14-letter words starting with p
- pembroke table — a drop-leaf table with fly rails and with a drawer at one end or each end of the skirt.
- penalty clause — part of contract specifying a forfeit
- penalty corner — a free hit from the goal line taken by the attacking side
- penalty double — business double.
- penalty killer — a player used when the player's team is short-handed as a result of a penalty, especially a player skilled at defense and employed regularly in such situations.
- penalty stroke — a stroke added to a score for a rule infraction.
- pendulum watch — (formerly) a watch having a balance wheel, especially a balance wheel bearing a fake pendulum bob oscillating behind a window in the dial.
- penetrableness — the state of being penetrable; the capacity to be penetrated
- 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
- penny dreadful — a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.
- penny-dreadful — a cheap, sensational novel of adventure, crime, or violence; dime novel.
- penny-farthing — a high bicycle of an early type, with one large wheel in front and one small wheel behind.
- penny-pinching — a miserly, niggardly, or stingy person.
- pension scheme — savings fund for retirement
- pentadactylism — the state of having five digits on each limb
- pentamethylene — cyclopentane.
- pentanoic acid — colourless liquid carboxylic acid
- pentecostarion — a service book of offices for the period from Easter to the Sunday after Pentecost.
- pentland firth — a strait between N Scotland and the Orkney Islands, linking the North Sea to the Atlantic Ocean: noted for its rough sea conditions. 14 miles (23 km) long.
- pentyl acetate — a colourless combustible liquid used as a solvent for paints, in the extraction of penicillin, in photographic film, and as a flavouring. Formula: CH3COOC5H11
- people carrier — large saloon car
- people's court — small-claims court.
- people's front — popular front.
- people's panel — a group of people composed of members of the public, brought together to discuss, investigate, or decide on a particular matter
- people's party — a political party (1891–1904), advocating expansion of currency, state control of railroads, the placing of restrictions upon ownership of land, etc.; Populist party.
- perceivability — capable of being perceived; perceptible.
- perceptibility — capable of being perceived; recognizable; appreciable: a perceptible change in his behavior.
- perceptiveness — having or showing keenness of insight, understanding, or intuition: a perceptive analysis of the problems involved.
- 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
- peremptoriness — leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative: a peremptory command.
- 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 number — a positive number that is equal to the sum of all positive integers that are submultiples of it, as 6, which is equal to the sum of 1, 2, and 3.
- perfect square — a rational number that is equal to the square of another rational number.
- perfectibilism — the belief in the perfectibility of human nature
- perfectibilist — (predominantly in relation to the Illuminati) a person who believes that a given thing, usually human nature, is perfectible
- perfectibility — capable of becoming or of being made perfect; improvable.
- perfectiveness — the state or quality of being perfective
- perfidiousness — deliberately faithless; treacherous; deceitful: a perfidious lover.
- performability — the quality of being performable
- perhydrogenate — to hydrogenate as completely as possible.
- perhydrogenize — perhydrogenate.
- perimeter wall — a wall that serves as a boundary around something
- perineal gland — one of a pair of glands that are situated near the anus in some mammals and secrete an odorous substance
- period costume — the attire typical of a particular period in time
- periodic group — (database) (PE) Groups of logically related fields which occur multiple times within a group. Periodic groups are a non-relational technique. An example of a PE would be for storing the history of a person's name changes, where name was kept in logically related fields such as surname, first name and middle name - with the person having changed their name more than once.
- periodic table — a table illustrating the periodic system, in which the chemical elements, formerly arranged in the order of their atomic weights and now according to their atomic numbers, are shown in related groups.
- periodontology — periodontics.
- peripateticism — walking or traveling about; itinerant.