| Words | Parts of Speech | Meaning/Definition/Similar Words |
|---|---|---|
| peabird | noun | The wryneck; — so called from its note. |
| peacher | noun | One who peaches. |
| peacock | noun | The male of any pheasant of the genus Pavo, of which at least two species are known, native of Southern Asia and the East Indies., In common usage, the species in general or collectively; a peafowl. |
| peafowl | noun | The peacock or peahen; any species of Pavo. |
| peagrit | noun | A coarse pisolitic limestone. See Pisolite. |
| peaking | present participle & vb. noun | of Peak, Mean; sneaking., Pining; sickly; peakish. |
| peakish | adjective | Of or relating to a peak; or to peaks; belonging to a mountainous region., Having peaks; peaked., Having features thin or sharp, as from sickness; hence, sickly. |
| pealing | present participle & vb. noun | of Peal |
| peanism | noun | The song or shout of praise, of battle, or of triumph. |
| peasant | noun | A countryman; a rustic; especially, one of the lowest class of tillers of the soil in European countries., Rustic, rural. |
| peascod | noun | The legume or pericarp, or the pod, of the pea. |
| pebbled | imp. & past participle | of Pebble, Abounding in pebbles. |
| pebrine | noun | An epidemic disease of the silkworm, characterized by the presence of minute vibratory corpuscles in the blood. |
| peccant | adjective | Sinning; guilty of transgression; criminal; as, peccant angels., Morbid; corrupt; as, peccant humors., Wrong; defective; faulty., An offender. |
| peccary | noun | A pachyderm of the genus Dicotyles. |
| peccavi | I have sinned; — used colloquially to express confession or acknowledgment of an offense. | |
| pecking | present participle & vb. noun | of Peck |
| peckish | adjective | Inclined to eat; hungry. |
| peckled | adjective | Speckled; spotted. |
| pectate | noun | A salt of pectic acid. |
| pectize | verb i. | To congeal; to change into a gelatinous mass. |
| pectose | noun | An amorphous carbohydrate found in the vegetable kingdom, esp. in unripe fruits. It is associated with cellulose, and is converted into substances of the pectin group. |
| pectous | adjective | Of, pertaining to, or consisting of, pectose. |
| pectora | plural | of Pectus |
| pedagog | noun | Pedagogue. |
| pedanty | noun | An assembly or clique of pedants. |
| peddled | imp. & past participle | of Peddle |
| peddler | noun | One who peddles; a traveling trader; one who travels about, retailing small wares; a hawker. |
| pedesis | noun | Same as Brownian movement, under Brownian. |
| pedicel | noun | A stalk which supports one flower or fruit, whether solitary or one of many ultimate divisions of a common peduncle. See Peduncle, and Illust. of Flower., A slender support of any special organ, as that of a capsule in mosses, an air vesicle in algae, or a sporangium in ferns., A slender stem by which certain of the lower animals or their eggs are attached. See Illust. of Aphis lion., The ventral part of each side of the neural arch connecting with the centrum of a vertebra., An outgrowth of the frontal bones, which supports the antlers or horns in deer and allied animals. |
| pedicle | noun | Same as Pedicel. |
| peeling | present participle & vb. noun | of Peel |
| peeping | present participle & vb. noun | of Peep |
| peering | present participle & vb. noun | of Peer |
| peerage | noun | The rank or dignity of a peer., The body of peers; the nobility, collectively. |
| peerdom | noun | Peerage; also, a lordship. |
| peeress | noun | The wife of a peer; a woman ennobled in her own right, or by right of marriage. |
| peevish | adjective | Habitually fretful; easily vexed or fretted; hard to please; apt to complain; querulous; petulant., Expressing fretfulness and discontent, or unjustifiable dissatisfaction; as, a peevish answer., Silly; childish; trifling. |
| pegging | present participle & vb. noun | of Peg, The act or process of fastening with pegs. |
| pegador | noun | A species of remora (Echeneis naucrates). See Remora. |
| pegasus | noun | A winged horse fabled to have sprung from the body of Medusa when she was slain. He is noted for causing, with a blow of his hoof, Hippocrene, the inspiring fountain of the Muses, to spring from Mount Helicon. On this account he is, in modern times, associated with the Muses, and with ideas of poetic inspiration., A northen constellation near the vernal equinoctial point. Its three brightest stars, with the brightest star of Andromeda, form the square of Pegasus., A genus of small fishes, having large pectoral fins, and the body covered with hard, bony plates. Several species are known from the East Indies and China. |
