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Plain

To plane or level; to make plain or even on the surface.

Plain-dealing

Practicing plain dealing; artless. See Plain dealing, under Dealing.

Plain-laid

Consisting of strands twisted together in the ordinary way; as, a plain-laid rope. See Illust. of Cordage.

Plain-spoken

Speaking with plain, unreserved sincerity; also, spoken sincerely; as, plain-spoken words.

Plainant

One who makes complaint; the plaintiff.

Plainness

The quality or state of being plain.

plains wanderer

A bird of the genus Pedionomus (Pedionomus torquatus) of New South Wales, the only species in the genus. Pedionomus is the only genus of the family Pedionomidae of the order Passeriformes and the plains wanderer is thus the only species in the family. The total world population (ca. 2000) is estimated to be 5 to 10 thousand.

Plaint

Audible expression of sorrow; lamentation; complaint; hence, a mournful song; a lament.

Plaintful

Containing a plaint; complaining; expressing sorrow with an audible voice.

Plait

To fold; to double in narrow folds; to pleat; as, to plait a ruffle.

Plaited

Folded; doubled over; braided; figuratively, involved; intricate; artful.

Plaiter

One who, or that which, plaits.

Plan

To form a delineation of; to draught; to represent, as by a diagram.

Planaria

Any species of turbellarian worms belonging to Planaria, and many allied genera. The body is usually flat, thin, and smooth. Some species, in warm countries, are terrestrial.

Planarian

One of the Planarida, or Dendroc/la; any turbellarian worm.

Planarida

A division of Turbellaria; the Dendroc/la.

Planary

Of or pertaining to a plane.

Planch

To make or cover with planks or boards; to plank.

Planchet

A flat piece of metal; especially, a disk of metal ready to be stamped as a coin.

Planching

The laying of floors in a building; also, a floor of boards or planks.

Plane

Of a boat, to lift more or less out of the water while in motion, after the manner of a hydroplane; to hydroplane.

Plane-parallel

Having opposite surfaces exactly plane and parallel, as a piece of glass.

Planer

One who, or that which, planes; a planing machine; esp., a machine for planing wood or metals.

Planet

A celestial body which revolves about the sun in an orbit of a moderate degree of eccentricity. It is distinguished from a comet by the absence of a coma, and by having a less eccentric orbit. See Solar system.

Planetary

Of or pertaining to the planets; as, planetary inhabitants; planetary motions; planetary year.

Planetoid

A body resembling a planet; an asteroid.

Plangency

The quality or state of being plangent; a beating sound.

Planiform

Having a plane surface; as, a planiform, gliding, or arthrodial articulation.

Planimeter

An instrument for measuring the area of any plane figure, however irregular, by passing a tracer around the bounding line; a platometer.

Planimetry

The mensuration of plane surfaces; -- distinguished from stereometry, or the mensuration of volumes.

Planipennia

A suborder of Neuroptera, including those that have broad, flat wings, as the ant-lion, lacewing, etc. Called also Planipennes.

Planish

To make smooth or plane, as a metallic surface; to condense, toughen, and polish by light blows with a hammer.

Planisphere

The representation of the circles of the sphere upon a plane; especially, a representation of the celestial sphere upon a plane with adjustable circles, or other appendages, for showing the position of the heavens, the time of rising and setting of stars, etc., for any given date or hour.

Plank

To cover or lay with planks; as, to plank a floor or a ship.

Plank-sheer

The course of plank laid horizontally over the timberheads of a vessel's frame.

Planking

The act of laying planks; also, planks, collectively; a series of planks in place, as the wooden covering of the frame of a vessel.

Plankton

All the animals and plants, taken collectively, which live at or near the surface of salt or fresh waters.

Plano- Plani-

Combining forms signifying flat, level, plane; as planifolious, planimetry, plano-concave.

Plano-concave

Plane or flat on one side, and concave on the other; as, a plano-concave lens. See Lens.

Plano-conical

Plane or flat on one side, and conical on the other.

Plano-convex

Plane or flat on one side, and convex on the other; as, a plano-convex lens. See Convex, and Lens.

Planoblast

Any free-swimming gonophore of a hydroid; a hydroid medusa.

Planogamete

One of the motile ciliated gametes, or zoogametes, found in isogamous plants, as many green alg/ (Chlorophyce/).

