P vocabulary

Painstaking (adjective)
showing or marked by attentiveness to all aspects or details.
Paying painstaking attention to detail, French artist Lucien Rudaux was the first to combine his artistic talents with his knowledge of astronomy.

Pale (adjective)
of a moderately white color; lacking color.
Due to the intense ultraviolet rays of the sun, the paint on the car oxidized, causing it to change to a pale yellow.

Paleoanthropologist (noun)
one who studies in a branch of anthropology dealing with fossil hominids–any of a family (Hominidae) of erect bipedal primate mammals comprising recent humans together with extinct ancestral and related forms.

The announcement was made this week by paleoanthropologist Tim White of the University of California at Berkeley. White, who co-led the joint U.S.-Ethiopian research team that made the discovery, noted that the skulls, which are between 154,000 and 160,000 years old,

Pamphlet (noun)
a small unbound booklet or leaflet.
A pamphlet entitled A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law and town instructions denouncing the Stamp Act (1765) marked him as a vigorous, patriotic penman, and, holding various local offices, he soon became a leader among Massachusetts radicals.

Paradigm (noun)
example of a pattern or ideas of particular theories about a given subject.
Cognitive Psychology is an empirical science and depends on careful experimental procedures and paradigms to test theories about these mental processes.

Paralyze (verb)
to render powerless or motionless by inflicting severe injury; to render helpless, as by emotion.
The hiker was paralyzed with fear after seeing the mountain lion face to face.

Parameter (noun)
constant element or factor, especially one serving as a limit or boundary.
19th century astronomers made very careful observations of Mercury's orbital parameters but could not adequately explain those using Newtonian mechanics.

Parasite (noun)
an organism living in, with, or on another organism.
A new theory suggests that human hairlessness evolved as a strategy to shed the ticks, lice, fleas and other parasites that nestle deep in fur.

Pare (verb)
to diminish or reduce by or as if by trimming off an outside, excess, or irregular part of something.
Under new CEO Paul Tellier, a proven cost cutter, Bombardier Inc., the parent company of Bombardier Aerospace, is paring down its operations to become nimbler and more focused on its core businesses, making trains and planes.

Parody (noun)
a false, mocking, or disrespectful imitation of something.
Many writers make a distinction between poetic truth and historical truth and attempt, through the use of parody, to set their boundaries.

Particle (noun)
a tiny amount.
The introduction of more compression causes the new helium particles inside of the core to collide hard enough so that they can stick together and fuse.

Partisan (adjective)
showing an inclination for or against something that inhibits impartial judgment.
Divisive and partisan politics is quite common among governmental offices in many countries.

Pass (noun)
a narrow passage through mountains.
Sitting just west of the Nevada boundary in the basin and range district of the Mojave Desert, Death Valley is all but surrounded by mountain ranges, with a few roads connecting the valley to the outside world through narrow passes.

Passionate (noun)
fired with intense feeling.
It is mentioned in many history books that Abigail Adams was a wise, learned, strong willed, passionate, and patriotic woman.

Pastorate (noun)
office in which a priest or minister is in charge of a church or a congregation.
Rejecting offers for academic positions, King decided while completing his Ph. D. requirements to return to the South and accepted the pastorate of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.

Pasture (noun)
grassland suitable for grazing
The settlers to the new world called the New World "Vinland," an Old Norse term for
grassland or pasture.

Patriarchal (adjective)
relating to system of society or government ruled by men.
Some decry marriage as a sexist and patriarchal institution that should be avoided at all costs.

Patron (adjective)
a person chosen, named, or honored as a special guardian, protector, or supporter.
Some authorities believe the Romans named the month for Juno, the patron goddess of marriage.

Payload (noun)
the load carried by a vehicle exclusive of what is necessary for its operation; especially: the load carried by an aircraft or spacecraft consisting of things such as passengers or
instruments necessary to the purpose of the flight.
Scientists have worked for years to harness the power that viruses have to invade cells, replacing unwanted elements of herpes and other viruses with disease-fighting genes in hopes the new genetic payload would correct a targeted illness.