| pehlevi | noun | An ancient Persian dialect in which words were partly represented by their Semitic equivalents. It was in use from the 3d century (and perhaps earlier) to the middle of the 7th century, and later in religious writings. |
| peitrel | noun | See Peytrel. |
| pelagic | adjective | Of or pertaining to the ocean; — applied especially to animals that live at the surface of the ocean, away from the coast. |
| pelecan | noun | See Pelican. |
| pelfish | adjective | Of or pertaining to pelf. |
| pelfray | noun | Alt. of Pelfry |
| pelican | noun | Any large webfooted bird of the genus Pelecanus, of which about a dozen species are known. They have an enormous bill, to the lower edge of which is attached a pouch in which captured fishes are temporarily stored., A retort or still having a curved tube or tubes leading back from the head to the body for continuous condensation and redistillation. |
| pelioma | noun | A livid ecchymosis., See Peliom. |
| pelisse | noun | An outer garment for men or women, originally of fur, or lined with fur; a lady’s outer garment, made of silk or other fabric. |
| pellack | noun | A porpoise. |
| pellage | noun | A customs duty on skins of leather. |
| pellile | noun | The redshank; — so called from its note. |
| pelmata | plural | of Pelma |
| peloria | noun | Abnormal regularity; the state of certain flowers, which, being naturally irregular, have become regular through a symmetrical repetition of the special irregularity. |
| peloric | adjective | Abnormally regular or symmetrical. |
| pelting | present participle & vb. noun | of Pelt, Mean; paltry. |
| peltate | adjective | Alt. of Peltated |
| penning | present participle & vb. noun | of Pen, of Pen |
| penally | adverb | In a penal manner. |
| penalty | noun | Penal retribution; punishment for crime or offense; the suffering in person or property which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime, offense, or trespass., The suffering, or the sum to be forfeited, to which a person subjects himself by covenant or agreement, in case of nonfulfillment of stipulations; forfeiture; fine., A handicap. |
| penance | noun | Repentance., Pain; sorrow; suffering., A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church., To impose penance; to punish. |
| penates | noun pl. | The household gods of the ancient Romans. They presided over the home and the family hearth. See Lar. |
| penaunt | noun | A penitent. |
| pending | present participle & vb. noun | of Pend, Not yet decided; in continuance; in suspense; as, a pending suit., During; as, pending the trail. |
| pendant | noun | Something which hangs or depends; something suspended; a hanging appendage, especially one of an ornamental character; as to a chandelier or an eardrop; also, an appendix or addition, as to a book., A hanging ornament on roofs, ceilings, etc., much used in the later styles of Gothic architecture, where it is of stone, and an important part of the construction. There are imitations in plaster and wood, which are mere decorative features., One of a pair; a counterpart; as, one vase is the pendant to the other vase., A pendulum., The stem and ring of a watch, by which it is suspended. |
| pendent | adjective | Supported from above; suspended; depending; pendulous; hanging; as, a pendent leaf., Jutting over; projecting; overhanging. |
| pendice | noun | A sloping roof; a lean-to; a penthouse. |
| pendule | noun | A pendulum. |
| penfish | noun | A squid. |
| penfold | noun | See Pinfold. |
| penguin | noun | Any bird of the order Impennes, or Ptilopteri. They are covered with short, thick feathers, almost scalelike on the wings, which are without true quills. They are unable to fly, but use their wings to aid in diving, in which they are very expert. See King penguin, under Jackass., The egg-shaped fleshy fruit of a West Indian plant (Bromelia Pinguin) of the Pineapple family; also, the plant itself, which has rigid, pointed, and spiny-toothed leaves, and is used for hedges. |
| penible | adjective | Painstaking; assidous. |
| penicil | noun | A tent or pledget for wounds or ulcers. |
| pennach | noun | A bunch of feathers; a plume. |
| pennage | noun | Feathery covering; plumage. |
