225 symbols beginning with P. Each one is read four ways, and every source is named so you can check it.
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- ParalysisDreaming you cannot move or speak, often on the edge of waking, usually pictures helplessness or a feeling of being stuck and unheard.
- Performing On StageDreaming of performing on stage often reflects how seen you feel and whether you can carry off the part others expect of you.
- Plane CrashA plane crash in a dream often dramatises a fear of losing control over something you have handed to forces beyond you, whether a plan, a journey,...
- PrayingPraying in a dream often reflects a reaching for help, meaning, or peace, and a sense that some matter is beyond your power alone.
- ProposingDreaming of proposing marriage often reflects a readiness to commit, or the hopes and fears that surround a deepening tie.
- ProtestingDreaming of protesting often gives shape to a strong objection or a feeling that something in your life needs to be openly resisted.
- Public SpeakingDreaming of public speaking usually stages the fear of being watched and judged, and of whether your words will hold up under all those eyes.
- PacifierThe dummy is reported as lost more often than as used, and the search for it in the dream is usually urgent and slow.
- PadlockA padlock often points to something closed off, secured, or barred to you, so notice whether you held the key or stood shut out.
- PainPain in a dream often carries a hurt of body or heart, and where it settled is usually the thread worth following back into waking life.
- PaintbrushA paintbrush often points to the wish to create or to shape how something is seen, so notice whether the work flowed or the brush failed you.
- PaintingA painting often pictures how you see a person or a situation, a framed and crafted view, so it helps to ask what it showed and whether it felt true.
- Palm readingHaving a hand read in a dream is reported for the reader's face rather than the reading, and dreamers often say they were not told what was seen.
- Palm TreeA palm tree often pictures rest, victory, or a longed-for warm refuge, a tree tied to oases, celebration, and ease.
- PancakePancakes are reported as being made rather than eaten, and the dreamer is usually not the one at the pan.
- PandaA panda often points to gentleness, a wish for calm and comfort, or a soft side of yourself that draws affection from others.
- PanicPanic in a dream marks a sense of threat that has overwhelmed the moment, and the feeling often reflects waking pressure more than any single thing...
- PansyA pansy often pictures fond thoughts and gentle remembrance, a small face-like flower long tied to thinking of someone and to modest affection.
- PantherA panther often points to sleek, hidden power moving through the dark, beautiful and dangerous at once.
- PantryA pantry in a dream is reported for how full it was, and dreamers frequently describe reaching for something that is not on the shelf where it shou...
- PaparazziBeing photographed by people the dreamer does not know is reported with a strong sense of not having agreed to it, and dreamers often say they coul...
- Paper bagThe paper bag turns up carrying something the dreamer cannot see, and the reported detail is usually the sound it made.
- ParachuteA parachute often pictures a controlled descent and a safeguard, the means that turns a fall into a survivable landing.
- ParanoiaParanoia in a dream carries a pressing sense of being watched or pursued, and what felt threatening is usually the thread to follow back into wakin...
- ParcelA parcel in a dream is reported for its label rather than its contents, and dreamers often report being certain it was not for them.
- ParentsParents appear in dreams as a pair far more often than as individuals, and dreamers frequently report them at an age that does not match the present.
- ParkA park often stands for rest, openness, and a wish for ease, a shared green space between the demands of ordinary life.
- Parking LotA parking lot often stands for a pause or a holding pattern, a place where your forward motion is set aside for a while.
- ParrotA parrot often points to repeating without understanding, bright self-expression, or echoing the words of others.
- PartnerA partner in a dream frequently behaves in ways the real person would not, and dreamers wake carrying the feeling into a morning that has done noth...
- PartyA dream party is reported for the moment of not knowing anyone, and dreamers frequently say they were dressed wrongly.
- PassengerBeing a passenger rather than a driver is one of the more distinctly reported dream positions, and dreamers usually know they could not reach the c...
- PassportThe lost passport is a standard travel dream, and dreamers frequently report knowing exactly where it should be and finding it gone.
- PasswordForgetting a password in a dream is reported with the same flat frustration as the waking version, and dreamers often say they could see the box an...
- PastaPasta usually pictures comfort, plenty, and the warmth of a shared meal, and sometimes a tangle to unpick.
- PastelPastel often suggests softness, gentleness, and the tender or innocent, pale muted colours that can soothe or feel faint and unformed.
- PeacePeace in a dream usually reflects a settling or release of tension, and it can be worth noticing what in the dream, or in waking life, allowed the...
- PeachA peach often pictures softness, sweetness, and tender ripeness, sometimes the fragile bloom of youth.