Peak (noun)
the highest point of a mountain.
The western side of the valley is defined by the Panamint Range, with Telescope Peak its highest spot at an elevation of 11,049 feet.

Peasant (noun)
small farmer or agricultural worker.
Sterling observed only a small number of cases in which a man married more than one wife in the Turkish peasant villages he studied.

Pebble (noun)
a small smooth stone worn by the action of water.
The 3 mile wide comet will not be destroyed or knocked from its orbit. It's like if you throw a pebble at a moving car. You're not going to knock the car off course, unless you
frighten the driver.

Peculiarity (noun)
peculiar behavior; a distinctive element.
Demographic peculiarities reveal a pattern of upward marriage or hyper gamy which is quite different from endogamy and reflects an acknowledged status difference among  communities.

Peg (verb)
to establish the identification of.
Today's most sophisticated forecast models cannot peg mountain convection well enough to assess how it might trigger storm complexes downstream.

Pelt (noun)
the skin of an animal.
Many hunters and fur traders sought money in beaver and otter pelts, and deer and buffalo skins.

Penance (noun)
act of self-punishment as reparation for guilt, sins, etc.
As penance for their sins, some religions require their members to engage in certain embarrassing rituals before they can receive forgiveness.

Peninsula (noun)
a piece of land jutting out into the water and connected with a larger body of land with an isthmus.
Jamestown, Virginia, founded during the latter half of the seventeenth century, was built on a peninsula.

Peppered (verb)
to direct a concentrated outpouring, as of missiles, words, or blows.
The military outpost was peppered with machine gun fire continuously for three hours.

Percentage (noun)
rate or proportion percent.
Binet discovered that the percentage of subnormal children stayed about the same if he
took the ratio between the child’s "mental age" and "chronological age" instead of the
difference between the two.

Perception (noun)
the condition of being aware; that which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity.
The cognition and perception program represents a very diverse group of faculty and students with research interests in all areas of cognitive science, including sensation, perception, motor performance, attention, memory, learning, and decision making.

Perch (adjective)
a resting place or vantage point; a roost for a bird
When feeding in a field, crows usually post a sentinel on a lofty perch to sound a warning if any danger should approach.

Peril (noun)
exposure to the risk of being injured, destroyed, or lost.
With the falloff in old-style agriculture, the region's remarkably diverse plant community, including many rare wildflower species, is also in peril.

Peripheral (adjective)
of minor importance; marginal.
Cervantes's book was read as a parody of novels of chivalry until the Romantics revealed its true importance as a novel. Part one interpolates peripheral episodes into the main
plot.

Perish (verb)
to cease living.
At least 80 and perhaps hundreds of people perished in the deadliest historical eruption to occur in what is now Hawaii.

Permeate (verb)
to diffuse through or penetrate something
Hot, humid weather permeated the East on Thursday, and many areas of the central United States received rain.

Perpendicular to (adjective)
at right angles to the horizon or to level ground
Since lift always occurs perpendicular to the surface of the wing, the lift acts at an angle and the plane turns accordingly.

Persecution (noun)
very painful punishment.
Some people with mental disorders have a tendency toward self-persecution, self sabotage, and even violence.

Persistent (adjective)
insistently continuous; of long duration.
After persistent rumors of a deep underground lake somewhere in a cave in East Tennessee, a large body of water now named the Lost Sea was discovered in 1905.

Persnickety (adjective)
fussy about small details: fastidious.
Some common complaints about usage strike me as too persnickety, but I'm just discussing mistakes in English that happen to bother me.

Personalize (verb)
to make personal, which is characterized by a close and thorough acquaintance.
To personalize a business relationship can be effective in many cultures.

Perspective (noun)
that which is or can be seen; mental view of the relative importance of things.
Although few occupations include "sociologist" in their title at the bachelor's level, the sociological perspective is excellent preparation for a wide variety of occupations.

Pervasive (adjective)
widespread; occurring quite often.
Over one half million people in the U.S. today have autism or some form of pervasive developmental disorder.

