17-letter words containing a, l, p, h
- pile on the agony — to exaggerate one's distress for sympathy or greater effect
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- platinic chloride — chloroplatinic acid.
- play along (with) — to join in or cooperate (with)
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- ploughman's lunch — a light lunch consisting of bread and cheese, and sometimes pickled onions.
- plug and feathers — an apparatus for splitting stone, consisting of two tapered bars (feathers) inserted into a hole drilled into the stone, between which a narrow wedge (plug) is hammered to spread them.
- pocket battleship — a small heavily armed and armored warship serving as a battleship because of limitations imposed by treaty.
- polioencephalitis — a disease characterized by inflammation of the gray matter of the brain.
- polymorphonuclear — (of a leukocyte) having a lobulate nucleus.
- polyvinyl alcohol — a colorless, water-soluble, thermoplastic resin, derived by the hydrolysis of polyvinyl acetate: used chiefly as an adhesive and as a sizing agent in the manufacture of textiles, paper, and plastics.
- potato leafhopper — any of various leafhoppers that are serious pests, damaging a wide variety of cultivated and wild plants, especially potatoes.
- pre-technological — of or relating to technology; relating to science and industry.
- preferential shop — a shop in which union members are preferred, usually by agreement of an employer with a union.
- prothoracic gland — either of a pair of endocrine glands in the anterior thorax of some insects, functioning to promote the series of molts from hatching to adulthood.
- pseudepigraphical — certain writings (other than the canonical books and the Apocrypha) professing to be Biblical in character.
- pseudo-historical — of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events: historical records; historical research.
- psychoeducational — designating or of psychological methods, as intelligence tests, used in evaluating learning ability
- psychographically — Psychology. a graph indicating the relative strength of the personality traits of an individual.
- psychoprophylaxis — Lamaze method.
- pull your head in — be quiet!
- purple shore crab — any of numerous crabs that live along the shoreline between the tidemarks, as Hemigrapsus nudus (purple shore crab) of the Pacific coast of North America.
- pythagorean scale — the major scale as derived acoustically by Pythagoras from the perfect fifth.
- radio in the loop — Wireless Local Loop
- rehospitalization — the act, process, or state of being hospitalized.
- relative pathname — (file system) A path relative to the working directory. Its first character can be anything but the pathname separator.
- republic of china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- republic-of-china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- reticulate python — a python, Python reticulatus, of southeastern Asia and the East Indies, sometimes growing to a length of 32 feet (10 meters): usually considered to be the largest snake in the world.
- reza shah pahlavi — Muhammad Riza (or Reza) [ri-zah] /rɪˈzɑ/ (Show IPA), 1919–80, shah of Iran 1941–79; in exile after 1979 (son of Riza Shah Pahlavi).
- riza shah pahlavi — Pahlavi (def 2).
- roll with a punch — to move in the same direction as a punch thrown at one so as to lessen its force
- san pedro channel — a strait between the mainland of SW California and Santa Catalina Island. About 20 miles (32 km) wide.
- school playground — school's outdoor recreation area
- schwedler's maple — a variety of the Norway maple, Acer platanoides schwedleri, producing red leaves that subsequently turn green.
- scrape the barrel — to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
- scrophulariaceous — belonging to the Scrophulariaceae, the figwort family of plants.
- semi-biographical — of or relating to a person's life: He's gathering biographical data for his book on Milton.
- sexual dimorphism — the condition in which the males and females in a species are morphologically different, as with many birds.
- shetland pullover — a thick woollen sweater made from Shetland wool
- shetland sheepdog — one of a breed of small sheepdogs resembling a miniature collie, raised originally in the Shetland Islands.
- shipping articles — articles of agreement.
- shopping bag lady — bag lady (def 1).
- shopping-bag lady — bag lady (def 1).
- shuttle diplomacy — diplomatic negotiations carried out by a mediator who travels back and forth between the negotiating parties.
- slap on the wrist — a sharp blow or smack, especially with the open hand or with something flat.
- social psychology — the psychological study of social behavior, especially of the reciprocal influence of the individual and the group with which the individual interacts.
- spanish civil war — the civil war in Spain 1936–39.
- spanish influenza — the pandemic respiratory infection that spread throughout the world during 1917–18.
- special schooling — the system of educating children with special needs in schools designed to meet their needs