16-letter words containing a, f, r, e
- kingdom of arles — a kingdom in SE France which had dissolved by 1378: known as the Kingdom of Burgundy until about 1200
- kingfisher daisy — a bushy southern African plant, Felicia bergerana, having grasslike leaves and solitary, bright-blue flowers.
- kondratieff wave — a long business cycle of economic expansion and contraction, postulated to last about 60 years.
- la rochefoucauld — François [frahn-swa] /frɑ̃ˈswa/ (Show IPA), 6th Duc de, 1613–80, French moralist and composer of epigrams and maxims.
- lady of pleasure — a prostitute.
- land-poor farmer — a farmer who owns much unprofitable land and lacks the money to maintain its fertility or improve it
- larger than life — If you say that someone or something is larger than life, you mean that they appear or behave in a way that seems more exaggerated or important than usual.
- larger-than-life — exceedingly imposing, impressive, or memorable, especially in appearance or forcefulness: a larger-than-life leader.
- larsen ice shelf — an ice barrier in Antarctica, in the NW Weddell Sea, on the E coast of the Antarctic Peninsula: first explored 1893.
- leasehold reform — reform of the law relating to leasehold property
- least flycatcher — a small flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, of eastern North America.
- left parenthesis — (character) "(". ASCII character 40. Common names: left paren; left parenthesis; left; open; paren (")" = thesis); open paren; open parenthesis; left parenthesis; left banana. Rare: so (")" = already); lparen; ITU-T: opening parenthesis; open round bracket, left round bracket, INTERCAL: wax (")" = wane); parenthisey (")" = unparenthisey); left ear. Paired with right parenthesis (")").
- left-hand dagger — a dagger of the 16th and 17th centuries, held in the left hand in dueling and used to parry the sword of an opponent.
- letter of advice — a notification from a consignor to a consignee giving specific information as to a shipment, the name of the carrier, the date shipped, etc.
- letter of marque — license or commission granted by a state to a private citizen to capture and confiscate the merchant ships of another nation.
- life after death — If you talk about life after death, you are discussing the possibility that people may continue to exist in some form after they die.
- life-threatening — endangering life: a life-threatening illness.
- lissajous figure — the series of plane curves traced by an object executing two mutually perpendicular harmonic motions.
- littoral warfare — military combat conducted in coastal areas.
- louisiana french — French as spoken in Louisiana; Cajun. Abbreviation: LaF.
- lower california — Baja California.
- luck of the draw — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
- madame butterfly — an opera (1904) by Giacomo Puccini.
- maintenance-free — requiring little or no maintenance: a maintenance-free swimming pool.
- make a break for — run towards
- make a pitch for — to give verbal support to
- make a virtue of — If you make a virtue of something, you pretend that you did it because you chose to, although in fact you did it because you had to.
- make the fur fly — the fine, soft, thick, hairy coat of the skin of a mammal.
- man of few words — man who speaks very little
- man of the world — a man who is widely experienced in the ways of the world and people; an urbane, sophisticated man.
- man-of-the-earth — a morning glory, Ipomoea pandurata, of eastern North America, having white flowers and a very large, tuberous root.
- managerial staff — staff in positions of management
- manhood suffrage — the right of adult male citizens to vote
- manufactured gas — a gaseous fuel created from coal, oil, etc., as differentiated from natural gas.
- margin of safety — therapeutic index.
- marsh cinquefoil — a variety of cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, that grows in marshy areas
- matter of course — an event or result that is natural or inevitable
- matter of record — a fact or statement that appears on the record of a court and that can be proved or established by producing such record.
- matter-of-course — occurring or proceeding in or as if in the logical, natural, or customary course of things; expected or inevitable.
- matter-of-factly — adhering strictly to fact; not imaginative; prosaic; dry; commonplace: a matter-of-fact account of the political rally.
- matthew flinders — Matthew, 1774–1814, English navigator and explorer: surveyed coast of Australia.
- matthew of paris — c1200–59, English chronicler.
- medal of bravery — a Canadian award for courage
- medal of freedom — a former name of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- metallofullerene — (chemistry) A fullerene containing an enclosed metal atom.
- mexican fruitfly — a brightly colored fly, Anastrepha ludens, whose larvae are a serious pest chiefly of citrus fruits and mangoes in Mexico, Central America, and southern Texas.
- microfilm reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfilm
- microsoft access — 1. (database) A relational database running under Microsoft Windows. Data is stored as a number of "tables", e.g. "Stock". Each table consists of a number of "records" (e.g. for different items) and each record contains a number of "fields", e.g. "Product code", "Supplier", "Quantity in stock". Access allows the user to create "forms" and "reports". A form shows one record in a user-designed format and allows the user to step through records one at a time. A report shows selected records in a user-designed format, possibly grouped into sections with different kinds of total (including sum, minimum, maximum, average). There are also facilities to use links ("joins") between tables which share a common field and to filter records according to certain criteria or search for particular field values. Version: 2 (date?). 2. (communications) A communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. It sucked and was dropped. Years later they reused the name for their database.
- minerva software — A company producing software for the Acorn Archimedes.
- modacrylic fiber — any of various synthetic copolymer textile fibers, as Dynel, containing less than 85 percent but more than 35 percent of acrylonitrile.