18-letter words containing a, i, r, t, f
- floating underflow — underflow
- floating-rate note — a eurobond, often issued as a negotiable bearer bond, that has a floating rate of interest
- fore-edge painting — a technique of painting a picture on the fore edge of a book, often in such a manner that only when the pages are slightly fanned the picture is revealed.
- foreign-trade zone — free port (def 1).
- forgive and forget — be reconciled
- forward compatible — forward compatibility
- foundation garment — an undergarment, as a girdle or corset, worn by women to support or give shape to the contours of the body.
- fragmentation bomb — a bomb designed to break into many small, high-velocity fragments when detonated.
- french west africa — a former French federation in W Africa, including Dahomey (now Benin), French Guinea, French Sudan (now Mali), Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Fasso).
- fringe-toed lizard — an iguanid lizard, Uma notata, of sandy deserts of the western U.S. and Mexico, having a wedge-shaped snout and toes fringed with long, pointed scales.
- from first to last — all the way through
- front organization — business: cover-up
- ftp software, inc. — (company) Developers of the original PC/TCP Packet Driver specification. Address: 26 Princess St. Wakefield, MA 01880-3004. Telephone: +1 (617) 246 0900.
- fulminating powder — powder that explodes by percussion.
- fuming nitric acid — a colorless, yellowish, or brownish fuming corrosive liquid, usually prepared from nitric acid by the addition of excess nitrogen dioxide: used in organic synthesis for nitration, and as an oxidizer in liquid propellants for rockets.
- functional program — (language) A program employing the functional programming approach or written in a functional language.
- funding operations — the conversion of government floating stock or short-term debt into holdings of long-term bonds
- garden loosestrife — any of various plants belonging to the genus Lysimachia, of the primrose family, having clusters of usually yellow flowers, as L. vulgaris (garden loosestrife) or L. quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
- german east africa — a former German territory in E Africa, the area now comprised of continental Tanzania and the independent republics of Rwanda and Burundi.
- great barrier reef — coral structure off Australian coast
- great white father — the president of the U.S.
- half-open interval — a set of numbers between two given numbers but including only one endpoint.
- handkerchief table — corner table.
- hilary of poitiers — Saint, a.d. c300–368, French bishop and theologian.
- hippocratic facies — the sallow facial expression, with listless staring eyes, often regarded as denoting approaching death
- historical fiction — the genre of literature, film, etc., comprising narratives that take place in the past and are characterized chiefly by an imaginative reconstruction of historical events and personages.
- hydroflumethiazide — A diuretic drug.
- hyperproliferation — (biology) An abnormally high rate of proliferation of cells by rapid division.
- ifs, ands, or buts — a supposition; uncertain possibility: The future is full of ifs.
- in fits and starts — Something that happens in fits and starts or by fits and starts keeps happening and then stopping again.
- in the affirmative — positively, by saying yes
- in the first place — firstly
- in the near future — soon
- indefinite article — an article, as English a, an, that denotes class membership of the noun it modifies without particularizing it.
- information bureau — an office where you can go to get information
- information centre — help desk, office
- information island — (jargon) A body of information (i.e. electronic files) that needs to be shared but has no network connection.
- information office — an office where you can go to get information
- information system — a computer system or set of components for collecting, creating, storing, processing, and distributing information, typically including hardware and software, system users, and the data itself: the use of information systems to solve business problems.
- information theory — the mathematical theory concerned with the content, transmission, storage, and retrieval of information, usually in the form of messages or data, and especially by means of computers.
- informatory double — a double intended to inform one's partner that one has a strong hand and to urge a bid regardless of the strength of his or her hand.
- infrared astronomy — the study of infrared radiation emitted by celestial objects.
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- integrating factor — a factor that upon multiplying a differential equation with the right-hand side equal to zero makes the equation integrable, usually by making the resulting expression an exact differential of some function.
- interface analysis — (testing) A software test which checks the interfaces between program elements for consistency and adherence to predefined rules or axioms.
- knight of the road — a tramp
- last in, first out — The expression last in, first out is used to say that the last person who started work in an organization should be the first person to leave it, if fewer people are needed.
- last-in, first-out — an inventory plan based on the assumption that materials constituting manufacturing costs should be carried on the books at the market price of the last lot received. Abbreviation: LIFO. Compare first-in, first-out.
- law of gravitation — a law stating that any two masses attract each other with a force equal to a constant (constant of gravitation) multiplied by the product of the two masses and divided by the square of the distance between them.
- law of segregation — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that during the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.