12-letter words containing s, o, a, p, r
- perez galdos — Benito [buh-nee-toh;; Spanish be-nee-taw] /bəˈni toʊ;; Spanish bɛˈni tɔ/ (Show IPA), 1843–1920, Spanish journalist, dramatist, and novelist.
- perforations — the holes punched that allow individual stamps, coupons, etc to be easily separated
- periostracum — the external, chitinlike covering of the shell of certain mollusks that protects the limy portion from acids.
- peristomatic — surrounding a leaf's stoma or stomata
- perseverator — a person who perseverates
- persian knot — a hand-tied knot, used in rug weaving, in which the ends of yarn looped around a warp thread appear at each of the interstices between adjacent threads and produce a compact and relatively even pile effect.
- personalised — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- personalized — customized
- personalness — of, relating to, or coming as from a particular person; individual; private: a personal opinion.
- perspiration — a salty, watery fluid secreted by the sweat glands of the skin, especially when very warm as a result of strenuous exertion; sweat.
- perspiratory — of, relating to, or stimulating perspiration.
- pertinacious — holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute.
- pervicacious — extremely willful; obstinate; stubborn.
- pet passport — a document that officially records information related to a specific animal, as part of a scheme that allows animals to travel between member countries without undergoing quarantine
- petaliferous — bearing or having petals.
- petrobrusian — a member of a 12th-century sect in S France that rejected the Mass, infant baptism, prayers for the dead, sacerdotalism, the veneration of the cross, and the building of churches.
- petrodollars — Petrodollars are a unit of money used to calculate how much a country has earned by exporting petroleum or natural gas.
- petrozavodsk — a city in NW Russia, capital of the Karelian Autonomous Republic, on Lake Onega: developed around ironworks established by Peter the Great in 1703; university (1940). Pop: 265 000 (2005 est)
- phosphaturia — the presence of an excessive quantity of phosphates in the urine.
- photo spread — a picture spread. See under spread (def 33).
- 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.
- phrasemonger — phrasemaker (def 2).
- phraseograph — a phrase for which there is a phraseogram.
- physiography — the science of physical geography.
- physogastric — pertaining to the swollen, membranous abdomen of certain insects, especially termite and ant queens.
- 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.
- 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.
- plasma torch — an electrical device for converting a gas into a plasma, used for melting metal
- plasterboard — a material used for insulating or covering walls, or as a lath, consisting of paper-covered sheets of gypsum and felt.
- poetastering — the profession of being a poetaster
- pogson ratio — the brightness ratio of two celestial objects that differ by one magnitude. On the Pogson scale a difference of 5 magnitudes is defined as a difference of 100 in the intensities of two stars; therefore a difference of 1 magnitude is equal to the fifth root of 100, i.e. 2.512
- point spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- point-spread — a betting device, established by oddsmakers and used to attract bettors for uneven competitions, indicating the estimated number of points by which a stronger team can be expected to defeat a weaker team, the point spread being added to the weaker team's actual points in the game and this new figure then compared to the stronger team's points to determine winning bets.
- polar lights — the aurora borealis in the Northern Hemisphere or the aurora australis in the Southern Hemisphere.
- polariscopic — relating to a polariscope
- policymakers — a person responsible for making policy, especially in government.
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- polyomavirus — any of a genus (Polyomavirus) of papovaviruses that naturally infect wild and laboratory mice, and that cause tumors when injected into newborn mice
- polysaprobic — flourishing in a body of water having a heavy load of decomposed organic matter and almost no free oxygen
- pons varolii — pons (def 1).
- ponta grossa — a city in S Brazil.
- popular song — a song that is written to have an immediate and wide appeal and is usually popular for only a short time, but that sometimes is of a sufficiently high quality to become part of the permanent repertoire of popular music and jazz. Compare standard (def 12).
- 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