| pennant | noun | A small flag; a pennon. The narrow, / long, pennant (called also whip or coach whip) is a long, narrow piece of bunting, carried at the masthead of a government vessel in commission. The board pennant is an oblong, nearly square flag, carried at the masthead of a commodore’s vessel., A rope or strap to which a purchase is hooked. |
| pennate | adjective | Alt. of Pennated |
| pennies | plural | of Penny |
| penrack | noun | A rack for pens not in use. |
| pensile | adjective | Hanging; suspended; pendent; pendulous. |
| pension | noun | A payment; a tribute; something paid or given., A stated allowance to a person in consideration of past services; payment made to one retired from service, on account of age, disability, or other cause; especially, a regular stipend paid by a government to retired public officers, disabled soldiers, the families of soldiers killed in service, or to meritorious authors, or the like., A certain sum of money paid to a clergyman in lieu of tithes., A boarding house or boarding school in France, Belgium, Switzerland, etc., To grant a pension to; to pay a regular stipend to; in consideration of service already performed; — sometimes followed by off; as, to pension off a servant. |
| pensive | adjective | Thoughtful, sober, or sad; employed in serious reflection; given to, or favorable to, earnest or melancholy musing., Expressing or suggesting thoughtfulness with sadness; as, pensive numbers. |
| pentail | noun | A peculiar insectivore (Ptilocercus Lowii) of Borneo; — so called from its very long, quill-shaped tail, which is scaly at the base and plumose at the tip. |
| pentane | noun | Any one of the three metameric hydrocarbons, C5H12, of the methane or paraffin series. They are colorless, volatile liquids, two of which occur in petroleum. So called because of the five carbon atoms in the molecule. |
| pentene | noun | Same as Amylene. |
| pentice | noun | A penthouse. |
| pentile | noun | See Pantile. |
| pentine | noun | An unsaturated hydrocarbon, C5H8, of the acetylene series. Same as Valerylene. |
| pentoic | adjective | Pertaining to, or desingating, an acid (called also valeric acid) derived from pentane. |
| pentone | noun | Same as Valylene. |
| peonage | noun | The condition of a peon. |
| peonism | noun | Same as Peonage. |
| peonies | plural | of Peony |
| peopled | imp. & past participle | of People, Stocked with, or as with, people; inhabited. |
| peopler | noun | A settler; an inhabitant. |
| peorias | noun pl. | An Algonquin tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited a part of Illinois. |
| peppery | adjective | Of or pertaining to pepper; having the qualities of pepper; hot; pungent., Fig.: Hot-tempered; passionate; choleric. |
| peptics | noun | The science of digestion. |
| peptone | noun | The soluble and diffusible substance or substances into which albuminous portions of the food are transformed by the action of the gastric and pancreatic juices. Peptones are also formed from albuminous matter by the action of boiling water and boiling dilute acids., Collectively, in a broader sense, all the products resulting from the solution of albuminous matter in either gastric or pancreatic juice. In this case, however, intermediate products (albumose bodies), such as antialbumose, hemialbumose, etc., are mixed with the true peptones. Also termed albuminose. |
| pequots | noun pl. | A tribe of Indians who formerly inhabited Eastern Connecticut. |
| perbend | noun | See Perpender. |
| percale | noun | A fine cotton fabric, having a linen finish, and often printed on one side, — used for women’s and children’s wear. |
| percase | adverb | Perhaps; perchance. |
| percely | noun | Parsley. |
| percept | noun | That which is perceived. |
| perched | imp. & past participle | of Perch |
| percher | verb i. | One who, or that which, perches., One of the Insessores., A Paris candle anciently used in England; also, a large wax candle formerly set upon the altar. |
| percoid | adjective | Belonging to, or resembling, the perches, or family Percidae., Any fish of the genus Perca, or allied genera of the family Percidae. |
| percuss | verb t. | To strike smartly; to strike upon or against; as, to percuss the chest in medical examination., To strike or tap in an examination by percussion. See Percussion, 3. |
| perdure | verb i. | To last or endure for a long time; to be perdurable or lasting. |
| peregal | adjective | Fully equal. |
