16-letter words containing a, d, e, f
- cold wall effect — the condition or state of having large or multiple windows through which heat escapes and cold air is conducted into a heated room via radiation.
- confederationism — The advocacy of confederation as a means of government.
- confederationist — A supporter of confederation.
- confidentialness — The state or quality of being confidential.
- corned beef hash — a dish consisting of corned beef chopped and mixed together with mashed potatoes and various other ingredients, then fried
- cracked fraction — A cracked fraction is a petroleum fraction (= a portion separated according to a physical property) that has been broken down from a fraction with larger molecules.
- croydon facelift — the tightening effect on the skin of a woman's face caused by securing the hair at the back of the head in a tight ponytail
- dark of the moon — the period during which the moon is not visible.
- darwin's finches — the finches of the subfamily Geospizinae of the Galapagos Islands, showing great variation in bill structure and feeding habits: provided Darwin with evidence to support his theory of evolution
- day of atonement — Yom Kippur
- day of reckoning — If someone talks about the day of reckoning, they mean a day or time in the future when people will be forced to deal with an unpleasant situation which they have avoided until now.
- dead-man's float — a prone floating position, used especially by beginning swimmers, with face downward, legs extended backward, and arms stretched forward.
- dead-smooth file — the smoothest grade of file commonly used
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- decimal fraction — a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a dot (decimal point or point) written before the numerator: as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- dedifferentiated — That has undergone dedifferentiation.
- deep-sea fishing — the activity of catching fish that live in the deep parts of the sea
- deferred annuity — an annuity that commences not less than one year after the final purchase premium
- definite article — The word 'the' is sometimes called the definite article.
- deflationary gap — a situation in which total spending in an economy is insufficient to buy all the output that can be produced with full employment
- dehumidification — Dehumidification is the removal of vapor from a gas-vapor mixture.
- depart this life — to die
- dictionary flame — [Usenet] An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality. Compare spelling flame.
- dimethyl sulfate — a colorless or yellow, slightly water-soluble, poisonous liquid, (CH 3) 2 SO 2 , used chiefly in organic synthesis.
- disenfranchising — Present participle of disenfranchise.
- disfranchisement — to deprive (a person) of a right of citizenship, as of the right to vote.
- distrito federal — Federal District. Abbreviation: D.F.
- diversifications — Plural form of diversification.
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- dolce far niente — pleasing inactivity.
- dorothy canfield — Dorothy, Fisher, Dorothy Canfield.
- drag coefficient — a measure of the drag of an object in a moving fluid, esp air
- duchess of malfi — a tragedy (1614?) by John Webster.
- edsel ford range — a mountain range in Antarctica, E of the Ross Sea.
- elected official — person voted into office
- embroidery frame — a frame in the form of a pair of (usually circular) rings, designed to keep the fabric taut while an embroiderer works on it
- exhaust manifold — An exhaust manifold is a heat-resistant tube that connects an engine to an exhaust pipe.
- fade-in fade-out — an optical effect in which a shot appears gradually out of darkness and then gradually disappears
- faintheartedness — The quality or state of being fainthearted.
- fair-trade price — the price set for a commodity by the Fairtrade Foundation
- false beechdrops — either of two parasitic or saprophytic plants of the genus Monotropa, especially the tawny or reddish M. hypopithys (false beechdrops) of eastern North America.
- false dragonhead — a North American plant, Physostegia virginiana, of the mint family, having a spike of tubular, two-lipped, pink or white flowers.
- fancy dress ball — a ball at which the guests wear fancy dress
- fandango on core — (jargon, programming) (Unix/C, from the Mexican dance) In C, a wild pointer that runs out of bounds, causing a core dump, or corrupts the malloc arena in such a way as to cause mysterious failures later on, is sometimes said to have "done a fandango on core". On low-end personal machines without an MMU, this can corrupt the operating system itself, causing massive lossage. Other frenetic dances such as the rhumba, cha-cha, or watusi, may be substituted. See aliasing bug, precedence lossage, smash the stack, memory leak, memory smash, overrun screw, core.
- farewell address — (initial capital letters) U.S. History. a statement that President George Washington published in a Philadelphia newspaper in 1796 to announce that he would not run for a third term and to give his views on foreign and domestic policy.
- farmer's reducer — a solution of ferricyanide and hypo for reducing density and increasing contrast in a negative.
- fashion designer — creator of clothing designs
- fast of gedaliah — Tzom Gedaliah.
- fat-tailed sheep — one of a class of sheep with much fat along the sides of the tail bones, raised for their meat and widely distributed in southeast Europe, northern Africa, and Asia.