12-letter words containing s, p, r, o
- 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
- 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
- pollen brush — the mass of stiff hairs on the legs or abdomen of an insect, for collecting pollen.
- polycentrism — the doctrine that a plurality of independent centers of leadership, power, or ideology may exist within a single political system, especially Communism.
- polydisperse — of or noting a sol that contains particles of different sizes.
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- polyhedrosis — an often fatal disease of certain insect larvae or decapod crustaceans, caused by viruses containing DNA.
- polyhistoric — relating to a polyhistor
- polyisoprene — a thermoplastic polymer, (C 5 H 8) n , the major constituent of natural rubber and also obtained synthetically.
- polymorphism — the state or condition of being polymorphous.
- polymorphous — having, assuming, or passing through many or various forms, stages, or the like.
- polyneuritis — inflammation of several nerves at the same time; multiple neuritis.
- polyoestrous — polyestrous.
- polyomavirus — any of a genus (Polyomavirus) of papovaviruses that naturally infect wild and laboratory mice, and that cause tumors when injected into newborn mice
- polyribosome — polysome.
- polysaprobic — flourishing in a body of water having a heavy load of decomposed organic matter and almost no free oxygen
- pommel horse — a padded, somewhat cylindrical floor-supported apparatus, similar to a vaulting horse but having two graspable pommels on top, used by men for hand-supported balancing, rotating, and swinging maneuvers.
- pons varolii — pons (def 1).
- ponta grossa — a city in S Brazil.
- pony express — a former system in the American West of carrying mail and express by relays of riders mounted on ponies, especially the system operating (1860–61) between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California.
- poodle skirt — 1950s-style woman's circular skirt
- 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
- pork sausage — a sausage made with pork
- porphyropsin — a purple pigment occurring in the retina of the eye of certain freshwater fishes
- port angeles — a city in NW Washington, on the Juan de Fuca Strait.
- port chester — a city in SE New York, on Long Island Sound.
- port de bras — (used with a singular verb) the technique of moving the arms properly.
- port jackson — an inlet of the Pacific in SE Australia: the harbor of Sydney.
- port moresby — an independent republic in the W Pacific Ocean, comprising the E part of New Guinea and numerous near-lying islands, including the Bismarck Archipelago, the Admiralty Islands, the Trobriand Islands, and Bougainville and Buka in the Solomon Islands: a former Australian Trusteeship Territory; independent since 1975; member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 178,260 sq. mi. (461,693 sq. km). Capital: Port Moresby.
- portentously — of the nature of a portent; momentous.
- post-fordism — the idea that modern industrial production has moved away from mass production in huge factories, as pioneered by Henry Ford, towards specialized markets based on small flexible manufacturing units
- post-harvest — Also, harvesting. the gathering of crops.
- post-nuclear — pertaining to or involving atomic weapons: nuclear war.
- post-primary — first or highest in rank or importance; chief; principal: his primary goals in life.
- post-puberty — the period or age at which a person is first capable of sexual reproduction of offspring: in common law, presumed to be 14 years in the male and 12 years in the female.
- post-pyloric — the opening between the stomach and the duodenum.
- postabortion — Also called voluntary abortion. the removal of an embryo or fetus from the uterus in order to end a pregnancy.
- postal meter — a postal franking machine
- postal order — money order.
- postbrachial — belonging to the arm, foreleg, wing, pectoral fin, or other forelimb of a vertebrate.
- postcardlike — (of a scene) resembling a postcard