| perempt | verb t. | To destroy; to defeat. |
| perfect | adjective | Brought to consummation or completeness; completed; not defective nor redundant; having all the properties or qualities requisite to its nature and kind; without flaw, fault, or blemish; without error; mature; whole; pure; sound; right; correct., Well informed; certain; sure., Hermaphrodite; having both stamens and pistils; — said of flower., The perfect tense, or a form in that tense., To make perfect; to finish or complete, so as to leave nothing wanting; to give to anything all that is requisite to its nature and kind. |
| perfidy | noun | The act of violating faith or allegiance; violation of a promise or vow, or of trust reposed; faithlessness; treachery. |
| perform | verb t. | To carry through; to bring to completion; to achieve; to accomplish; to execute; to do., To discharge; to fulfill; to act up to; as, to perform a duty; to perform a promise or a vow., To represent; to act; to play; as in drama., To do, execute, or accomplish something; to acquit one’s self in any business; esp., to represent sometimes by action; to act a part; to play on a musical instrument; as, the players perform poorly; the musician performs on the organ. |
| perfume | verb t. | To fill or impregnate with a perfume; to scent., The scent, odor, or odoriferous particles emitted from a sweet-smelling substance; a pleasant odor; fragrance; aroma., A substance that emits an agreeable odor. |
| perfuse | verb t. | To suffuse; to fill full or to excess. |
| perhaps | adverb | By chance; peradventure; perchance; it may be. |
| periapt | noun | A charm worn as a protection against disease or mischief; an amulet. |
| peridia | plural | of Peridium |
| peridot | noun | Chrysolite. |
| perigee | noun | Alt. of Perigeum |
| periled | imp. & past participle | of Peril |
| perilla | noun | A genus of labiate herbs, of which one species (Perilla ocimoides, or P. Nankinensis) is often cultivated for its purple or variegated foliage. |
| perisse | verb i. | To perish. |
| periwig | noun | A headdress of false hair, usually covering the whole head, and representing the natural hair; a wig., To dress with a periwig, or with false hair. |
| perjure | verb t. | To cause to violate an oath or a vow; to cause to make oath knowingly to what is untrue; to make guilty of perjury; to forswear; to corrupt; — often used reflexively; as, he perjured himself., To make a false oath to; to deceive by oaths and protestations., A perjured person. |
| perjury | verb | False swearing., At common law, a willfully false statement in a fact material to the issue, made by a witness under oath in a competent judicial proceeding. By statute the penalties of perjury are imposed on the making of willfully false affirmations. |
| perking | present participle & vb. noun | of Perk |
| perlite | noun | Same as Pearlite. |
| perlous | adjective | Perilous. |
| permian | adjective | Belonging or relating to the period, and also to the formation, next following the Carboniferous, and regarded as closing the Carboniferous age and Paleozoic era., The Permian period. See Chart of Geology. |
| permiss | noun | A permitted choice; a rhetorical figure in which a thing is committed to the decision of one’s opponent. |
| permute | verb t. | To interchange; to transfer reciprocally., To exchange; to barter; to traffic. |
| perogue | noun | See Pirogue. |
| perpend | verb t. | To weight carefully in the mind., To attend; to be attentive. |
| perplex | adjective | To involve; to entangle; to make intricate or complicated, and difficult to be unraveled or understood; as, to perplex one with doubts., To embarrass; to puzzle; to distract; to bewilder; to confuse; to trouble with ambiguity, suspense, or anxiety., To plague; to vex; to tormen., Intricate; difficult. |
| perrier | noun | A short mortar used formerly for throwing stone shot. |
| persalt | noun | A term formerly given to the salts supposed to be formed respectively by neutralizing acids with certain peroxides. |
| persant | adjective | Piercing. |
| perseid | noun | One of a group of shooting stars which appear yearly about the 10th of August, and cross the heavens in paths apparently radiating from the constellation Perseus. They are beleived to be fragments once connected with a comet visible in 1862. |