Pest (noun)
something resembling a pest in destructiveness; especially: a plant or animal detrimental to humans or human concerns (as agriculture or livestock production).
"Disgusting," "dirty," and "pest" are just some of the words we associate with the very unpopular insect, the cockroach.

Phenomenal (adjective)
so remarkable as to elicit disbelief.
Few in the music world were prepared for the phenomenal success in 1983 of Michael Jackson's Thriller produced by Quincy Jones.

Phobia (noun)
having a fear of something
People who have a lot of phobias will also be characterized as having unusually high stress levels.

Phony (adjective)
unreal, fake, pretend.
Multiple Personality Disorder was being thrown into disrepute by many people giving phony demonstrations of alter switching during television talk shows.

Phrase (noun)
to convey in language or words of a particular form.
It would seem socially unacceptable utter the following phrase to a co-worker: “You are ugly?”

Physiologist (noun)
one who studies the functions of the living organisms and their living parts.
The first studies done with classical conditioning were performed by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist.

Pier (noun)
a structure extending into navigable water for use as a landing place or promenade or to protect or form a harbor.
Seaweeds, or algae, some of which attach themselves to stationary objects such as rocks or piers by the suction of organs called holdfasts, do not have roots like higher land plants.

Pigment (noun)
something that imparts color.
Many types of seaweed and other plants that do not appear to be green also have chlorophyll and therefore can convert the sun's energy into food. In these plants, the greenness is hidden by other pigments.

Pilgrimage (noun)
a journey to a shrine or sacred place.
Dr. Martin Luther King emphasized the goal of black voting rights when he spoke at the Lincoln Memorial during the 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom.

Pinpoint (verb)
to look for and discover; to establish the identification of.
In cores from Antarctica and Greenland, researchers have pinpointed the beginning of atomic bomb testing in the mid 1950s.

Pipeline (noun)
a line of pipe with pumps, valves, and control devices for conveying liquids, gases, or solids.
Diamonds were formed under extreme heat and pressure at our Earth's core. They traveled to the surface through volcanic pipelines known as kimberlitic during the Earth's formation.

Pivotal (adjective)
vitally important, crucial.
The difference is that these kids were already playing a pivotal role in the shaping of that culture, being the first generation to grow up with a Life on the Internet.

Placebo (noun)
an inert or harmless substance used especially in the controlled experiments testing the effectiveness of another substance.
The research compared results of the crushed-body treatment with the results of immunotherapy that used insect venom and also the results of a placebo.

Plug (verb)
to make unsuitable for passage or progress by obstruction
Acne starts when greasy secretions from the skin's sebaceous glands plug the tiny openings for hair follicles.

Plausible (adjective)
worthy of being believed.
Believing that he had a plausible alibi the day his wife was murdered, investigators let the suspect go home with no charges being filed.

Playwright (noun)
a person who writes plays.
William Shakespeare, famous for the tragedy “Romeo and Juliet,” was one of the greatest playwrights to ever exist.

Plume (noun)
an open and mobile column of smoke, exhaust gases, or blowing snow.
Great plumes of smoke were seen in the horizon.

Poach (verb)
to take game or fish by illegal methods.
Chinese folk medicines utilize almost every part of the tiger's body, leading to widespread poaching of these animals.

Pocketbook (noun)
financial resources: income
Our recommendations will help you build a system that fits both your needs and your pocketbook.

Polygamy (noun)
marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate a the same time.
Polygamy is allowable in Islamic tradition but is prohibited in Turkish law.

Polyp (noun)
a projecting mass of swollen and hypertrophied or membrane; a coelenterate that has typically a hollow cylindrical body surrounded by tentacles armed with nematocysts.
The ability that humans have to change the earth’s surface is rivaled only by colonies of tiny coral polyps, which over millions of years form massive coral reefs of limestone.

Pomp (noun)
a ceremonial or festival display as a train of followers or a pageant.
The four-day visit, aimed at patching up differences between the two countries over issues such as the Iraq war, will be laden with state events and royal pomp such as Tuesday evening's state banquet in Putin's honor.

