15-letter words starting with p
- play kissy-face — to engage in kissing, caressing, etc., esp. overtly or publicly
- play the market — to speculate on a stock exchange
- plea bargaining — pleading guilty to a lesser charge
- pleasant island — former name of Nauru.
- please yourself — You say 'please yourself' to indicate in a rather rude way that you do not mind or care whether the person you are talking to does a particular thing or not.
- pleasure cruise — a trip in a boat for recreational purposes
- pleasure-loving — enjoying pleasure
- pleasure-seeker — someone who always wants to have pleasure
- plenipotentiary — a person, especially a diplomatic agent, invested with full power or authority to transact business on behalf of another.
- pleochroic halo — a dark-colored, microscopic ring around a minute radioactive particle in certain mineral crystals, used in estimating the age of the rocks containing these crystals
- plethysmography — the tracking of changes measured in bodily volume
- pleuropneumonia — pleurisy conjoined with pneumonia.
- 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.
- plumbaginaceous — belonging to the Plumbaginaceae, the leadwort family of plants.
- plumber's snake — snake (def 3a).
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- plunket society — the Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children
- plural marriage — (broadly) any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities and including, for example, opposite-sex marriage, same-sex marriage, plural marriage, and arranged marriage: Anthropologists say that some type of marriage has been found in every known human society since ancient times. See Word Story at the current entry.
- pluralistically — from a pluralistic point of view
- plymouth colony — the colony established in SE Massachusetts by the Pilgrims in 1620.
- pneumatic drill — a percussive power drill powered by compressed air
- pneumatotherapy — the use of compressed or rarefied air in treating disease.
- pocket computer — palmtop
- pocos de caldas — a city in E Brazil.
- poikilothermism — the state or quality of being cold-blooded, as fishes and reptiles.
- point d'alencon — Alençon lace (def 1).
- point of honour — a circumstance, event, etc, that involves the defence of one's principles, social honour, etc
- 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.
- point-and-shoot — of or denoting a camera that does not require manual adjustment of shutter speed, focus, aperture, etc.
- pointing device — an input device, as a mouse, stylus, or joystick, used to control movement of a cursor or pointer.
- poisson's ratio — the ratio, in an elastic body under longitudinal stress, of the transverse strain to the longitudinal strain.
- poke mullock at — to ridicule
- police marksman — a police officer skilled in precision shooting, esp with a sniper rifle
- police presence — attendance or proximity of police officers
- police reporter — a news reporter assigned to cover a police department for newsworthy events.
- policy issuance — Policy issuance is the process of creating an insurance policy and providing it to the policyholder.
- policy priority — the most important idea or plan that are used by an organization or government as a basis for making decisions
- polish corridor — a strip of land near the mouth of the Vistula River: formerly separated Germany from East Prussia; given to Poland in the Treaty of Versailles 1919 to provide it with access to the Baltic.
- 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
- polychloroprene — a chloroprene polymer
- polycrystalline — (of a rock or metal) composed of aggregates of individual crystals.
- polyelectrolyte — an electrolyte of high molecular weight, usually polymeric, either natural or synthetic.
- polyisobutylene — a polymer of isobutylene, used chiefly in the manufacture of synthetic rubber.
- polymorphically — in a polymorphic manner
- polynomial ring — the set of all polynomials in an indeterminate variable with coefficients that are elements of a given ring.