| phospholipid | (noun) any of various compounds composed of fatty acids and phosphoric acid and a nitrogenous base; an important constituent of membranes | - |
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| photoflood | (noun) light that is a source of artificial illumination having a broad beam; used in photography | Synonyms: flood, flood lamp, floodlight |
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| phylloclad | (noun) a flattened stem resembling and functioning as a leaf | Synonyms: cladode, cladophyll, phylloclade |
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| pickerelweed | (noun) American plant having spikes of blue flowers and growing in shallow water of streams and ponds | Synonyms: pickerel weed, Pontederia cordata, wampee |
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| picofarad | (noun) a unit of capacitance equal to one trillionth of a farad | - |
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| picosecond | (noun) one trillionth (10^-12) of a second; one thousandth of a nanosecond | - |
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| pierid | (noun) any of numerous pale-colored butterflies having three pairs of well-developed legs | Synonyms: pierid butterfly |
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| pigweed | (noun) leaves collected from the wild | Synonyms: lamb's-quarter, wild spinach |
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| (noun) common weedy European plant introduced into North America; often used as a potherb | Synonyms: Chenopodium album, lamb's-quarters, wild spinach |
| (noun) leaves sometimes used as potherbs; seeds used as cereal; southern United States to Central America; India and China | Synonyms: Amaranthus hypochondriacus |
| pilchard | (noun) small fishes found in great schools along coasts of Europe; smaller and rounder than herring | Synonyms: Sardina pilchardus, sardine |
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| (noun) small fatty fish usually canned | Synonyms: sardine |
| pineweed | (noun) annual wiry-stemmed North American weed with minute scalelike leaves and small yellow flowers | Synonyms: Hypericum gentianoides, nitweed, orange grass, pine-weed |
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| pinfold | (noun) a pen where stray animals are confined | - |
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| pinhead | (noun) the head of a pin | - |
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| (noun) an ignorant or foolish person | Synonyms: boob, booby, dope, dumbbell, dummy |
| pinnatiped | (noun) aquatic carnivorous mammal having a streamlined body specialized for swimming with limbs modified as flippers | Synonyms: pinniped, pinniped mammal |
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| pinniped | (noun) aquatic carnivorous mammal having a streamlined body specialized for swimming with limbs modified as flippers | Synonyms: pinnatiped, pinniped mammal |
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| pithead | (noun) the entrance to a coal mine | - |
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| placard | (noun) a sign posted in a public place as an advertisement | Synonyms: bill, card, notice, poster, posting |
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| plaid | (noun) a cloth having a crisscross design | Synonyms: tartan |
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| planetoid | (noun) any of numerous small celestial bodies that move around the sun | Synonyms: minor planet |
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| plasmid | (noun) a small cellular inclusion consisting of a ring of DNA that is not in a chromosome but is capable of autonomous replication | Synonyms: plasmid DNA |
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| plasterboard | (noun) wallboard with a gypsum plaster core bonded to layers of paper or fiberboard; used instead of plaster or wallboard to make interior walls | Synonyms: gypsum board |
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| plastid | (noun) any of various small particles in the cytoplasm of the cells of plants and some animals containing pigments or starch or oil or protein | - |
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| playground | (noun) yard consisting of an outdoor area for children's play | - |
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| (noun) an area where many people go for recreation, holidays or other purposes | Synonyms: resort area, vacation spot |
| pleopod | (noun) one of the paired abdominal appendages of certain aquatic crustaceans that function primarily for carrying the eggs in females and are usually adapted for swimming | Synonyms: swimmeret |
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| plod | (noun) the act of walking with a slow heavy gait | Synonyms: plodding |
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| ploughland | (noun) arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops | Synonyms: cultivated land, farmland, plowland, tillage, tilled land, tilth |
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| plowland | (noun) arable land that is worked by plowing and sowing and raising crops | Synonyms: cultivated land, farmland, ploughland, tillage, tilled land, tilth |
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| plugboard | (noun) telephone central where circuits are completed with patchcords | Synonyms: patchboard, switchboard |
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| plyboard | (noun) a laminate made of thin layers of wood | Synonyms: plywood |
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| plywood | (noun) a laminate made of thin layers of wood | Synonyms: plyboard |