Pool (noun)
an aggregation of the interests or property of different persons made to further a joint
undertaking by subjecting them to the same control and a common liability.
Over one's working life, that may be true, but a bachelor's degree, for example, could be a minimum prerequisite that keeps you from being screened out of the applicant pool.

Ponder (verb)
to consider carefully and at length.
Program directors and staff ponder the disruptive dynamism of these new healthcare reforms. In a short time, the reforms might well be a dynamic instability in the care and networking of patients with cardiovascular diseases.

Portfolio (noun)
the securities held by an investor: the commercial paper held by financial house like a bank.
It's a good bet rates will rise if the prime rate increases, since the lender's cost of doing business will be higher. Or they may change if the lender sells its portfolio of customers to another bank.

Portion (noun)
one of the parts into which something is divided
In 1848, the Virginia portion of land donated as part of the District of Columbia was returned to that state.

Pose (verb)
to present for attention or consideration; to put or set forth.
As researchers continue to search the skies for objects that pose an impact risk, they are also beginning discussions on how to deflect an object on a collision course with Earth.

Possession (noun)
those articles which belong to someone.
Junko left most of her possessions with her parents before leaving to the United States.

Post (noun)
an office or position to which a person is appointed.
He steadily advanced at the UN, holding posts in budget, personnel, and refugee affairs.

Postpone (verb)
to put off until a later time.
The exam was postponed until the next week.

Posturing (noun)
the act of representing oneself in a given character or as other than what one is.
Political posturing is quite common in presidential elections.

Power plant (noun)
a building or complex in which electricity is produced.
Atmospheric carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides from coal and oil burning power plants, cars, and other fossil fuel burning sources have climbed along with the world population, with as yet unknown effects on the climate system.

Prairie (noun)
a large area of level or rolling land in the Mississippi River valley that has deep fertile soil, a cover of tall coarse grasses, and few trees.
The Midwestern part of the United States is characterized by vast prairies, rich agricultural farmland, and intense thunderstorms.

Precipitate (verb)
something brought about by a cause.
In 1861_1862, Federal forces pushing southward from St. Louis captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, which precipitated the Battle of Shiloh.

Precise (adjective)
clearly, fully, and sometimes emphatically expressed.
To maintain flexibility, stretching must be performed at least everyday (every 36 hours to be precise).

Preconceived (adjective)
to form an opinion prior to actual knowledge or experience
The Battle of Shiloh would change all preconceived notions that the Civil War would be short lived.

Precursor (noun)
a forerunner; one that proceeds and indicates the approach of another.
If language evolved by gradual Darwinian natural selection, we must be able to find some precursor of it in our closest relatives, the chimpanzees.

Predator (noun)
one that preys, destroys, or devours.
Sea lions, seals, and sharks are natural predators of the salmon.

Predecessor (noun)
one that precedes; especially : a person who has previously occupied a position or office to which another has succeeded.
Scientists have unearthed three 160,000_year_old human skulls in Ethiopia that are the oldest known and best preserved fossils of modern humans' immediate predecessors.

Preface (noun)
a short section of preliminary remarks.
Renaissance books established the convention of the preface that is found in most books of today.

Preliminary (adjective)
Avian (bird) mortality is being studied currently to determine if industrial wind turbine farms contribute to the demise of large birds of prey such as golden and bald eagles.
Preliminary results indicate that avian mortality is specific to the site (if it's on a flyway), not the turbines in general.

Prescribed (adjective)
relating to setting forth expressly and authoritatively.
Not only have national parks been thinking about this option, private land owners have been debating prescribed burning as well.

Presumably (adverb)
according to a tentative assumption.
While a psychologist openly shares psychological principles to promote treatment, psychics use psychology as a personal tool to manipulate the client, known as the sitter, presumably for the sitter's own good.

Prevalence (noun)
the quality or condition of being usual.
Its prevalence rate makes autism one of the most common developmental disabilities.

Prey (noun)
one that is made to suffer injury, loss, or death.
Venom is then injected into the prey by an opening near the tip of the fang.

