a movement in architecture and the decorative arts running counter to the practice and influence of the International Style and encouraging the use of elements from historical vernacular styles and often playful illusion, decoration, and complexity.
- postmodernist — relating to late 20th-century art movement
- praetorianism — the control of a society by force or fraud, especially when exercised through titular officials and by a powerful minority.
- pre christmas — the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts.
- pre-christmas — the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus: celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts.
- pre-eclampsia — Pathology. a form of toxemia of pregnancy, characterized by hypertension, fluid retention, and albuminuria, sometimes progressing to eclampsia.
- pre-submitted — to give over or yield to the power or authority of another (often used reflexively).
- prebasic molt — the molt by which most birds replace all of their feathers, usually occurring annually after the breeding season.
- precombustion — of or relating to the period immediately before combustion
- preliminaries — preceding and leading up to the main part, matter, or business; introductory; preparatory: preliminary examinations.
- premium bonds — (in Britain) bonds issued by the Treasury since 1956 for purchase by the public. No interest is paid but there is a monthly draw for cash prizes of various sums
- premonishment — a forewarning
- presubmission — an act or instance of submitting.
- presumptively — affording ground for presumption: presumptive evidence.
- pretermission — to let pass without notice; disregard.
- primal scream — a scream uttered by a person undergoing primal therapy.
- primary tense — in Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit, a tense referring to present or future time
- primitiveness — being the first or earliest of the kind or in existence, especially in an early age of the world: primitive forms of life.
- primrose path — a way of life devoted to irresponsible hedonism, often of a sensual nature: The evangelist exhorted us to avoid the primrose path and stick to the straight and narrow.
- prism diopter — a unit of prismatic deviation, in which the number one represents a prism that deflects a beam of light a distance of one centimeter on a plane placed normal to the initial direction of the beam and one meter away from the prism.
- prison inmate — a person who is confined in a prison
- privateersman — an officer or sailor of a privateer.
- progressivism — the principles and practices of progressives.
- promised land — Heaven.
- protectionism — Economics. the theory, practice, or system of fostering or developing domestic industries by protecting them from foreign competition through duties or quotas imposed on importations.
- protestantism — the religion of Protestants.
- proverbialism — a proverbial expression
- prudentialism — a regard for prudential, rather than moral, considerations
- pseudisodomic — (of ashlar) composed of stones having the same length, laid in courses of different heights.
- psychometrics — the measurement of mental traits, abilities, and processes.
- psychomimetic — psychotomimetic.