16-letter words containing a, n, t, o, f
- conflict of laws — dissimilarity or discrepancy between the laws of different legal orders, such as states or nations, with regard to the applicable legal rules and principles in a matter that each legal order wishes to regulate.
- confrontationist — a person who confronts opposition, especially aggressively.
- congo free state — a former name of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- constant folding — (compiler) A compiler optimisation technique where constant subexpressions are evaluated at compile time. This is usually only applied to built-in numerical and boolean operators whereas partial evaluation is more general in that expressions involving user-defined functions may also be evaluated at compile time.
- contour feathers — feathers that form the surface plumage of a bird and determine the outer contour, including the wing and tail feathers
- control freakery — an obsessive need to be in control of what is happening
- coreferentiality — (of two words or phrases) having reference to the same person or thing.
- council of state — a council that deliberates on high-level policies of a government.
- counterfactually — a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.”.
- course of action — a way of proceeding
- cracked fraction — A cracked fraction is a petroleum fraction (= a portion separated according to a physical property) that has been broken down from a fraction with larger molecules.
- craftspersonship — The body of activities, skills, techniques, knowledge, and expertise pertinent to (a) particular craft(s).
- cream of coconut — coconut cream (def 1).
- cream-of-coconut — Also called cream of coconut. a creamy white liquid skimmed from the top of coconut milk that has been made by soaking grated coconut meat in water, used in East Indian cookery, mixed drinks, etc.
- croydon facelift — the tightening effect on the skin of a woman's face caused by securing the hair at the back of the head in a tight ponytail
- dark of the moon — the period during which the moon is not visible.
- day of atonement — Yom Kippur
- dead-man's float — a prone floating position, used especially by beginning swimmers, with face downward, legs extended backward, and arms stretched forward.
- deboursification — (jargon) Removal of irrelevant newsgroups from the Newsgroups header of a followup. The term applies particularly to the removal of frivolous groups added by one of the Kooks. See also: sneck.
- decimal fraction — a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a dot (decimal point or point) written before the numerator: as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- deflationary gap — a situation in which total spending in an economy is insufficient to buy all the output that can be produced with full employment
- dehumidification — Dehumidification is the removal of vapor from a gas-vapor mixture.
- dictionary flame — [Usenet] An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality. Compare spelling flame.
- disqualification — an act or instance of disqualifying.
- dissatisfactions — Plural form of dissatisfaction.
- diversifications — Plural form of diversification.
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- dolce far niente — pleasing inactivity.
- dorothy canfield — Dorothy, Fisher, Dorothy Canfield.
- drag coefficient — a measure of the drag of an object in a moving fluid, esp air
- drift transistor — a transistor in which the impurity concentration in the base increases from the collector-base junction to the emitter-base junction, producing a resistivity gradient that greatly increases its high-frequency response
- dysfunctionality — (uncountable) The condition of being dysfunctional.
- electronic flash — Photography
- equation of time — the difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time, being at a maximum in February (over 14 minutes) and November (over 16 minutes)
- exemplifications — Plural form of exemplification.
- exhaust manifold — An exhaust manifold is a heat-resistant tube that connects an engine to an exhaust pipe.
- extrinsic factor — vitamin B12
- face recognition — the ability of a computer to scan, store, and recognize human faces for use in identifying people
- faction fighting — dissension
- fade-in fade-out — an optical effect in which a shot appears gradually out of darkness and then gradually disappears
- fair to middling — free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice: a fair decision; a fair judge.
- falsificationism — (epistemology) A scientific philosophy based on the requirement that hypotheses must be falsifiable in order to be scientific; if a claim is not able to be refuted it is not a scientific claim.
- fantail goldfish — an artificially bred, hardy variety of goldfish, usually oval-shaped and deep orange or calico, with a deeply cleft, four-lobed tail held in line with the body.
- fantasy football — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
- farmington hills — a city in SE Michigan.
- fashion industry — the industry that deals with the world of fashion
- father confessor — confessor (def 2).
- federation wheat — an early-maturing drought-resistant variety of wheat developed by William Farrar in 1902
- feedback control — (electronics) A control system which monitors its effect on the system it is controlling and modifies its output accordingly. For example, a thermostat has two inputs: the desired temperature and the current temperature (the latter is the feedback). The output of the thermostat changes so as to try to equalise the two inputs. Computer disk drives use feedback control to position the read/write heads accurately on a recording track. Complex systems such as the human body contain many feedback systems that interact with each other; the homeostasis mechanisms that control body temperature and acidity are good examples.