P
- Pacifist – peace lover or peace maker
- Paean – song of praise or joy
- Palatable – agreeable, pleasing to taste
- Pall – funeral cloth, dark cloud of smoke and dust
- Pallid – pale
- Palpitate – beat rapidly (heart), shake, tremble
- Palliate – ease pain, make less severe
- Palpable – tangible, visible
- Pan – criticize harshly
- Panacea – heal-all, cure all
- Panache – flair, flamboyance
- Pandemonium – a situation in which there is a lot of noise and confusion
- Panegyric – formal praise
- Pantomime – acting without dialogue
- Pander – satisfy, fulfill
- Parable – a short allegorical story designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle, or moral lesson
- Paramour – a lover, especially the illicit partner of a married person.
- Pariah – untouchable, outcast
- Parlance – a particular way of speaking or using words
- Paley – negotiation, conference, discussion
- Parochial – narrow minded
- Paroxysm – fit, attack of pain
- Parsimony – meanness, quality of being careful with money or resources
- Passe – out of date, unfashionable
- Peccadillo – slight offense
- Penance – self imposed punishment for sin
- Penitent – repentant, feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong
- Pensive – thoughtful
- Penury – severe poverty
- Percussion – striking one object against another sharply
- Perdition – destruction
- Peregrination – wanderings, journey
- Peremptory – irreversible, final, insisting on immediate attention
- Perfunctory – superficial
- Peripatetic – nomadic, traveling, wandering
- Perjury – the offence of willfully telling an untruth
- Pernicious – very destructive
- Perpetrate – commit an offense
- Perpetuate – make something last, preserve from extinction
- Pertinent – relevant, appropriate
- Peruse – examine or read carefully and thoroughly
- Pervasive – spread throughout
- Perverse –awkward, disobedient, unreasonable
- Perversion – corruption
- Pestle – a heavy tool with a rounded end, used for crushing and grinding substances, typically in a mortar
- Phlegmatic – calm
- Piecemeal – slowly, gradually
- Pied – having two or more different colors
- Pillage – plunder
- Pillory –attack, criticize
- Pique – a feeling of irritation or resentful
- Pith –essence of something, the spongy white tissue lining the rind of oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits
- Pittance – a small allowance or wage
- Placebo – a pill or substance that is given to a patient like a drug but that has no physical effect on the patient
- Plagiarize – steal another’s ideas and pass then off as one’s own
- Plaintive – sad, mournful
- Plenary – complete, full
- Pliable – flexible, adaptable
- Pliant – flexible, easily influenced
- Plight – condition, state
- Plucky – courage
- Plumb – exactly, precisely
- Politic – wise, sensible, judicious
- Portly – short
- Posterity – descendants or future generations of people
- Pragmatic – practical
- Prattle – babble
- Precarious – uncertain
- Precept – practical rule
- Preclude – make impossible
- Precursor – forefather or father, parent, ancestor
- Predicament – trick or dangerous situation
- Preempt – prevent, seize, acquire, forestall, take
- Preen – make oneself tidy
- Prelude – introduction
- Premonition – a strong feeling that something unpleasant is about to happen
- Preponderance – dominance, superiority or excess in number or quantity
- Preposterous –foolish, comical, ridiculous
- Prerogative – a right or privilege, advantage
- Prescience – ability to foretell the future
- Pretext – excuse
- Prevaricate – lie
- Pristine –clean, in original condition, spotless
- Privation – hardship
- Probity – honesty, morality
- Prodigal – wasteful
- Profligate – wasteful, spendthrift, extravagant, corrupt, unprincipled
- Profound – very intense ( state, emotion, quality), having great knowledge ( of person or statement)
- Profusion – abundance, a large quantity of something
- Progeny – children, offspring
- Promiscuous – immoral, indiscriminate
- Propensity – natural inclination
- Propitiate – appease
- Proponent – supporter, backer
- Propound – put forth for analysis
- Prosaic – uninspired, ordinary, usual, dull
- Proscenium – part of a theatre stage in front of the curtain
- Protean – versatile
- Protégé – person receiving support
- Provender – animal food
- Provenance – origin or source
- Prude – excessively modest
- Pry – enquire impertinently into person’s private affairs
- Pulchritude – very beautiful