15-letter words containing s, u, p, r
- outdoorsmanship — a person devoted to outdoor sports and recreational activities, as hiking, hunting, fishing, or camping.
- outside caliper — a caliper whose legs turn inward so that it can measure outside dimensions, as the diameter of a rod.
- over-scrupulous — excessively scrupulous.
- overconsumption — the act of consuming, as by use, decay, or destruction.
- overspeculation — the contemplation or consideration of some subject: to engage in speculation on humanity's ultimate destiny.
- ovoviviparously — in an ovoviviparous manner
- paid-in surplus — surplus paid in by purchasers of stock certificates sold at a premium.
- pamprodactylous — having all four toes directed forward, as in swifts and colies.
- 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.
- parti québécois — (in Canada) a political party in Quebec, formed in 1968 and originally advocating the separation of Quebec from the rest of the country
- particularistic — exclusive attention or devotion to one's own particular interests, party, etc.
- passifloraceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Passifloraceae, a tropical and subtropical family of climbing plants including the passionflowers: the flowers have five petals and threadlike parts forming a dense mass (corona) around the central disc
- pastel-coloured — pale-coloured; in a shade such as pink or pale blue
- paurometabolous — designating or of a group of insect orders, as orthopterans or hemipterans, in which metamorphosis to the adult state from the juvenile state is gradual and without any sudden, radical change of body form
- pay as you earn — a method of paying tax in which the tax is taken off your wages before they are paid to you
- pearly nautilus — nautilus (def 1).
- pectoral muscle — muscle of the chest
- penal servitude — imprisonment together with hard labor.
- penshurst place — a 14th-century mansion near Tunbridge Wells in Kent: birthplace of Sir Philip Sidney; gardens laid out from 1560
- 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
- perfunctoriness — performed merely as a routine duty; hasty and superficial: perfunctory courtesy.
- pergamentaceous — (esp of plants) resembling parchment, whether in texture or composition
- peroxysulphuric — as in peroxysulphuric acid
- perseus cluster — a cluster of about 500 galaxies in the direction of the constellation Perseus, grouped around a particular Seyfert galaxy that is an intense radio source (Perseus A)
- personal column — The personal column in a newspaper or magazine contains messages for individual people and advertisements of a private nature.
- personal injury — injury to an individual
- peruvian balsam — Peru balsam.
- petit bourgeois — a person who belongs to the petite bourgeoisie.
- petty bourgeois — petit bourgeois
- phosphate group — the group or radical obtained by removal of one or more hydrogen atoms from phosphoric acid.
- photojournalism — journalism in which photography dominates written copy, as in certain magazines.
- pictorial janus — K. Kahn, Xerox. Visual extension of Janus. Requires Strand88 and a PostScript interpreter.
- picturesqueness — visually charming or quaint, as if resembling or suitable for a painting: a picturesque fishing village.
- pithecanthropus — a former genus of extinct hominids whose members have now been assigned to the proposed species Homo erectus.
- plane surveying — the surveying of areas of limited size, making no corrections for the earth's curvature
- planter's punch — a punch made with rum, lime juice, sugar, and water or soda.
- plastic surgeon — doctor who performs cosmetic surgery
- plastic surgery — the branch of surgery dealing with the repair or replacement of malformed, injured, or lost organs or tissues of the body, chiefly by the transplant of living tissues.
- play favourites — to display favouritism
- please yourself — You say 'please yourself' to indicate in a rather rude way that you do not mind or care whether the person you are talking to does a particular thing or not.
- pleasure cruise — a trip in a boat for recreational purposes
- pleasure-loving — enjoying pleasure
- pleasure-seeker — someone who always wants to have pleasure
- plumber's snake — snake (def 3a).
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- pluralistically — from a pluralistic point of view
- polyunsaturated — of or noting a class of animal or vegetable fats, especially plant oils, whose molecules consist of carbon chains with many double bonds unsaturated by hydrogen atoms and that are associated with a low cholesterol content of the blood.
- post-industrial — of, relating to, or characteristic of an era following industrialization: The economy of the postindustrial society is based on the provision of services rather than on the manufacture of goods.