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| pochard | (noun) heavy-bodied Old World diving duck having a grey-and-black body and reddish head | Synonyms: Aythya ferina |
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| pod | (noun) a detachable container of fuel on an airplane | Synonyms: fuel pod |
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| (noun) a group of aquatic mammals | - |
| (noun) a several-seeded dehiscent fruit as e.g. of a leguminous plant | Synonyms: seedpod |
| (noun) the vessel that contains the seeds of a plant (not the seeds themselves) | Synonyms: cod, seedcase |
| poeciliid | (noun) small usually brightly-colored viviparous surface-feeding fishes of fresh or brackish warm waters; often used in mosquito control | Synonyms: live-bearer, poeciliid fish, topminnow |
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| pokeweed | (noun) perennial of the genus Phytolacca | - |
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| pollard | (noun) a usually horned animal that has either shed its horns or had them removed | - |
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| (noun) a tree with limbs cut back to promote a more bushy growth of foliage | - |
| polyploid | (noun) (genetics) an organism or cell having more than twice the haploid number of chromosomes | - |
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| pond | (noun) a small lake | Synonyms: pool |
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| pondweed | (noun) any of several submerged or floating freshwater perennial aquatic weeds belonging to the family Potamogetonaceae | - |
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| (noun) submerged freshwater perennials | Synonyms: ditchmoss, Elodea, genus Elodea |
| pongid | (noun) any of the large anthropoid apes of the family Pongidae | Synonyms: great ape |
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| poniard | (noun) a dagger with a slender blade | Synonyms: bodkin |
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| pood | (noun) a Russian unit of weight equal to approximately 36 pounds | - |
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| possumwood | (noun) medium-sized tree of dry woodlands in the southern and eastern United States bearing yellow or orange very astringent fruit that is edible when fully ripe | Synonyms: American persimmon, Diospyros virginiana |
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| postcard | (noun) a card for sending messages by post without an envelope | Synonyms: mailing-card, post card, postal card |
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| posterboard | (noun) a cardboard suitable for making posters | Synonyms: paperboard, poster board |
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| pothead | (noun) someone who smokes marijuana habitually | - |
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| potsherd | (noun) a shard of pottery | - |
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| pound | (noun) the act of pounding (delivering repeated heavy blows) | Synonyms: hammer, hammering, pounding |
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| (noun) a public enclosure for stray or unlicensed dogs | Synonyms: dog pound |
| (noun) a symbol for a unit of currency (especially for the pound sterling in Great Britain) | Synonyms: pound sign |
| (noun) a nontechnical unit of force equal to the mass of 1 pound with an acceleration of free fall equal to 32 feet/sec/sec | Synonyms: lbf. |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Great Britain and Northern Ireland; equal to 100 pence | Synonyms: British pound, British pound sterling, pound sterling, quid |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Cyprus; equal to 100 cents | Synonyms: Cypriot pound |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Egypt; equal to 100 piasters | Synonyms: Egyptian pound |
| (noun) formerly the basic unit of money in Ireland; equal to 100 pence | Synonyms: Irish pound, Irish punt, punt |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Lebanon; equal to 100 piasters | Synonyms: Lebanese pound |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in the Sudan; equal to 100 piasters | Synonyms: Sudanese pound |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Syria; equal to 100 piasters | Synonyms: Syrian pound |
| (noun) 16 ounces avoirdupois | Synonyms: lb |
| (noun) a unit of apothecary weight equal to 12 ounces troy | - |
| prebend | (noun) the stipend assigned by a cathedral to a canon | - |
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| pretend | (noun) the enactment of a pretense | Synonyms: make-believe |
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| priesthood | (noun) the body of ordained religious practitioners | - |
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| princewood | (noun) tropical American timber tree | Synonyms: Cordia gerascanthus, Spanish elm |
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| (noun) large tropical American tree of the genus Cordia grown for its abundant creamy white flowers and valuable wood | Synonyms: Cordia alliodora, cypre, Equador laurel, salmwood, Spanish elm |
| prismatoid | (noun) a polyhedron whose vertices all lie in one or the other of two parallel planes; the faces that lie in those planes are the bases of the prismatoid | - |
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| prismoid | (noun) a prismatoid whose bases are polygons having the same number of sides and whose other faces are trapezoids or parallelograms | - |