- PeacockA peacock often points to display, pride, and the wish to be admired, along with the question of what lies behind a dazzling surface.
- PearA pear usually stands for quiet sweetness, patient ripening, and modest, homely abundance.
- PebbleA pebble often pictures a small and ordinary thing made smooth by time, a minor matter, a keepsake, or one piece among the many that make up a life.
- PegasusPegasus in a dream often pictures inspiration taking flight, a lift above ordinary limits, or the freedom of an idea or spirit that rises and carri...
- PelicanThe pelican is reported for the bill rather than the bird, and dreamers frequently describe it as looking prehistoric.
- PenA pen often stands for expression, record, and the power to set things down, so it helps to ask what you were writing and whether the ink ran or fa...
- PenguinPenguins arrive in dreams as a crowd rather than an individual, and dreamers usually report being unafraid of them.
- PenisThe body part appears in dreams the way other body parts do, and the anxiety people bring to this page is usually about what it means rather than a...
- PentagramA pentagram in a dream often pictures protection or hidden power, a charged symbol you respond to with awe or fear, or a sense of forces being mark...
- PeonyA peony often pictures abundance and honour, a full, lavish bloom long tied to prosperity, beauty, and a flourishing of good fortune.
- PepperPepper in a dream is reported through the sneeze rather than the taste, and dreamers frequently wake having actually done it.
- PerfumePerfume is one of the few smells commonly reported in dreams, and it nearly always arrives attached to a particular person.
- PetA pet in a dream is frequently one the dreamer used to have, and the reported feeling is recognition rather than surprise.
- PetalA petal often pictures softness and fleeting beauty, a single delicate part of a flower that is lovely, tender, and easily lost.
- PharmacyA pharmacy often points to a wish for healing or relief, a place where you seek the remedy for what ails you in body or mind.
- PhoenixA phoenix usually points to renewal after hardship, a new start rising from an ending, and to the hope that loss can give way to fresh life.
- PhotographA photograph usually holds memory and a moment kept, so notice who or what it showed and whether it brought warmth, longing, or distance.
- PianoA piano usually stands for skill practised over time and the harmony or discord you feel, so it helps to ask whether you could play it or sat befor...
- PiePie often stands for reward, homely comfort, and the dividing of a share, the warm treat tied to plenty and welcome.
- PigA pig can mean abundance and good luck or greed and excess, depending on the feeling, and sometimes points to something you judge as unclean.
- PigeonA pigeon often points to home, return, and the everyday, or to a humble, common presence that quietly finds its way back.
- PillowThe pillow is one of the few dream objects the dreamer is actually touching, and reports of it wrong, missing or soaked are common.
- PilotA pilot in a dream often represents who is steering your life or ambitions, a sense of control over your direction, rather than a literal flight.
- PimpleA pimple often points to a small flaw brought to the surface, a blemish in how you present yourself, and sometimes to self-consciousness or minor i...
- PineA pine often stands for endurance through hard seasons, an evergreen that keeps its colour when other trees go bare.
- PineappleA pineapple usually stands for hospitality, welcome, and a sweetness reached through a tough exterior.
- PinkPink often suggests tenderness, affection, or gentleness, a soft colour that can also read as sweetness or innocence.
- PizzaPizza usually pictures comfort, sharing, and easy pleasure, the casual food of company and treating yourself.
- PlanetA planet often stands for a whole world of its own, a sphere of life or feeling that orbits at some distance from where you stand.
- PlateauA plateau often pictures a level stretch reached after a climb, a sense of having arrived at steady ground, or of being held at one height without...
- PlatesPlates in dreams are reported stacked, dropped or short by one, and the count matters to the dreamer in a way they cannot explain on waking.
- PlatypusA platypus often points to something that does not fit a tidy category, a surprising mix of traits, or a part of you that resists easy labels.
- PlumberA plumber in a dream often connects to the flow of feeling, a blockage or leak that needs attention, rather than a literal pipe.
- PoetryDreamed poems are reported as brilliant and turn out on waking to be nonsense, which is one of the more consistent findings anyone can test at home.
- Police OfficerA police officer often stands for rules, conscience, or authority, or for the part of you that watches your own conduct, rather than a literal enco...
- PollenPollen often pictures fertility and spreading influence, the fine dust of flowers that carries new life on the air and can also irritate and overwh...
- PoltergeistA poltergeist in a dream often pictures a disturbance you cannot see the source of, anger or unease that moves things around your life without show...