Primarily (adverb)
for the greater or larger part; mostly
Sulfates, which originate primarily in coal fired power plants, started rising around 1900.

Primate (noun)
any of an order of mammals comprising man together with the apes, monkeys or related.
Allelomimetic behavior is highly developed among primates, where it has the principal function of providing warning against predators.

Primitive (adjective)
of or pertaining to early stages in the evolution of human culture.
In primitive times, there were no televisions, radios, or microwaves.

Principal (adjective)
most important, influential, or significant.
William Faulkner’s principal residence during the next several months was near Paris, France, just around the corner from the Luxembourg Gardens, where he spent much of his time; his written description of the gardens would later be revised for the closing of his novel Sanctuary.

Principle (noun)
a broad and basic rule or truth.
The best philosophy I can convey about how to avoid problems is the principle of the three red flags, which states that most accidents are not the result of an unavoidable "karmic-cannonball," but rather are the predictable outcome of a series of related events.

Prior to (verb)
going before; just gone by or elapsed
No one else had gone to college prior to his entering Harvard.

Probable (adjective)
likely to happen or to be true; based on probability or presumption.
The Ontario report found a probable link between firefighting and cancer even though the evidence was inconsistent.

Probe (verb)
to study in order to acquire information.
The committee probed more into the allegations of whether or not he had engaged in insider trading.

Procedure (noun)
an official or prescribed course of action; a method used in dealing with something.
For those unfamiliar with the term, cold reading is the description of the personality, characteristics, and features, past experiences and sometimes the future of a person without the use of standard psychological or other formal diagnostic procedures.

Proclamation (noun)
a public statement; the act of announcing
Dubbed the Emancipation Proclamation, the law decreed that all slaves were free men.

Precocious (adjective)
exhibiting mature qualities at an unusually early age.
A recent study in Norway suggests that wild salmon lose out to sexually precocious fish-farm invaders when breeding in rivers.

Procurement (noun)
the act of getting possession of: obtaining by particular care and effort.
Most organ procurement organizations offer programs that forward letters from organ recipients to the families of organ donors.

Profound (adjective)
beyond the understanding of the average mind.
It is a complex story within the healthcare scheme of technological modernization that has one profound and simple reality: there will not be enough money to pay for the healthcare costs of this country.

Progeny (noun)
a group consisting of those descended directly from the same parents or ancestors.
John Adams's marriage of 54 years to this wise, learned, strong willed, passionate, and patriotic woman began the brilliant phase of Adams family history that produced their son John Quincy, his son Charles Francis, his sons Henry and Brooks, and numerous other distinguished progeny.

Project (verb)
a rough or tentative calculation.
The costs of advances in modern medical technology and services have been projected to be between $1.5 to $2.3 trillion dollars.

Prolific (adjective)
characterized by great productivity.
Ebay, an Internet company allowing people to buy and sell products Online, is one of the most prolific businesses in recent history.

Prolonged (adjective)
of long duration; extending tediously beyond a standard duration.
In 1772, Archbishop von Schrattenbach died, to be succeeded by Hieronymus von Colloredo. The latter, at first sympathetic to the Mozart’s, later became irritated by Wolfgang's prolonged absences and stubborn ways.

Prominent (adjective)
widely known and esteemed.
Thompson and Allen are respectively touted as prominent west coast and east coast movie producers.

Promisingly (adverb)
of, or relating to indicative of future success.
Mozart's career in Vienna began promisingly, and he was soon commissioned to write The Abduction from the Seraglio (1782).

Promote (verb)
to make known the positive features of a product; to provide favorable publicity for.
While a psychologist openly shares psychological principles to promote treatment, psychics use psychology as a personal tool to manipulate the client, known as the sitter, presumably for the sitter's own good.

Prone (adjective)
having or showing a tendency or likelihood.
More areas in the world were prone to drought than those in the past.

Propagate (verb)
to bring into existence and foster the development of; increase.
Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses.

Propel (verb)
to force to move or advance with or as if with blows or pressure.
After a person chews and swallows, the food is propelled down the ten inches of esophagus and into the stomach.