Planometer

An instrument for gauging or testing a plane surface. See Surface gauge, under Surface.

Planometry

The art or process of producing or gauging a plane surface.

Planorbis

Any fresh-water air-breathing mollusk belonging to Planorbis and other allied genera, having shells of a discoidal form.

Plant

To perform the act of planting.

Plant-cane

A stalk or shoot of sugar cane of the first growth from the cutting. The growth of the second and following years is of inferior quality, and is called rattoon.

Plant-eating

Eating, or subsisting on, plants; as, a plant-eating beetle.

Plantable

Capable of being planted; fit to be planted.

Plantage

A word used once by Shakespeare to designate plants in general, or anything that is planted.

Plantain

Any plant of the genus Plantago, but especially the Plantago major, a low herb with broad spreading radical leaves, and slender spikes of minute flowers. It is a native of Europe, but now found near the abode of civilized man in nearly all parts of the world.

Plantal

Belonging to plants; as, plantal life.

Plantar

Of or pertaining to the sole of the foot; as, the plantar arteries.

Plantation

The act or practice of planting, or setting in the earth for growth.

Planted

Fixed in place, as a projecting member wrought on a separate piece of stuff; as, a planted molding.

Planter

One who, or that which, plants or sows; as, a planterof corn; a machine planter.

Plantership

The occupation or position of a planter, or the management of a plantation, as in the United States or the West Indies.

Plantigrada

A subdivision of Carnivora having plantigrade feet. It includes the bears, raccoons, and allied species.

Plantigrade

A plantigrade animal, or one that walks or steps on the sole of the foot, as man, and the bears.

Planting

The act or operation of setting in the ground for propagation, as seeds, trees, shrubs, etc.; the forming of plantations, as of trees; the carrying on of plantations, as of sugar, coffee, etc.

Plantless

Without plants; barren of vegetation.

Plantocracy

Government by planters; planters, collectively.

Plantule

The embryo which has begun its development in the act of germination.

Planula

In embryonic development, a vesicle filled with fluid, formed from the morula by the divergence of its cells in such a manner as to give rise to a central space, around which the cells arrange themselves as an envelope; an embryonic form intermediate between the morula and gastrula. Sometimes used as synonymous with gastrula.

Planxty

An Irish or Welsh melody for the harp, sometimes of a mournful character.

Plaque

Any flat, thin piece of metal, clay, ivory, or the like, used for ornament, or for painting pictures upon, as a slab, plate, dish, or the like, hung upon a wall; also, a smaller decoration worn on the person, as a brooch.

Plaquette

A small plaque, esp., in modern medal engraving, a small and delicate bas-relief, whether cast or struck from a die, or of form other than circular.

Plash

The branch of a tree partly cut or bent, and bound to, or intertwined with, other branches.

Plashet

A small pond or pool; a puddle.

Plashing

The cutting or bending and intertwining the branches of small trees, as in hedges.

Plashoot

A hedge or fence formed of branches of trees interlaced, or plashed.

Plashy

Watery; abounding with puddles; splashy.

Plasm

A mold or matrix in which anything is cast or formed to a particular shape.

Plasma

A variety of quartz, of a color between grass green and leek green, which is found associated with common chalcedony. It was much esteemed by the ancients for making engraved ornaments.

Plasmic

Of, pertaining to, or connected with, plasma; plasmatic.

Plasmid

A piece of DNA, usually circular, functioning as part of the genetic material of a cell, not integrated with the chromosome and replicating independently of the chromosome, but transferred, like the chromosome, to subsequent generations of daughter cells. In bacteria, plasmids often carry the genes for antibiotic resistance; they are exploited in genetic engineering as the vehicles for introduction of extraneous DNA into cells, to alter the genetic makeup of the cell. The cells thus altered may produce desirable proteins which are extracted and used; in the case of genetically altered plant cells, the altered cells may grow into complete plants with changed properties, as for example, increased resistance to disease.

Plasmin

A proteid body, separated by some physiologists from blood plasma. It is probably identical with fibrinogen.

Plasmodial

Of or pertaining to, or like, a plasmodium; as, the plasmodial form of a life cycle.

Plasmodium

A jellylike mass of free protoplasm, without any union of am/boid cells, and endowed with life and power of motion.

Plasmogen

The important living portion of protoplasm, considered a chemical substance of the highest elaboration. Germ plasm and idioplasm are forms of plasmogen.

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