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Processed cheese
Processed cheese: cheese melted and emulsified with salts like sodium citrate or phosphate into a shelf-stable, non-ripening product. Invented in Switzerland 1911; patented by James L. Kraft in 1916; includes cheese food and spread grades.
Processed Food
Processed food: any raw agricultural commodity altered by washing, heating, canning, freezing, packaging, and similar procedures; graded by the NOVA system into four groups, with ultra-processed foods (UPF) linked in cohort studies to obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Processed meat
Processed meat: meat transformed by salting, curing, fermentation, or smoking for flavor or preservation (hot dogs, ham, sausages, jerky). IARC Group 1 carcinogen; 50 g daily raises colorectal cancer risk about 18%.
Profiterole
Profiterole: a small filled pastry of puffed choux pastry (pâte à choux), classically filled with Chantilly cream or vanilla ice cream and coated in hot chocolate sauce; 16th-century French word from profit, related to cream puffs, éclairs, and croquembouche.
Progress Pride flag
The Progress Pride flag, also called the Progress flag, is a 2018 redesign by Daniel Quasar. The flag adds a five-color chevron representing trans, non-binary, and people of color.
Prohibition in Canada
Prohibition in Canada was the banning of alcohol sales by most provinces, mostly from 1915 to the late 1920s, with a federal ban from 1918 to 1920. It was replaced by government-controlled liquor monopolies.
Proofing (baking technique)
Proofing (proving, final proof) is the final rise of shaped yeast dough before baking, distinct from bulk fermentation. Typical conditions: 28–30 °C, 75–85% RH, 30–90 minutes; readiness judged by the poke test, with under- and over-proofing symptoms.
Propitious Mango ice cream
Propitious Mango ice cream (Hong Qi Propitious) is a Chinese mango-shaped frozen dessert with a white chocolate shell and creamy mango filling that went viral on TikTok, sold in Asian supermarkets and later H-E-B.
Prosciutto
Prosciutto, Italian dry-cured raw ham from a pig's hind leg, preserved with salt and air; Prosciutto di Parma PDO (14 months minimum, Ducal Crown mark) and Prosciutto di San Daniele (pressed, foot kept) are the leading protected varieties.
Prosecco
Prosecco, also Glera-based Italian sparkling wine, is made by tank (Charmat) fermentation in Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia; Prosecco DOC topped 667 million bottles in 2025, with Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG as its historic heart.
Prostration
Prostration is the devotional act of lowering the body, kneeling or lying face down, in worship. Known as sujud in Islam, proskynesis in Orthodoxy, and pranama in Hinduism, it expresses humility, submission, and purification of pride across religions.
Protect the Dolls
Protect the Dolls: slogan supporting trans women, from 1980s ballroom slang "dolls," popularized by Conner Ives' 2025 London Fashion Week T-shirt worn by Pedro Pascal, raising funds for Trans Lifeline.
Protective Clothing
Protective clothing, also called chemical protective clothing or CPC, is PPE garments shielding wearers from chemical, biological, heat, and mechanical hazards, classified by standards such as ANSI/AAMI PB70, EN 14126, and ISO Types 1–6.
Provençal quilts
Provençal quilts: French raised-relief whole-cloth quilting, chiefly boutis, piqûre de Marseille, and matelassage, made by cording two fine fabric layers from the reverse; Marseille tradition since the 13th century, inscribed in France's intangible heritage in 2019.
Prue Leith
Dame Prue Leith (born 1940, Cape Town) is a South African-born British restaurateur, cookery writer and novelist, founder of Leith's restaurant and cookery school, Bake Off judge 2017–2025, and Dame Commander (2021).
Pu pu platter
Pu pu platter (pupu, pu-pu): an American Chinese and Hawaiian appetizer sampler, from Hawaiian pū-pū; earliest documented menu Trader Vic's Honolulu 1950s, first press mention Luau 400, 1957.
Pu'er tea
Pu'er tea (普洱茶) is a fermented tea from Yunnan's large-leaf tea plant, made as raw (sheng) or pile-fermented ripe (shou) tea, historically traded to Tibet on the Ancient Tea-Horse Road and defined by standard GB/T 22111-2008.
Pub names
Pub names: traditional names of British public houses, derived from medieval pictorial signs (Red Lion, Crown, Royal Oak, White Hart). Signs preceded names because most customers were illiterate; a 1393 law required signs for ale inspection.
Public holidays in Australia
Public holidays in Australia: state and territory-set paid holidays under the Fair Work Act NES. Seven shared days (New Year's Day, Australia Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Anzac Day, Christmas, Boxing Day); others vary by jurisdiction, with weekend substitution rules.
Public holidays in Germany
Public holidays in Germany (gesetzliche Feiertage): nine nationwide holidays plus state-specific days set by each Land's Feiertagsgesetz; only 3 October is federal, with paid holiday rest under the EntgFG.
Public holidays in India
Public holidays in India: gazetted (compulsory) and restricted (optional) holidays set separately by the central government (17 gazetted, 2 restricted for 2026) and by each of 28 states and 8 union territories, with Republic Day, Independence Day, and Gandhi Jayanti applying nationwide.
Public holidays in Japan
Public holidays in Japan (国民の祝日) are 16 annual days off designated by the 1948 Act on National Holidays (Law No. 178), with substitute and between-holiday days off, Happy Monday moves, and the highest G7 holiday count.
Public holidays in Poland
Public holidays in Poland (dni ustawowo wolne od pracy): 14 statutory days off under the 1951 Act on days off from work, including Christmas Eve from 2025, with Sunday trading bans and day-off-in-lieu rules.
Public holidays in South Korea
Public holidays in South Korea (공휴일) are days designated by the 2021 Act on Public Holidays: national holidays, Seollal, Chuseok, Buddha's Birthday, Children's Day, Labor Day, Christmas, and election days, with substitute holidays and paid application under the Labor Standards Act.
Public holidays in the Philippines
Public holidays in the Philippines are days designated by RA 9492 and annual presidential proclamations as regular holidays, special non-working days, special working days, or additional special non-working days, each with distinct DOLE pay rules; Eidul Fitr and Eidul Adha dates are proclaimed separately by the Islamic calendar.
Public holidays in the United Kingdom
Public holidays in the United Kingdom, called bank holidays, are statutory days under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 plus common law holidays; England and Wales have eight, Scotland nine, Northern Ireland ten, with no statutory right to time off.
Public holidays in the United States
Public holidays in the United States are 11 annual legal holidays for federal employees, from New Year's Day to Christmas Day, with states setting their own.
Publix
Publix, formally Publix Super Markets, is an American supermarket chain founded by George W. Jenkins in 1930, headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, and the largest employee-owned company in the United States.
Puce
Puce is a brownish-purple color, French for "flea" (Latin pulex); used in English from 1782, popular in 18th-century French fashion because it did not soil easily, and unrelated to the obsolete color word "puke".
Pudding
Pudding is a food word with split meanings: in British English a dessert, dessert course, or boiled/steamed sweet or savory dish; in American English a milk-based custard-like dessert. From Middle English poding, a sausage (Latin botellus).