Propeller (noun)
revolving shaft with blades, especially for propelling a ship or airplane.
As the plane uses jet engines or even a propeller in some cases, to move itself forward, air rushes by the wing.

Propensity (noun)
an inclination or tendency to something.
Sakaltutan women show a low rate of remaining within their villages (just over 50%) and a high propensity to marry men in other locations.

Proponent (noun)
one who supports or champions an activity, institution, etc.
Morehouse College president Benjamin Mays and other proponents of Christian social activism influenced King's decision after his junior year at Morehouse to become a minister and thereby serve society.
Proportion (noun)
satisfying arrangement marked by even distribution of elements, as in a design.
The cut of a diamond refers to its proportions.

Prospector (noun)
one who searches for something, especially valuable minerals: gold, silver, and diamonds.
In the mid 1870s, gold was discovered, and press reports brought a rush of prospectors to California.

Prosperity (noun)
steady good fortune or financial security; a state of health, happiness, and prosperity.
Many gay couples are enjoying a higher level of economic prosperity than the average American and don't feel constrained in any way by a lack of marriage rights.

Protagonist (noun)
the main performer in a theatrical production.
Given to reading books of chivalry, the protagonist Alonso Quijano, influenced by the exploits of his heroes, loses his mind and decides to become a knight, go out in search of adventure, and impose justice according to the code of the knights errant.

Protruding (adjective)
to curve outward past the normal or usual limit.
An anorexic person has protruding ribs and resembles a skeleton, yet usually denies being thin.

Proverb (noun)
a usually familiar statement expressing an observation or principle generally accepted as wise or true.
Many Biblical proverbs are used in Western culture as informative verses by which a person can effectively govern his life.

Provision (verb)
to provide as of supplies; to be prepared beforehand
This species nests in the ground and provisions its nest with cicadas.

Prowess (noun)
distinguished bravery; especially : military valor and skill; extraordinary ability.
It was in England, at the Crystal Palace-the popular name for the first World's Fair, held in London in 1851-that America's industrial and technological prowess was first widely recognized.

Prowl (verb)
to roam over in a predatory manner; to move about or wander stealthily in or as if in search of prey.
At sea, large ships with heavy gear prowl in search of fish.

Psychic (noun)
considered to have powers such as telepathy [paranormal communication of thoughts, especially with the deceased] or clairvoyance [being to able to tell the future beyond the normal sensory contact]
In the majority of cases, sitters go to psychics to address a personal problem, whether t's travel, health, expectations, sex, career, ambitions, or money.

Psychoanalysis (noun)
a method of treating emotional disorders that emphasizes the importance of a patient’s talking freely about himself while under the treatment and especially about childhood experiences and about his dreams.
Dr. Sigmund Freud developed a new mental treatment which he named psychoanalysis.

Psychotic (adjective)
being insane or mad
Many murderers are psychotic, and they have no remorse about killing their victims.

Pulse (noun)
to make rhythmic contractions, sounds, or movements
In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On the Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request.

Pummel (verb)
to strike repeatedly by heavy blows so as to cause damage
Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday declared a state of emergency for seven southwestern Florida counties which were pummeled by torrential rain.

Pump (verb)
to remove a liquid by a steady, gradual process.
Some cities are now pumping water which has lain in underground storage for more than 25,000 years.

Pungent (adjective)
affecting the organs of taste or smell with a strong and often harsh sensation; so sharp as to cause mental pain.    
In a pungent diary, vivid letters, learned tracts, and patriotic speeches he revealed himself as a quintessential Puritan, patriarch of an illustrious family, tough minded philosopher of the republic, sage, and sometimes a vain, stubborn, and vitriolic partisan.

Pupil (noun)
one who is being educated, student.
It is fairly certain that Cervantes was a pupil of López de Hoyos in Madrid.

Push (noun)
a vigorous effort to attain an end, drive.
Back in the early 1960's when the fishery was really developing quite strongly, there was a push from both industry and government to make sure that things were going to be
sustainable.

Pursue (verb)
to follow another; to move behind another in the same direction.
His attempts to measure intelligence caught on and were pursued by others.