12-letter words containing t, r, o, p
- polar vortex — a whirling mass of very cold air that sits over the North or South Pole: A displaced polar vortex is causing Arctic temperatures across the United States.
- polarization — a sharp division, as of a population or group, into opposing factions.
- pole vaulter — A pole vaulter is an athlete who performs the pole vault.
- police court — an inferior court with summary jurisdiction for the trial of persons accused of any of certain minor offenses, and with power to examine those charged with more serious offenses and hold them for trial in a superior court or for a grand jury.
- poliorcetics — the science of siegecraft
- politicaster — an ill-suited or disliked politician
- poll watcher — a representative of a political party or of an organization running a candidate who is assigned to the polls on an election day to watch for violations of the laws that regulate voting, campaigning, etc.
- polycentrism — the doctrine that a plurality of independent centers of leadership, power, or ideology may exist within a single political system, especially Communism.
- polygraphist — an instrument for receiving and recording simultaneously tracings of variations in certain body activities.
- polyhistoric — relating to a polyhistor
- polyneuritis — inflammation of several nerves at the same time; multiple neuritis.
- polyoestrous — polyestrous.
- polyrhythmic — the simultaneous occurrence of sharply contrasting rhythms within a composition.
- polytriglyph — (in classical architecture) an intercolumniation of at least four triglyphs.
- polyurethane — a thermoplastic polymer containing the group NHCOO: used for padding and insulation in furniture, clothing, and packaging, and in the manufacture of resins for adhesives, elastomers, and fillers.
- ponta grossa — a city in S Brazil.
- pontificator — the office or term of office of a pontiff.
- poodle skirt — 1950s-style woman's circular skirt
- popular vote — the vote for a U.S. presidential candidate made by the qualified voters, as opposed to that made by the electoral college. Compare electoral vote.
- porcelainite — Mineralogy. mullite.
- porcellanite — hard and dense rock resembling unglazed porcelain
- porismatical — porismatic
- pork butcher — a butcher who specializes in pork
- port alberni — a port in SW British Columbia, in SW Canada, on the E central part of Vancouver Island, on an inlet of the Pacific Ocean.
- port angeles — a city in NW Washington, on the Juan de Fuca Strait.
- port captain — an official in charge of the harbor activities of a seaport.
- 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 hueneme — a city in S California.
- 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.
- port of call — a port visited briefly by a ship, usually to take on or discharge passengers and cargo or to undergo repairs.
- port running — an evasive action at a port of entry in which a person drives through a vehicle-stopping point.
- port-etienne — former name of Nouadhibou.
- portal frame — a frame, usually of steel, consisting of two uprights and a cross beam at the top: the simplest structural unit in a framed building or a doorway
- portentously — of the nature of a portent; momentous.
- porthole die — a die having several openings for the extrusion of separate parts of an object later formed by the welding or fusing together of these parts.
- porto alegre — a state in S Brazil. 107,923 sq. mi. (279,520 sq. km). Capital: Pôrto Alegre.
- porto amelia — former name of Pemba (def 2).
- 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