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| probenecid | (noun) a uricosuric drug that reduces the level of uric acid in the blood; used to treat gout | - |
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| procyonid | (noun) plantigrade carnivorous mammals | - |
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| prod | (noun) a pointed instrument that is used to prod into a state of motion | Synonyms: goad |
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| (noun) a verbalization that encourages you to attempt something | Synonyms: goad, goading, prodding, spur, spurring, urging |
| pseud | (noun) a person who makes deceitful pretenses | Synonyms: fake, faker, fraud, imposter, impostor, pretender, pseudo, role player, sham, shammer |
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| pseudomonad | (noun) bacteria usually producing greenish fluorescent water-soluble pigment; some pathogenic for plants and animals | - |
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| pseudopod | (noun) temporary outgrowth used by some microorganisms as an organ of feeding or locomotion | Synonyms: pseudopodium |
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| psocid | (noun) small winged insect living on the bark and leaves of trees and feeding on e.g. fungi and decaying plant matter | - |
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| psychodid | (noun) a fly of the family Psychodidae | - |
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| psyllid | (noun) small active cicada-like insect with hind legs adapted for leaping; feeds on plant juices | Synonyms: jumping plant louse, psylla |
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| pud | (noun) (British) the dessert course of a meal (`pud' is used informally) | Synonyms: pudding |
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| puffbird | (noun) brownish tropical American bird having a large head with fluffed out feathers | - |
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| pulpwood | (noun) softwood used to make paper | - |
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| pumpkinseed | (noun) small brilliantly colored North American sunfish | Synonyms: Lepomis gibbosus |
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| punchboard | (noun) a small board full of holes; each hole contains a slip of paper with symbols printed on it; a gambler pays a small sum for the privilege of pushing out a slip in the hope of obtaining one that entitles him to a prize | - |
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| pureblood | (noun) a pedigreed animal of unmixed lineage; used especially of horses | Synonyms: purebred, thoroughbred |
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| purebred | (noun) a pedigreed animal of unmixed lineage; used especially of horses | Synonyms: pureblood, thoroughbred |
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| pursued | (noun) a person who is being chased | Synonyms: chased |
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| pycnogonid | (noun) any of various small spiderlike marine arthropods having small thin bodies and long slender legs | Synonyms: sea spider |
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| pyralid | (noun) usually tropical slender-bodied long-legged moth whose larvae are crop pests | Synonyms: pyralid moth |
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| pyramid | (noun) (stock market) a series of transactions in which the speculator increases his holdings by using the rising market value of those holdings as margin for further purchases | - |
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| (noun) a polyhedron having a polygonal base and triangular sides with a common vertex | - |
| quad | (noun) a rectangular area surrounded on all sides by buildings | Synonyms: quadrangle |
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| (noun) (printing) a block of type without a raised letter; used for spacing between words or sentences | Synonyms: space |
| (noun) a muscle of the thigh that extends the leg | Synonyms: musculus quadriceps femoris, quadriceps, quadriceps femoris |
| (noun) one of four children born at the same time from the same pregnancy | Synonyms: quadruplet |
| quadruped | (noun) an animal especially a mammal having four limbs specialized for walking | - |
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| quicksand | (noun) a pit filled with loose wet sand into which objects are sucked down | - |
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| (noun) a treacherous situation that tends to entrap and destroy | - |
| quid | (noun) a wad of something chewable as tobacco | Synonyms: chaw, chew, cud, plug, wad |
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| (noun) something for something; that which a party receives (or is promised) in return for something he does or gives or promises | Synonyms: quid pro quo |
| (noun) the basic unit of money in Great Britain and Northern Ireland; equal to 100 pence | Synonyms: British pound, British pound sterling, pound, pound sterling |
| rabbitweed | (noun) low-growing sticky subshrub of southwestern United States having narrow linear leaves on many slender branches and hundreds of tiny yellow flower heads | Synonyms: broom snakeroot, broom snakeweed, Gutierrezia sarothrae, rabbit-weed, snakeweed, turpentine weed |
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| rabbitwood | (noun) shrub of southeastern United States parasitic on roots of hemlocks having sparse spikes of greenish flowers and pulpy drupes | Synonyms: buffalo nut, Pyrularia pubera |