- PomegranateA pomegranate usually stands for hidden abundance, fertility, and the bittersweet bond between plenty and loss.
- PondA pond often pictures a small, contained pool of feeling, something still and close at hand, whether peaceful or quietly stagnant.
- PonyA pony often points to a gentler, smaller form of freedom and strength, or to a childhood wish, fondness, or sense of play.
- PoolA pool often stands for emotion held in a contained, manageable form, feelings you can enter and play in without being overwhelmed.
- PopcornPopcorn in a dream is reported through the sound and the smell rather than the eating, and the dreamer is usually not the one holding it.
- PopeThe figure appears in dreams to people of every faith and none, and dreamers usually report being addressed rather than watching.
- PoppyA poppy often pictures sleep, remembrance, and a vivid brief bloom, a red flower long tied to rest, dreams, and the honoured dead.
- PorcelainPorcelain is reported for its thinness, and dreamers frequently describe holding something they were afraid to hold.
- PorchA porch often stands for the threshold between private and public life, a sheltered place of welcome where you meet the world at your own door.
- PorkPork in a dream is usually reported at the table rather than in the shop, and dreamers who avoid it in life report noticing that immediately.
- PossessionDreaming of being possessed often reflects a fear of losing control of yourself, or a feeling that some urge or influence is acting through you aga...
- Post officeThe post office turns up in dreams as a queue rather than a counter, and dreamers frequently report holding something they cannot send.
- PotatoA potato usually points to the plain staple, humble sustenance and the basics that quietly keep a household fed.
- PovertyDreams of having no money are reported by people who have none and by people who have a great deal, and the second group are usually more frightene...
- PrairieA prairie often pictures open room and freedom, a wide grassland that can feel liberating or exposed, with the horizon stretching far on every side.
- PregnancyDreaming of pregnancy often points to something new growing in you, a project, an idea, or a change, and not necessarily a literal child.
- Pregnancy testThe dream nearly always stops before the result, and dreamers report waking without knowing, which is the most commonly described version of this b...
- PresidentA president in a dream is usually met rather than seen, and dreamers frequently report a conversation that felt entirely ordinary.
- PridePride in a dream often reflects a sense of worth or accomplishment, and noticing what it was attached to can show what you value or want recognized.
- PriestA priest often stands for conscience, morality, or a search for meaning, or for the part of you that seeks guidance and forgiveness, rather than a...
- PrinceThe prince in a dream is reported as expected rather than met, and dreamers often say they knew who he was without being told.
- PrincessThe princess is reported as a role rather than a person, and dreamers frequently say they were her without being able to describe her.
- PrisonA prison in a dream often pictures a place or situation in waking life where you feel confined, judged, or unable to move freely.
- PrivacyDreams about privacy are usually dreams about not having it, and the reported detail is a door that will not close or a room with a window in the w...
- ProcessionA procession in a dream is watched rather than joined, and dreamers frequently report not knowing what it was for.
- ProfanitySwearing in a dream is reported with a specific shock, and dreamers frequently say it was the wrong person saying it.
- PromThe prom appears in dreams long after the age it belongs to, and dreamers frequently report being the only adult there.
- PropertyProperty in a dream is reported as a document or a key rather than a building, and dreamers frequently report owning something they have never seen.
- ProphecyA prophecy or omen in a dream often reflects your own hopes or fears about what is coming, rather than a forecast of what will be.
- ProstituteThe figure appears in dreams to people who have no connection to sex work, and the dream is usually about a transaction rather than about sex.
- PubertyDreaming of puberty or coming of age often reflects a real change you are passing through, the awkward edge between one stage and the next.
- Pubic hairThis appears in dreams the way other body detail does, and reports usually attach to a change in it rather than to its presence.
- PuddleA puddle often pictures a small and passing pool of feeling, something minor left behind after a storm, or a shallow place that briefly reflects th...
- PulseA pulse or heartbeat often points to life, urgency, and the rhythm beneath everything, and sometimes to fear, excitement, or the awareness of being...
- PumpkinA pumpkin often pictures harvest, plenty, and seasonal turning, sometimes the fragile magic that fades by midnight.
- PupilA pupil or iris often points to the depths of seeing and inner perception, the very center of the gaze, and sometimes to what draws the light of at...
- PurplePurple often suggests dignity, mystery, or the spiritual, and sometimes ambition, depending on how the dream felt.
- PyramidThe pyramid is reported from outside, and dreamers frequently say they knew there was a way in and could not find it.
- PythonA python often points to a slow, encircling pressure, something that holds and squeezes rather than strikes, or a power that will not let go.