| perseus | noun | A Grecian legendary hero, son of Jupiter and Danae, who slew the Gorgon Medusa., A consellation of the northern hemisphere, near Taurus and Cassiopea. It contains a star cluster visible to the naked eye as a nebula. |
| persian | adjective | Of or pertaining to Persia, to the Persians, or to their language., A native or inhabitant of Persia., The language spoken in Persia., A thin silk fabric, used formerly for linings., See Persian columns, under Persian, a. |
| persism | noun | A Persian idiom. |
| persist | verb i. | To stand firm; to be fixed and unmoved; to stay; to continue steadfastly; especially, to continue fixed in a course of conduct against opposing motives; to persevere; — sometimes conveying an unfavorable notion, as of doggedness or obstinacy. |
| persona | noun | Same as Person, n., 8. |
| pertain | verb i. | To belong; to have connection with, or dependence on, something, as an appurtenance, attribute, etc.; to appertain; as, saltness pertains to the ocean; flowers pertain to plant life., To have relation or reference to something. |
| perturb | verb t. | To disturb; to agitate; to vex; to trouble; to disquiet., To disorder; to confuse. |
| pertuse | adjective | Alt. of Pertused |
| perulae | plural | of Perula |
| perusal | noun | The act of carefully viewing or examining., The act of reading, especially of reading through or with care. |
| perused | imp. & past participle | of Peruse |
| peruser | noun | One who peruses. |
| pervade | verb t. | To pass or flow through, as an aperture, pore, or interstice; to permeate., To pass or spread through the whole extent of; to be diffused throughout. |
| pervert | verb t. | To turnanother way; to divert., To turn from truth, rectitude, or propriety; to divert from a right use, end, or way; to lead astray; to corrupt; also, to misapply; to misinterpret designedly; as, to pervert one’s words., To become perverted; to take the wrong course., One who has been perverted; one who has turned to error, especially in religion; — opposed to convert. See the Synonym of Convert. |
| pervial | adjective | Pervious. |
| peshito | noun | Alt. of Peshitto |
| pessary | noun | An instrument or device to be introduced into and worn in the vagina, to support the uterus, or remedy a malposition., A medicinal substance in the form of a bolus or mass, designed for introduction into the vagina; a vaginal suppository. |
| pessuli | plural | of Pessulus |
| pestful | adjective | Pestiferous. |
| pestled | imp. & past participle | of Pestle |
| petting | present participle & vb. noun | of Pet |
| petaled | adjective | Having petals; as, a petaled flower; — opposed to apetalous, and much used in compounds; as, one-petaled, three-petaled, etc. |
| petalum | noun | A petal. |
| petasus | noun | The winged cap of Mercury; also, a broad-brimmed, low-crowned hat worn by Greeks and Romans. |
| petered | imp. & past participle | of Peter |
| peterel | noun | See Petrel. |
| petiole | noun | A leafstalk; the footstalk of a leaf, connecting the blade with the stem. See Illust. of Leaf., A stalk or peduncle. |
| petitor | noun | One who seeks or asks; a seeker; an applicant. |
| petrary | noun | An ancient war engine for hurling stones. |
| petrean | adjective | Of or pertaining to to rock. |
| petrify | verb t. | To convert, as any animal or vegetable matter, into stone or stony substance., To make callous or obdurate; to stupefy; to paralyze; to transform; as by petrifaction; as, to petrify the heart. Young., To become stone, or of a stony hardness, as organic matter by calcareous deposits., Fig.: To become stony, callous, or obdurate. |
| petrine | adjective | Of or pertaining to St.Peter; as, the Petrine Epistles. |
| petrous | adjective | Like stone; hard; stony; rocky; as, the petrous part of the temporal bone., Same as Petrosal. |
| pettily | adverb | In a petty manner; frivolously. |
| pettish | adjective | Fretful; peevish; moody; capricious; inclined to ill temper. |
| petunia | noun | A genus of solanaceous herbs with funnelform or salver-shaped corollas. Two species are common in cultivation, Petunia violacera, with reddish purple flowers, and P. nyctaginiflora, with white flowers. There are also many hybrid forms with variegated corollas. |
| petunse | noun | Alt. of Petuntze |
| petzite | noun | A telluride of silver and gold, related to hessite. |
| pewtery | adjective | Belonging to, or resembling, pewter; as, a pewtery taste. |
| peytrel | noun | The breastplate of a horse’s armor or harness. [Spelt also peitrel.] See Poitrel. |