16-letter words containing a, f, l, u
- farquhar islands — an island group in the Indian Ocean: administratively part of the Seychelles
- feel the draught — to be short of money
- ferrous sulphate — an iron salt with a saline taste, usually obtained as greenish crystals of the heptahydrate, which are converted to the white monohydrate above 100°C: used in inks, tanning, water purification, and in the treatment of anaemia. Formula: FeSO4
- feulgen reaction — a reaction in which an aldehyde combines with a modified Schiff's reagent to produce a purplish compound: used especially to test for the presence of DNA
- filterable virus — a virus particle small enough to pass through a filter of diatomaceous earth or porcelain, which will not pass bacteria: chiefly historical or an informal indicator of size, as synthetic membrane filters now permit passage of the smallest virus.
- fire regulations — rules intended to make sure that people and property stay safe in the event of a fire
- first lieutenant — an officer ranking next above second lieutenant and next below a captain.
- flamborough head — a chalk promontory in NE England, on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
- flame cultivator — an implement that kills weeds by scorching them with a directed flow of flaming gas.
- flashbulb memory — the clear recollections that a person may have of the circumstances associated with a dramatic event
- flat-track bully — a sportsperson who dominates inferior opposition, but who cannot beat top-level opponents
- flight simulator — a device used in pilot and crew training that provides a cockpit environment and sensations of flight under actual conditions.
- fluorescent lamp — a tubular electric discharge lamp in which light is produced by the fluorescence of phosphors coating the inside of the tube.
- fluosilicic acid — an unstable acid, H 2 SiF 6 , known only in its colorless, poisonous, fuming aqueous solution or in the form of its salts: used chiefly as a wood preservative, a disinfectant, and as a hardening agent in the manufacture of ceramic ware, cement, and concrete.
- flying ambulance — an aircraft used to take sick or injured people to hospital
- follicular phase — a stage of the menstrual cycle, from onset of menstruation to ovulation.
- fool around with — have casual sex
- foot fault judge — on official on the baseline who is responsible for calling foot faults
- for external use — If medicine is for external use, it is intended to be used only on the outside of your body, and not to be eaten or drunk.
- foreign language — language not one's mother tongue
- four-course meal — A four-course meal is a meal that consists of four parts served one after the other.
- four-deal bridge — a version of bridge in which four hands only are played, the players then cutting for new partners
- four-dimensional — of a space having points, or a set having elements, which require four coordinates for their unique determination.
- four-leaf clover — a clover leaf having four leaflets instead of the usual three, purported to bring good luck.
- four-star petrol — petrol containing lead, formerly sold in the UK
- fourier analysis — the expression of any periodic function as a sum of sine and cosine functions, as in an electromagnetic wave function. Compare Fourier series.
- franchise clause — a clause stipulating that the insured will be responsible for any loss not in excess of a stated amount, and the insurance company will be liable for full payment of the loss equaling or exceeding the amount up to the insured amount.
- francis of paula — Saint, 1416–1507, Italian monk: founder of the order of Minims.
- frankfurt school — a school of thought, founded at the University of Frankfurt in 1923 by Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and others, derived from Marxist, Freudian, and Hegelian theory
- fraunhofer lines — a set of dark lines appearing in the continuous emission spectrum of the sun. It is caused by the absorption of light of certain wavelengths coming from the hotter region of the sun by elements in the cooler outer atmosphere
- full speed ahead — train: at top speed
- full steam ahead — If something such as a plan or a project goes full steam ahead, it progresses quickly.
- functional group — a group of atoms responsible for the characteristic behavior of the class of compounds in which the group occurs, as the hydroxyl group in alcohols.
- functional shift — a change in the grammatical function of a word, as in the use of the noun input as a verb or the noun fun as an adjective.
- functional water — water containing additives that provide extra nutritional value
- fundamental bass — a bass consisting of the roots of the chords employed.
- fundamental star — one of a number of stars with positions that have been determined accurately and that are used as reference stars for the determination of positions of other celestial objects.
- fundamental unit — one of a set of unrelated units that form the basis of a system of units. For example, the metre, kilogram, and second are fundamental units of the SI system
- fundamentalistic — Fundamentalist.
- funeral director — a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
- funeral expenses — Funeral expenses are the costs of organizing and carrying out a funeral.
- gas liquefaction — Gas liquefaction is the process of refrigerating a gas to a temperature that is below its critical temperature in order to form a liquid.
- general factotum — a person who does all sorts of jobs; general assistant
- gold-of-pleasure — a yellow-flowered Eurasian plant, Camelina sativa, widespread as a weed, esp in flax fields, and formerly cultivated for its oil-rich seeds: family Brassicaceae (crucifers)
- golden handcuffs — payments deferred over a number of years that induce a person to stay with a particular company or in a particular job
- gulf of honduras — an inlet of the Caribbean, on the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize
- gulf of liaodong — the N part of the Gulf of Chihli, west of the Liaodong Peninsula
- gulf of martaban — an inlet of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar
- gulf of san blas — an inlet of the Caribbean on the N coast of Panama
- gulf of thailand — an arm of the South China Sea between the Malay Peninsula and Indochina