- ParsleyA herb that spent most of a century as decoration nobody ate, and which is slow enough to germinate that people invented a story about it.
- ParsnipA root that needs a frost before it is any good, so it is one of the few crops improved by being left out in the cold.
- PartridgeA bird that would rather run than fly and only breaks cover at the last possible moment, which is why it startles people so badly.
- PastryFlour and fat kept deliberately from mixing, so that the layers separate in the heat, which means the whole craft is about not combining things.
- Pawn shopA place that lends against objects rather than character, which makes it the only credit available to people nobody else will lend to.
- PheasantA bird released in millions to be shot at, which makes it one of the most numerous and least wild animals in the British countryside.
- PearlThe only gem made by an animal, and made specifically because something got in and would not come out.
- PecanA nut that takes a decade to bear and then produces heavily every other year, so the tree keeps its own calendar.
- PhotographyThe act of keeping a moment, which changed what people remember by giving them something to remember instead.
- PickaxeA tool for breaking rather than cutting, which is why it is swung rather than pushed and why it is exhausting.
- PickpocketA thief whose whole craft is that the victim feels nothing, which makes the theft a fact discovered later rather than an event experienced.
- PicnicA meal made difficult on purpose, eaten on the ground without the things that would make it comfortable.
- PinA fastening meant to be temporary, which is why finding one still holding something years later is unsettling.
- PirateA criminal reworked into a children's character, whose crews ran on written articles and elected their captains.
- PitchforkA tool for moving hay, which is light and bulky, and which became the standard prop for a mob because everybody had one.
- PloughA blade that turns the soil over rather than scratching it, which is the single change that made northern European farming possible.
- PoisonA dream that frightens people badly and which almost never means what they fear, though it is worth saying that plainly.
- PokerAn iron bar kept beside a fire to break it open, and the reason every Victorian sitting room contained a weapon nobody thought of that way.
- Polar bearA land animal classified as a marine mammal, with black skin under white fur that is not white and not fur in the usual sense.
- PoplarA tree planted in lines to break the wind, which is why a row of them almost always means somebody made a decision about a field.
- PorpoiseA small blunt relative of the dolphin that surfaces without leaping, so it is usually seen as a movement rather than an animal.
- PrecipiceAn edge with nothing beyond it, and the setting for one of the most widely reported dreams there is.
- PrimroseThe first flower, which is what its name says, and one of the few wild plants people can still name on sight.
- PrizefighterA fighter paid by the fight rather than salaried, in a sport that was illegal for most of the period it was most popular.
- PhotocopierA machine that produces something identical and slightly worse, which is the whole of what it does and a fair description of what copying costs.
- PlaypenA cage a parent puts a child in for the child's safety, which everybody involved understands perfectly and nobody says out loud.
- PoetSomebody who writes in the one literary form that almost nobody buys and almost everybody wants read at their funeral.
- PoliticianSomebody who has asked to be judged by strangers, and who is then judged by strangers, which people find surprising in both directions.
- PostmanSomebody who comes to almost every door in a district every day, and who is therefore the person most likely to notice that something is wrong.
- Potted plantA living thing kept indoors entirely at the owner's discretion, which is why so many of them die of attention rather than neglect.
- Power lineInfrastructure nobody wants to look at, strung across country that people otherwise describe as unspoiled.
- Power plantA building most people could not locate and could not manage a day without, which is the definition of infrastructure.
- ProjectorA machine that throws an image onto a wall, and which was for a century the only way a room full of people could look at the same picture.
- PropellerA wing that goes round, which is the whole idea and took a surprisingly long time for anybody to state that way.
- ProphetSomebody who says what is coming, in a tradition where the point was usually to condemn the present rather than to forecast the future.
- PsychicSomebody claiming a channel other people do not have, in a trade that overlaps with grief counselling more than most of its clients realise.
- PeanutsA legume that grows underground, is not a nut, and is one of the most serious allergens there is.
- PenknifeA blade named for a job it no longer does, which was cutting the nib of a quill to a point.
- PeddlerSomebody carrying their entire shop, who arrives without warning and will not be there tomorrow.
- PerfumeryA shop where the product cannot be photographed, described accurately or returned once smelled.
- PastureGrass kept as grass on purpose, which takes constant work and looks like the absence of it.
- Playing cardsFifty-two objects that carry a whole system of meaning agreed by everybody, and which have been used for games, money and prophecy interchangeably.
- PigstyA byword for filth applied to an animal that is not dirty, and which wallows because it cannot sweat.
