17-letter words containing a, f, u
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- foundation course — A foundation course is a course that you do at some colleges and universities in order to prepare yourself for a longer or more advanced course.
- fountain of youth — a fabled spring whose waters were supposed to restore health and youth, sought in the Bahamas and Florida by Ponce de León, Narváez, De Soto, and others.
- four-part harmony — harmony in which each chord has four tones, creating, in sum, four melodic lines.
- four-rowed barley — a class of barley having, in each spike, six rows of grain, with two pairs of rows overlapping.
- four-star general — high-ranking military officer
- fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
- fourier transform — a mapping of a function, as a signal, that is defined in one domain, as space or time, into another domain, as wavelength or frequency, where the function is represented in terms of sines and cosines.
- freedmen's bureau — an agency of the War Department set up in 1865 to assist freed slaves in obtaining relief, land, jobs, fair treatment, and education.
- freight insurance — insurance paid on goods in transport
- freund's adjuvant — a water-in-oil emulsion injected with immunogen (Freund's incomplete adjuvant) or with immunogen and killed mycobacteria (Freund's complete adjuvant) to enhance the immune response to the immunogen.
- fulgencio batista — Fulgencio [fool-hen-syaw] /fulˈhɛn syɔ/ (Show IPA), (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar) 1901–73, Cuban military leader: dictator of Cuba 1934–40; president 1940–44, 1952–59.
- full linear group — the group of all nonsingular linear transformations mapping a finite-dimensional vector space into itself.
- full load current — A full load current is the largest current that a motor or other device is designed to carry under particular conditions.
- functional change — 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 isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
- funicular railway — a short, very steep railway having two parallel sets of tracks, upon each of which runs a car or train raised or lowered by means of a cable that simultaneously lowers or raises the other car or train in such a way that the two are approximately counterbalanced.
- further education — adult education.
- fuss and feathers — an excessively elaborate or pretentious display; ostentation.
- fuzzy-wuzzy angel — any native of Papua New Guinea who assisted as a stretcher-bearer in World War II
- gaseous diffusion — the passage of gas through microporous barriers, a technique used for isotope separation, especially in the preparation of fuel for nuclear reactors.
- get a bang out of — to experience a thrill or excitement from
- get a kick out of — enjoy, take pleasure in
- get a rise out of — to get up from a lying, sitting, or kneeling posture; assume an upright position: She rose and walked over to greet me. With great effort he rose to his knees.
- go out of fashion — be dated
- go out of the way — to inconvenience oneself; do something that one would not ordinarily do, or that requires extra or deliberate effort or trouble
- grapefruit league — a series of training games played by major-league teams before the opening of the season (so named because they take place in the citrus-growing South, as in Florida).
- guerrilla warfare — the use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force.
- guinea-hen flower — checkered lily.
- gulf of venezuela — an inlet of the Caribbean in NW Venezuela: continues south as Lake Maracaibo
- gulf war syndrome — a group of symptoms occurring in some Gulf War veterans, most commonly including headache and memory loss, muscle pain, skin disorders, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments, possibly caused by exposure to chemical weapons, vaccines, infectious diseases, or other factors.
- hairline fracture — a very fine crack in a bone
- half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
- have a short fuse — a tube, cord, or the like, filled or saturated with combustible matter, for igniting an explosive.
- henry of portugal — ("the Navigator") 1394–1460, prince of Portugal: sponsor of geographic explorations.
- hillel foundation — a national organization, founded in 1924 by the B'nai B'rith, that institutes and administers programs designed to enrich the religious, cultural, and social life of Jewish college students.
- house of assembly — the legislature or the lower house of the legislature in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
- house of ill fame — a house of prostitution; brothel
- how's-your-father — sexual intercourse
- human trafficking — the illegal practice of procuring or trading in human beings for the purpose of prostitution, forced labor, or other forms of exploitation.
- hydrofluoric acid — a colorless, fuming, corrosive liquid, HF, an aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride, used chiefly for etching glass.
- hydrofluorocarbon — Any of a class of partly chlorinated and fluorinated hydrocarbons, used as an alternative to chlorofluorocarbons in foam production, refrigeration, and other processes.
- in a fit of pique — If someone does something in a fit of pique, they do it suddenly because they are annoyed at being not treated properly.
- in forma pauperis — as a poor person; i.e. without paying court costs
- in/out of fashion — If something is in fashion, it is popular and approved of at a particular time. If it is out of fashion, it is not popular or approved of.
- induction furnace — a type of electric furnace used for melting a charge of scrap by the heat produced by its own electrical resistance.
- inefficaciousness — Lack of efficacy.
- infinitive clause — a clause containing an infinitive as its main or only verb form, as to speak clearly in Try to speak clearly.
- integral function — an entire function.
- island of the sun — Sicily: the island where Helius kept his oxen.