14-letter words containing s, u, p
- particularness — the quality of being exceptional or individual
- pas de bourree — a short running step.
- passion sunday — the fifth Sunday in Lent, being the second week before Easter.
- pasteur effect — the inhibiting of fermentation by oxygen.
- pasteurellosis — hemorrhagic septicemia.
- pasteurization — to expose (a food, as milk, cheese, yogurt, beer, or wine) to an elevated temperature for a period of time sufficient to destroy certain microorganisms, as those that can produce disease or cause spoilage or undesirable fermentation of food, without radically altering taste or quality.
- paternity suit — legal dispute over identity of father
- pauper's grave — a grave paid for at public expense because the deceased person's family could not afford one
- pay one's dues — owed at present; having reached the date for payment: This bill is due.
- penalty clause — part of contract specifying a forfeit
- peninsular war — the war (1808–14) fought in the Iberian Peninsula by British, Portuguese, and Spanish forces against the French, resulting in the defeat of the French: part of the Napoleonic Wars
- pennatulaceous — of or relating to a sea pen
- people's court — small-claims court.
- percussion cap — a small metallic cap or cup containing fulminating powder, formerly exploded by percussion to fire the charge of small arms.
- percutaneously — through the skin
- perez esquivel — Adolfo [uh-dol-foh;; Spanish ah-th awl-faw] /əˈdɒl foʊ;; Spanish ɑˈðɔl fɔ/ (Show IPA), born 1931, Argentine sculptor and human rights activist: Nobel prize 1980.
- perfect square — a rational number that is equal to the square of another rational number.
- perfidiousness — deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful: a perfidious lover.
- period costume — the attire typical of a particular period in time
- peritrichously — in a peritrichous manner; in a fashion characteristic of a peritrichous organism
- permaculturist — a system of cultivation intended to maintain permanent agriculture or horticulture by relying on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.
- persian walnut — English walnut.
- persuasiveness — able, fitted, or intended to persuade: a very persuasive argument.
- pertinaciously — holding tenaciously to a purpose, course of action, or opinion; resolute.
- petworth house — a mansion in Petworth in Sussex: rebuilt (1688–96) for Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset; gardens laid out by Capability Brown; subject of paintings by Turner
- phillips curve — a curve that purports to plot the relationship between unemployment and inflation on the theory that as inflation falls unemployment rises and vice versa
- photoluminesce — to produce photoluminescence
- 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.
- 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.
- platycephalous — flat-headed
- pleasurability — the characteristic of being pleasurable
- pleasure craft — A pleasure craft is the same as a pleasure boat.
- plesiochronous — (communications) Nearly synchronised, a term describing a communication system where transmitted signals have the same nominal digital rate but are synchronised on different clocks. According to ITU-T standards, corresponding signals are plesiochronous if their significant instants occur at nominally the same rate, with any variation in rate being constrained within specified limits.
- pleurapophysis — one of the lateral processes of a vertebra forming the ribs
- plumber's mate — a person who helps a plumber do his or her job
- plumbosolvency — the ability to dissolve lead
- plumbous oxide — litharge.
- plymouth sound — an inlet of the English Channel in SW Devon, SW England
- pneumobacillus — a bacterium, Klebsiella pneumoniae, causing a type of pneumonia and associated with certain other diseases, especially of the respiratory tract.
- pneumoconiosis — any chronic lung disease, including anthracosis, asbestosis, and silicosis, caused by the inhalation of particles of coal, asbestos, silica, or similar substances and leading to fibrosis and loss of lung function.
- pneumodynamics — Physics. pneumatics.
- pneumonologist — an expert or specialist in the respiratory system
- pneumothoraces — the presence of air or gas in the pleural cavity.
- podophthalmous — relating to a crustacean
- poetic justice — an ideal distribution of rewards and punishments such as is common in some poetry and fiction.
- polar sequence — a series of stars in the vicinity of the N celestial pole whose accurately determined magnitudes serve as the standard for visual and photographic magnitudes of stars
- polemoniaceous — belonging to the Polemoniaceae, the phlox family of plants.
- police custody — If somebody or something is in police custody, they are kept somewhere secure, under the supervision of police officers, for example in a police station.
- polygon pusher — (Or "rectangle slinger"). A chip designer who spends most of his or her time at the physical layout level (which requires drawing *lots* of multi-coloured polygons).