16-letter words containing a, f, o, r
- front and center — If a topic or question is front and center, a lot of attention is being paid to it or a lot of people are talking about it.
- front-end loader — a loader having a shovel or bucket at the end of an articulated arm located at the front of the vehicle.
- frontal lobotomy — Surgery. a psychosurgical procedure in which the frontal lobes are separated from the rest of the brain by cutting the connecting nerve fibers.
- frontier orbital — the highest-energy occupied orbital or lowest-energy unoccupied orbital in a molecule. Such orbitals have a large influence on chemical properties
- 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 water — water containing additives that provide extra nutritional value
- funeral director — a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
- gazetted officer — (in India) a senior official whose appointment is published in the government gazette
- general factotum — a person who does all sorts of jobs; general assistant
- geoffrey chaucer — Geoffrey, 1340?–1400, English poet.
- go off the rails — If someone goes off the rails, they start to behave in a way that other people think is unacceptable or very strange, for example they start taking drugs or breaking the law.
- go-faster stripe — a decorative line, intended to be suggestive of high speed, on the bodywork of a car
- gold certificate — a former U.S. paper currency issued by the federal government for circulation from 1865 to 1933, equal to and redeemable for gold to a stated value.
- 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)
- grace-and-favour — (of a house, flat, etc) owned by the sovereign and granted free of rent to a person to whom the sovereign wishes to express gratitude
- grant of probate — a certificate stating that a will is valid
- gravity platform — (in the oil industry) a drilling platform that rests directly on the sea bed and is kept in position by its own weight; it is usually made of reinforced concrete
- gregory of nyssa — Saint, a.d. c330–395? Christian bishop and theologian in Asia Minor (brother of Saint Basil).
- gulf of honduras — an inlet of the Caribbean, on the coasts of Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize
- gulf of martaban — an inlet of the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar
- half life period — Physics. the time required for one half the atoms of a given amount of a radioactive substance to disintegrate.
- hare's-foot fern — a fern, Polypodium aureum, of tropical America, having a brown, scaly rootstock and green or deep bluish-green fronds.
- harvey firestone — Harvey Samuel, 1868–1938, U.S. industrialist and rubber manufacturer.
- have no time for — not tolerate
- hawthorne effect — a positive change in the performance of a group of persons taking part in an experiment or study due to their perception of being singled out for special consideration.
- head normal form — (theory, reduction) (HNF) A term describing a lambda expression whose top level is either a variable, a data value, a built-in function applied to too few arguments, or a lambda abstraction whose body is not reducible. I.e. the top level is neither a redex nor a lambda abstraction with a reducible body. An expression in HNF may contain redexes in argument postions whereas a normal form may not. Compare Weak Head Normal Form.
- heat of reaction — the heat evolved or absorbed when one mole of a product is formed at constant pressure
- hell for leather — If you say that someone is going hell for leather, you are emphasizing that they are doing something or are moving very quickly and perhaps carelessly.
- hell-for-leather — characterized by reckless determination or breakneck speed: The sheriff led the posse in a hell-for-leather chase.
- high-performance — A high-performance car or other product goes very fast or does a lot.
- hold a brief for — to argue for; champion
- homme d'affaires — a businessman.
- horsehair fungus — an edible white, striated, umbrella-capped mushroom, Marasmius rotula, commonly found in eastern North America.
- hourglass figure — the shape of a woman who is well-proportioned and has a small waist
- how's that for…? — is this satisfactory as regards…?
- hydroferricyanic — (chemistry) Pertaining to, or containing, or obtained from, hydrogen, ferric iron, and cyanogen.
- hydroformylation — the addition of a hydrogen atom and the formyl group to a double bond of a hydrocarbon by reaction with a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst.
- if it wasn't for — If you talk about what would happen if it wasn't for someone or something, you mean that they are the only thing that is preventing it from happening.
- in the nature of — essentially the same as; by way of
- in--one-s--favor — something done or granted out of goodwill, rather than from justice or for remuneration; a kind act: to ask a favor.
- infant mortality — death during infancy
- inflationary gap — the excess of total spending in an economy over the value, at current prices, of the output it can produce
- information desk — helpdesk, information point
- information pack — a set of leaflets giving information about something
- intake of breath — When someone takes an intake of breath, they breathe in quickly and noisily, usually because they are shocked at something.
- intestinal flora — microorganisms that normally inhabit the lumen of the intestinal tract
- intrinsic factor — a glycoprotein, secreted by the gastric mucosa, that is involved in the intestinal absorption of vitamin B 12 .
- isle of portland — a rugged limestone peninsula in SW England, in Dorset, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus and by Chesil Bank: the lighthouse of Portland Bill lies at the S tip; famous for the quarrying of Portland stone, a fine building material. Pop (town): 12 000 (latest est)
- isoplastic graft — syngraft.
- it's fair to say — You use fair in expressions such as It would be fair to say in order to introduce a statement which you believe to be true and reasonable.