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| racecard | (noun) a program for a race meeting; lists the races and the names of the horses | - |
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| rad | (noun) a unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material | - |
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| (noun) the unit of plane angle adopted under the Systeme International d'Unites; equal to the angle at the center of a circle subtended by an arc equal in length to the radius (approximately 57.295 degrees) | Synonyms: radian |
| ragweed | (noun) any of numerous chiefly North American weedy plants constituting the genus Ambrosia that produce highly allergenic pollen responsible for much hay fever and asthma | Synonyms: ambrosia, bitterweed |
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| (noun) widespread European weed having yellow daisylike flowers; sometimes an obnoxious weed and toxic to cattle if consumed in quantity | Synonyms: benweed, ragwort, Senecio jacobaea, tansy ragwort |
| raid | (noun) a sudden short attack | Synonyms: foray, maraud |
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| (noun) an attempt by speculators to defraud investors | - |
| railbird | (noun) a fan of racing who watches races from the outer rail of the track | - |
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| railhead | (noun) a railroad depot in a theater of operations where military supplies are unloaded for distribution | - |
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| (noun) the end of the completed track on an unfinished railway | - |
| railroad | (noun) line that is the commercial organization responsible for operating a system of transportation for trains that pull passengers or freight | Synonyms: railroad line, railway, railway line, railway system |
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| (noun) a line of track providing a runway for wheels | Synonyms: railroad track, railway |
| railyard | (noun) an area having a network of railway tracks and sidings for storage and maintenance of cars and engines | Synonyms: railway yard, yard |
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| ramrod | (noun) a rod used to ram the charge into a muzzle-loading firearm | - |
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| (noun) a rod used to clean the barrel of a firearm | - |
| (noun) a harshly demanding overseer | - |
| rand | (noun) the basic unit of money in South Africa; equal to 100 cents | - |
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| rangeland | (noun) land suitable for grazing livestock | - |
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| ranid | (noun) insectivorous usually semiaquatic web-footed amphibian with smooth moist skin and long hind legs | Synonyms: true frog |
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| rapeseed | (noun) seed of rape plants; source of an edible oil | - |
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| rapid | (noun) a part of a river where the current is very fast | - |
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| read | (noun) something that is read | - |
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| rearguard | (noun) a detachment assigned to protect the rear of a (retreating) military body | - |
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| rearward | (noun) direction toward the rear | - |
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| rebound | (noun) the act of securing possession of the rebounding basketball after a missed shot | - |
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| (noun) a reaction to a crisis or setback or frustration | - |
| (noun) a movement back from an impact | Synonyms: backlash, recoil, repercussion |
| record | (noun) an extreme attainment; the best (or worst) performance ever attested (as in a sport) | - |
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| (noun) the sum of recognized accomplishments | Synonyms: track record |
| (noun) sound recording consisting of a disk with a continuous groove; used to reproduce music by rotating while a phonograph needle tracks in the groove | Synonyms: disc, disk, phonograph record, phonograph recording, platter |
| (noun) a list of crimes for which an accused person has been previously convicted | Synonyms: criminal record |
| (noun) a compilation of the known facts regarding something or someone | Synonyms: book, record book |
| (noun) anything (such as a document or a phonograph record or a photograph) providing permanent evidence of or information about past events | - |
| (noun) a document that can serve as legal evidence of a transaction | - |
| (noun) the number of wins versus losses and ties a team has had | - |
| red | (noun) red color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood | Synonyms: redness |
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| (noun) emotionally charged terms used to refer to extreme radicals or revolutionaries | Synonyms: Bolshevik, bolshie, bolshy, Marxist |
| (noun) the amount by which the cost of a business exceeds its revenue | Synonyms: loss, red ink |
| redbird | (noun) crested thick-billed North American finch having bright red plumage in the male | Synonyms: cardinal, cardinal grosbeak, Cardinalis cardinalis, Richmondena Cardinalis |
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| (noun) the male is bright red with black wings and tail | Synonyms: firebird, Piranga olivacea, scarlet tanager |
| redbud | (noun) small shrubby tree of eastern North America similar to the Judas tree having usually pink flowers; found in damp sheltered underwood | Synonyms: Cercis canadensis |
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