- PumpA machine for lifting water by hand, which for most of history was the reason a village was where it was.
- PortcullisA grid that drops rather than swings, so the gate can be shut faster than anyone can run through it, and it cannot be shut quietly.
- PloughmanThe one who opens the ground in straight lines, walking the same field for weeks and looking backwards to keep it straight.
- ProwThe forward edge of a vessel, the part that meets everything first and is shaped for nothing except cutting through.
- PincersA gripping tool that works by closing on both sides at once, so nothing can be held by it without being squeezed.
- Plumb lineA weight on a string, which finds true vertical by doing nothing at all, and cannot be argued with or adjusted.
- PleadingAsking without any leverage, which means the request rests entirely on the other person's willingness.
- Pan pipesTubes of different lengths bound together, each sounding one note, played by moving the mouth rather than the fingers.
- PatienceWaiting without the waiting becoming the whole of your attention, which is the part that makes it a skill rather than a delay.
- PyriteA mineral that looks like gold well enough to have fooled expeditions, and which is worth almost nothing.
- PumiceVolcanic rock full of gas bubbles, light enough to float, so it is the only stone that arrives by sea rather than being carried.
- PorticoA covered entrance held up by columns, which provides somewhere to stand that is neither in the building nor out of it.
- PuffinA seabird that digs a burrow, carries a row of fish crosswise in its bill, and was once ruled to be a fish so it could be eaten in Lent.
- PeriwinkleA trailing evergreen with blue flowers, planted on graves, and once worn by men on their way to be hanged.
- PlaiceA flatfish that starts life upright with an eye on each side, and then has one eye travel across its skull as it lies down.
- PetticoatAn underskirt that gave a shape to what was worn over it, and that became a word for women collectively in the mouths of men.
- PuntA flat boat pushed along with a pole against the riverbed, so the propulsion comes from the ground rather than from the water.
- ParapetA low wall at the edge of a roof or a bridge, high enough to stop a fall and low enough to see over.
- PalateThe roof of the mouth, which separates eating from breathing and is also the word for judgement about taste.
- PolishingRubbing a surface until it reflects, which removes a little of the thing every time and is done out of care.
- PruningCutting living growth off a plant so that what is left grows better, which means the injury is the technique.
- PersimmonA fruit that is unbearably astringent until it is completely ripe, and then is one of the sweetest things there is.
- PolecatA wild mustelid whose domesticated form is the ferret, so the tame animal and the wild one are the same creature.
- PerchA striped freshwater fish that raises a spined dorsal fin when threatened, and which hunts in packs when small.
- PapermakerA trade that turned worn-out clothing into the material everything was written on, so books were made of other people's shirts.
- PrinterA trade of assembling text backwards out of individual metal letters, and the source of a surprising number of everyday phrases.
- PonchoA garment made from one piece of cloth with a hole for the head, requiring no tailoring, no fastening and no fitting.
- PeninsulaLand almost surrounded by water, whose name says so plainly: an almost-island, defined by the small part that is not.
- PewterAn alloy that made cheap plates and cups for centuries, containing lead in the poorer grades, which leached into whatever was in them.
- PlatinumA metal Spanish miners threw away as a nuisance, calling it little silver, because it contaminated the gold and could not be melted.
- PeridotA green gem that comes in only one colour, and which arrives on earth in meteorites as well as out of volcanoes.
- PapayaA fruit containing an enzyme that digests protein, so it tenderises meat and will stop a jelly setting.
- PlastererA trade working against a material that is setting while it is being worked, so the whole job is paced by something else.
- PergolaA frame built to be covered by something growing on it, so the structure is a skeleton for a shade it does not itself provide.
- PilasterA column flattened into a wall, carrying nothing at all, which exists to suggest a structure that is not there.
- PancreasAn organ doing two entirely unrelated jobs, one digesting food and one regulating sugar, in the same piece of tissue.
- PiccoloA half-size flute that is the highest instrument in an orchestra and can be heard over all of it without effort.
- PontoonA float used to carry a bridge across water, which turns a crossing into something that can be built in an afternoon and taken away.
- PliersA gripping tool whose leverage comes from the hand being further from the pivot than the jaws are.
- PtarmiganA mountain grouse that changes plumage three times a year, and is white in winter on ground that is now less often white.
- PetuniaA bedding plant closely related to tobacco and to the tomato, which is not obvious from anything about it.
- PhloxA garden flower whose name is the Greek word for flame, given for the colour rather than for anything it does.
- PardonA power to set aside a lawful sentence, kept deliberately outside the courts because the courts can be right and the result still wrong.