P, p
[ pee ]
/ pi /
noun, plural P's or Ps, p's or ps.
the sixteenth letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
any spoken sound represented by the letter P or p, as in pet, supper, top, etc.
something having the shape of a P.
a written or printed representation of the letter P or p.
a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter P or p.
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Were P And R Once The Same Letter?Do you ever stop and look at the shape of our alphabet? Each letter looks natural to us now, but all those lines and circles have unique histories. It’s easy to make assumptions that our letters make sense, that they developed in some orderly logical way, and one reasonable assumption would be that P and R are related to each other based on their form. …
RELATED WORDS
average, common, commonplace, conventional, cut-and-dried, dull, fair, familiar, formulaic, garden, generic, habitual, homespun, household, humble, indifferent, inferior, mean, mediocre, modest
p
1 Music. softly.
Origin of p
1From the Italian word piano
p
2penny; pence.
P
Education. (as a rating of student performance) passing.
Chess. pawn.
Electronics. plate.
Grammar. predicate.
P
Symbol.
the 16th in order or in a series, or, when I is omitted, the 15th.
Genetics. parental.
Chemistry. phosphorus.
Physics.
- power.
- pressure.
- proton.
- space inversion.
- poise2.
Biochemistry. proline.
p-
Chemistry. para-1(def 2).
P-
Military. (in designations of fighter aircraft) pursuit: P-38.
p.
1Origin of p.
1From the Latin word pater
p.
2 Music. softly.
Origin of p.
2From the Italian word piano
p.
3Origin of p.
3From the Latin word post
p.
4P.
1Origin of P.
1From the Latin word Pater
P.
2Heyse
[ hahy-zuh ]
/ ˈhaɪ zə /
noun
Paul (Jo·hann von) [poul yoh-hahn fuh n] /paʊl ˈyoʊ hɑn fən/, 1830–1914, German playwright, novelist, poet, and short-story writer: Nobel Prize 1910.
rho
[ roh ]
/ roʊ /
noun, plural rhos.
the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet (P, ρ).
the consonant sound represented by this letter.
Origin of rho
1350–1400; Middle English < Greek rhô
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for p
p
P
/ (piː) /
noun plural p's, P's or Ps
the 16th letter and 12th consonant of the modern English alphabet
a speech sound represented by this letter, usually a voiceless bilabial stop, as in pig
mind one's p's and q's to be careful to behave correctly and use polite or suitable language
symbol for
(in Britain) penny or pence
music piano: an instruction to play quietly
pico-
physics
- momentum
- proton
- pressure
P
symbol for
abbreviation for
Portugal (international car registration)
pharmacy only: used to label medicines that can be obtained without a prescription, but only at a shop at which there is a pharmacist
p-
prefix
short for para- 1 (def. 6)
p.
abbreviation for
Word Origin for p.
(sense 6) Latin: after (sense 7) Latin: in favour of; for
rho
/ (rəʊ) /
noun plural rhos
the 17th letter in the Greek alphabet (Ρ, ρ), a consonant transliterated as r or rh
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
P
a rare letter in the initial position in Germanic, in part because by Grimm's Law PIE p- became Germanic f-; even with the early Latin borrowings in Old English, -p- takes up a little over 4 pages in J.R. Clark Hall's "Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary," compared to 31 pages for B and more than 36 for F. But it now is the third-most-common initial letter in the English vocabulary, and with C and S comprises nearly a third of the dictionary, a testimony to the flood of words that have entered the language since 1066 from Latin, Greek, and French.
To mind one's Ps and Qs (1779), possibly is from confusion of these letters among children learning to write. Another theory traces it to old-time tavern-keepers tracking their patrons' bar tabs in pints and quarts. But cf. also to be P and Q (1610s), "to be excellent," a slang phrase said to derive from prime quality.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
P
The symbol for the elementphosphorus
p-
abbr.
para-
rho
n.
The 17th letter of the Greek alphabet.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
P
The symbol for parity.
The symbol for phosphorus.
The symbol for power.
The symbol for pressure.
phosphorus
[ fŏs′fər-əs ]
P
A highly reactive, poisonous nonmetallic element occurring naturally in phosphates, especially in the mineral apatite. It exists in white (or sometimes yellow), red, and black forms, and is an essential component of protoplasm. Phosphorus is used to make matches, fireworks, and fertilizers and to protect metal surfaces from corrosion. Atomic number 15; atomic weight 30.9738; melting point (white) 44.1°C; boiling point 280°C; specific gravity (white) 1.82; valence 3, 5. See Periodic Table.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
p
see mind one's p's and q's.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.