14-letter words containing s, p, a, i
- phase velocity — the velocity with which a simple harmonic wave is propagated, equal to the wavelength divided by the period of vibration.
- phase-wrapping — (MIT) wrap around.
- phenosafranine — safranine (def 2).
- philanthropist — a person who practices philanthropy.
- philippine sea — part of the NW Pacific Ocean, east and north of the Philippines
- philosophaster — a person who has only a superficial knowledge of philosophy or who feigns a knowledge he or she does not possess.
- photocatalysis — the acceleration or retardation of the reaction rate in chemical reactions by light.
- photorealistic — 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.
- phraseological — manner or style of verbal expression; characteristic language: legal phraseology.
- phyllosilicate — any silicate mineral having the tetrahedral silicate groups linked in sheets, each group containing four oxygen atoms, three of which are shared with other groups so that the ratio of silicon atoms to oxygen atoms is two to five.
- physical layer — (networking) Layer one, the lowest layer in the OSI seven layer model. The physical layer encompasses details such as electrical and mechanical connections to the network, transmission of binary data as changing voltage levels on wires or similar concepts on other connectors, and data rates. The physical layer is used by the data link layer. Example physical layer protocols are CSMA/CD, token ring and bus.
- pick one's way — to choose or select from among a group: to pick a contestant from the audience.
- pick's disease — a condition characterized by progressive deterioration of the brain with atrophy of the cerebral cortex, esp. the frontal lobes, and evidenced in loss of memory and emotional instability
- pickwickianism — a Pickwickian statement, expression, word, or the like.
- picture spread — an act or instance of spreading: With a spread of her arms the actress acknowledged the applause.
- piecrust table — a table having a top, usually round, with a raised and intricately carved edge.
- piedras negras — a city in N Mexico, on the Rio Grande.
- pierian spring — a fountain in Pieria, sacred to the Muses and supposedly conferring inspiration or learning on anyone who drank from it.
- pilaster strip — a pilaster mass of relatively slight projection.
- pinafore dress — a sleeveless dress worn over a blouse or sweater
- pink elephants — a facetious name applied to hallucinations caused by drunkenness
- pinking shears — shears that have notched blades, for cutting and simultaneously pinking fabric or for finishing garments with a notched, nonfraying edge.
- pipeline stall — pipeline break
- pitch invasion — If there is a pitch invasion during or after a football, rugby, or cricket match, fans run on to the pitch.
- pitch-and-toss — a game in which players toss coins at a mark, the person whose coin hits closest to the mark tossing all the coins in the air and winning all those that come down heads up.
- placido's disk — a device marked with concentric black rings, used to detect corneal irregularities.
- plain speaking — expressing oneself directly
- planning stage — the stage of a project when it is still being planned
- planta genista — a representation of a sprig of broom: used as a badge of the Plantagenets.
- plasmapheresis — a type of apheresis in which blood cells are returned to the bloodstream of the donor and the plasma is used, as for tranfusion.
- plastic bullet — A plastic bullet is a large bullet made of plastic, which is intended to make people stop rioting, rather than to kill people.
- plastic memory — the tendency of certain plastics after being deformed to resume their original form when heated
- plastic piping — Plastic piping is strong, durable, and lightweight pipes, often made from high-density polyethylene.
- plastic police — a collective term for several classes of public officer (including community support officers) authorized to perform certain tasks and duties in support of the police force, but having lesser powers than the police
- plasticization — Plasticization is the process of changing the structure of a polymer to make it easier to bend.
- platonic solid — one of the five regular polyhedrons: tetrahedron, octahedron, hexahedron, icosahedron, or dodecahedron.
- pleasurability — the characteristic of being pleasurable
- pleurapophysis — one of the lateral processes of a vertebra forming the ribs
- pneumobacillus — a bacterium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, causing a type of pneumonia and associated with certain other diseases, especially of the respiratory tract.
- pneumodynamics — Physics. pneumatics.
- poikiloblastic — (of metamorphic rocks) having small grains of one mineral embedded in metacrysts of another mineral.
- point estimate — the process of determining a single estimated value (point estimate) of a parameter of a given population.
- point pleasant — a borough in E New Jersey.
- polar distance — codeclination.
- polemoniaceous — belonging to the Polemoniaceae, the phlox family of plants.
- police station — police headquarters for a particular district, from which police officers are dispatched and to which persons under arrest are brought.
- policy adviser — a person who provides ideas or plans that are used by an organization or government as a basis for making decisions
- polysaccharide — a carbohydrate, as starch, inulin, or cellulose, containing more than three monosaccharide units per molecule, the units being attached to each other in the manner of acetals, and therefore capable of hydrolysis by acids or enzymes to monosaccharides.
- ponderosa pine — Also called western yellow pine. a large pine, Pinus ponderosa, of western North America, having yellowish-brown bark: the state tree of Montana.
- pontifications — the office or term of office of a pontiff.