15-letter words containing s, p, l, i, n
- paralation lisp — Embeds the paralation model in Common LISP. Available from MIT Press, (800)356-0343.
- paralinguistics — the study of paralanguage.
- parallel cousin — a cousin who is the child either of one's mother's sister or of one's father's brother.
- parasiticalness — the condition or characteristic of being parasitic
- parkinson's law — the statement, expressed facetiously as if a law of physics, that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.
- pastoralization — to make pastoral or rural.
- pay-and-display — denoting a car-parking system in which a motorist buys a permit to park for a specified period from a coin-operated machine and displays the permit on or near the windscreen of his or her car so that it can be seen by a parking attendant
- pearly nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- pedestrian mall — A pedestrian mall is the same as a pedestrian precinct.
- penal servitude — imprisonment together with hard labor.
- percussion lock — a gunlock on a firearm that fires by striking a percussion cap.
- percussion tool — a power driven tool which operates by striking rapid blows: the power may be electricity or compressed air
- personal friend — a person who is a friend, rather than a colleague or acquaintance
- personal injury — injury to an individual
- personalization — to have marked with one's initials, name, or monogram: to personalize stationery.
- peruvian balsam — Peru balsam.
- phenomenalistic — the doctrine that phenomena are the only objects of knowledge or the only form of reality.
- phenomenologies — the study of phenomena.
- phenomenologist — the study of phenomena.
- phloem necrosis — a disease of the American elm caused by a mycoplasmalike organism, characterized by yellowing and necrosis of the foliage and yellowish-brown discoloration of the phloem.
- phoenix islands — a group of eight coral islands in the central Pacific: administratively part of Kiribati. Area: 28 sq km (11 sq miles). The islands and surrounding waters form the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, the world's largest marine protected area. Area: 410 500 sq km (158 500 sq miles)
- phosphorylation — to introduce the phosphoryl group into (an organic compound).
- photojournalism — journalism in which photography dominates written copy, as in certain magazines.
- physical change — a usually reversible change in the physical properties of a substance, as size or shape: Freezing a liquid is a physical change.
- physicalization — to express in physical terms; give form or shape to: The dancers physicalized the mood of the music.
- pick-and-shovel — marked by drudgery; laborious: the pick-and-shovel work necessary to get a political campaign underway.
- pickling onions — small onions suitable for pickling
- pictorial janus — K. Kahn, Xerox. Visual extension of Janus. Requires Strand88 and a PostScript interpreter.
- pilsner glass's — a pale, light lager beer.
- pinkster flower — a wild azalea, Rhododendron periclymenoides, of the U.S., having pink or purplish flowers.
- pitcairn island — a small British island in the S Pacific, SE of Tuamotu Archipelago: settled 1790 by mutineers of the Bounty. 2 sq. mi. (5 sq. km).
- pitch blackness — extreme darkness; lack of light
- pixels per inch — (unit, graphics) (ppi) The unit used to measure resolution of a bitmap display or video input device.
- plain of sharon — a plain in W Israel, between the Mediterranean and the hills of Samaria, extending from Haifa to Tel Aviv
- plainclothesman — a police officer, especially a detective, who wears ordinary civilian clothes while on duty.
- plane surveying — the surveying of areas of limited size, making no corrections for the earth's curvature
- planet-stricken — believed to be adversely affected mentally or physically by the planets
- plantaginaceous — relating to or belonging to the family Plantaginaceae
- plastic surgeon — doctor who performs cosmetic surgery
- plate tectonics — a theory of global tectonics in which the lithosphere is divided into a number of crustal plates, each of which moves on the plastic asthenosphere more or less independently to collide with, slide under, or move past adjacent plates.
- platform tennis — a variation of tennis played on a wooden platform enclosed with chicken wire in which the players hit a rubber ball with wooden paddles following the same basic rules as tennis except that only one serve is permitted and balls can be played off the back and side fences.
- platitudinously — in a platitudinal manner
- platyhelminthes — a phylum of worms having bilateral symmetry and a soft, usually flattened body, comprising the flatworms.
- pleasant island — former name of Nauru.
- pleasure-loving — enjoying pleasure
- plumbaginaceous — belonging to the Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family of plants.
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- plunket society — the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children
- police marksman — a police officer skilled in precision shooting, esp with a sniper rifle
- police presence — attendance or proximity of police officers