15-letter words containing t, a, p, l
- pied flycatcher — a small black and white migratory bird of Europe and western Asia, Ficedula hypoleuca
- pierrot lunaire — a cycle of 21 songs (1912) for voice and instruments, by Arnold Schönberg, written in Sprechgesang style and set to poems of Albert Giraud in German translation.
- piggyback plant — a plant, Tolmiea menziesii, of the saxifrage family, native to western North America, that produces new plants at the base of its broad, hairy leaves and that is popular as a houseplant.
- pilgrim fathers — the Pilgrims (of Plymouth Colony)
- pilgrimage site — a shrine or other sacred place that people travel to as an act of religious devotion
- pinocytotically — by the process of pinocytosis or in a pinocytotic manner
- 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
- pituitary gland — a small, somewhat cherry-shaped double structure attached by a stalk to the base of the brain and constituting the master endocrine gland affecting all hormonal functions in the body, consisting of an anterior region ((anterior pituitary) or (adenohypophysis)) that develops embryonically from the roof of the mouth and that secretes growth hormone, LH, FSH, ACTH, TSH, and MSH, a posterior region ((posterior pituitary) or (neurohypophysis)) that develops from the back of the forebrain and that secretes the hormones vasopressin and oxytocin, and an intermediate part (pars intermedia) derived from the anterior region but joined to the posterior region, that secretes the hormone MSH in lower vertebrates.
- plagiostomatous — plagiostome
- plain chocolate — dark eating chocolate
- plainclothesman — a police officer, especially a detective, who wears ordinary civilian clothes while on duty.
- planck constant — the fundamental constant of quantum mechanics, expressing the ratio of the energy of one quantum of radiation to the frequency of the radiation and approximately equal to 6.624 × 10− 27 erg-seconds. Symbol: h.
- planet-stricken — believed to be adversely affected mentally or physically by the planets
- planimetrically — in a planimetric manner
- planning blight — the harmful effects of uncertainty about likely restrictions on the types and extent of future development in a particular area on the quality of life of its inhabitants and the normal growth of its business and community enterprises
- plant agreement — a collective agreement at plant level within industry
- plant pathology — the branch of botany dealing with diseases of plants.
- plant-hire firm — a company that hires out mobile mechanical equipment for construction, road-making, etc
- plantaginaceous — relating to or belonging to the family Plantaginaceae
- 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.
- 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 rocker — a rocking chair supported on a stationary base
- platform scales — a weighing machine which has a platform that you put something on to be weighed
- 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.
- platform ticket — a pass allowing a visitor to enter upon a railroad platform from which those not traveling are ordinarily excluded.
- platinum blonde — a person, especially a girl or woman, whose hair is of a pale blond or silver color, usually colored artificially by bleaching or dyeing.
- platitudinarian — a person who frequently or habitually utters platitudes.
- platitudinously — in a platitudinal manner
- platyhelminthes — a phylum of worms having bilateral symmetry and a soft, usually flattened body, comprising the flatworms.
- play favourites — to display favouritism
- play havoc with — bring chaos to
- play the market — to speculate on a stock exchange
- pleasant island — former name of Nauru.
- plenipotentiary — a person, especially a diplomatic agent, invested with full power or authority to transact business on behalf of another.
- plethysmography — the tracking of changes measured in bodily volume
- plug compatible — of or relating to computers or peripheral devices that are functionally equivalent to, and may be substituted for, other models.
- plug-compatible — of or relating to computers or peripheral devices that are functionally equivalent to, and may be substituted for, other models.
- pluralistically — from a pluralistic point of view
- pneumatic drill — a percussive power drill powered by compressed air
- point d'alencon — Alençon lace (def 1).
- point-and-click — of or denoting an interface with which the user typically interacts by using a mouse to move the cursor and then clicking on a screen object.
- poke mullock at — to ridicule
- polish notation — a logical notation that dispenses with the need for brackets by writing the logical constants as operators preceding their arguments
- political party — an organization of people who share the same views about the way power should be used in a country or society (through government, policy-making, etc)
- polling station — voting venue
- polycarboxylate — a salt or ester of a polycarboxylic acid. Polycarboxylate esters are used in certain detergents
- polychlorinated — having multiple chlorine atoms