16-letter words containing c, h, e, f
- father christmas — Santa Claus.
- father confessor — confessor (def 2).
- feather merchant — a person who avoids responsibility and effort; loafer.
- federated church — a church whose membership includes two or more congregations of different denominational affiliation.
- femme de chambre — a chambermaid
- fielder's choice — a fielder's attempt to put out a base runner rather than the batter when a play at first base would put out the batter.
- figure of speech — any expressive use of language, as a metaphor, simile, personification, or antithesis, in which words are used in other than their literal sense, or in other than their ordinary locutions, in order to suggest a picture or image or for other special effect. Compare trope (def 1).
- fingertip search — When the police carry out a fingertip search of a place, they examine it for evidence in a very detailed way.
- finished product — the product that emerges at the end of a manufacturing process
- firewall machine — (networking, security) A dedicated gateway server with special security precautions on it, used to service external connections (typically from the public Internet). The firewall machine protects servers and networks hidden behind it from crackers. The typical firewall is an inexpensive microprocessor-based Unix machine with no critical data, with public network ports on it, but just one carefully watched connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special precautions may include threat monitoring, call-back, and even a complete iron box keyable to particular incoming IDs or activity patterns. The type of network and security environment of a firewall machine is often called a De-Militarised Zone (DMZ). It may contain other servers such as e-mail servers or proxy gateways - machines that need to be publicly accessible but also need some access to internal systems. Also known as a (Venus) flytrap after the insect-eating plant.
- flathead catfish — a yellow and brown catfish, Pylodictus olivaris, common in the central U.S., having a flattened head and a projecting lower jaw.
- floridean starch — the storage polysaccharide of red algae.
- follicular phase — a stage of the menstrual cycle, from onset of menstruation to ovulation.
- follow the crowd — copy what others are doing
- forbush decrease — the sudden decrease in the intensity of cosmic rays after an increase in solar activity.
- force one's hand — the terminal, prehensile part of the upper limb in humans and other primates, consisting of the wrist, metacarpal area, fingers, and thumb.
- foreign exchange — commercial paper drawn on a person or corporation in a foreign nation.
- forward exchange — a foreign bill purchased at a stipulated price and payable at a future date.
- franchise clause — a clause stipulating that the insured will be responsible for any loss not in excess of a stated amount, and the insurance company will be liable for full payment of the loss equaling or exceeding the amount up to the insured amount.
- francis joseph i — 1830–1916, emperor of Austria 1848–1916; king of Hungary 1867–1916.
- franking machine — a machine that franks letters
- french cameroons — Cameroun (def 2).
- french community — a cultural and economic association of France, its overseas departments and territories, and former French territories that chose to maintain association after becoming independent republics: formed 1958.
- french directory — the body of five directors in power in France from 1795 until their overthrow by Napoleon in 1799
- french ice cream — a type of ice cream in which an egg and cream mixture is cooked to a light custard before being frozen.
- french indochina — an area in SE Asia, formerly a French colonial federation including Cochin-China, the protectorates of Annam, Cambodia, Tonkin, and Laos, and the leased territory of Kwangchowan: now comprising the three independent states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Capital: Hanoi.
- french polynesia — a French overseas territory in the S Pacific, including the Society Islands, Marquesas Islands, and other scattered island groups. 1544 sq. mi. (4000 sq. km). Capital: Papeete.
- french telephone — handset (def 1).
- friedrich engels — Friedrich [free-drikh] /ˈfri drɪx/ (Show IPA), 1820–95, German socialist in England: collaborated with Karl Marx in systematizing Marxism.
- friedrich wohler — Friedrich [free-drikh] /ˈfri drɪx/ (Show IPA), 1800–82, German chemist.
- geoffrey chaucer — Geoffrey, 1340?–1400, English poet.
- golden handcuffs — payments deferred over a number of years that induce a person to stay with a particular company or in a particular job
- haptic interface — (interface, hardware) A touch interface to a computer that provides feedback, such as a data glove.
- 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.
- hay-scented fern — a fern, Dennstaedtia punctilobula, of eastern North America, having brittle, yellow-green fronds.
- head post office — the main post office in a town
- heat of reaction — the heat evolved or absorbed when one mole of a product is formed at constant pressure
- high-performance — A high-performance car or other product goes very fast or does a lot.
- house of commons — the elective, lower house of the Parliament of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, and various other countries in the Commonwealth of Nations.
- huckleberry finn — (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) a novel (1884) by Mark Twain.
- huffman encoding — Huffman coding
- hydroferricyanic — (chemistry) Pertaining to, or containing, or obtained from, hydrogen, ferric iron, and cyanogen.
- hyper-conformity — action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc.
- in the course of — If something happens in the course of a particular period of time, it happens during that period of time.
- infernal machine — a concealed or disguised explosive device intended to destroy life or property.
- joachim of fiore — ?1132–1202 ad, Italian mystic and philosopher, best known for teaching that history can be divided into three ages, those of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
- josephson effect — a high-speed switch, used in experimental computers, that operates on the basis of a radiative phenomenon (Jo·sephson effect) exhibited by a pair of superconductors separated by a thin insulator.
- la rochefoucauld — François [frahn-swa] /frɑ̃ˈswa/ (Show IPA), 6th Duc de, 1613–80, French moralist and composer of epigrams and maxims.
- larsen ice shelf — an ice barrier in Antarctica, in the NW Weddell Sea, on the E coast of the Antarctic Peninsula: first explored 1893.
- least flycatcher — a small flycatcher, Empidonax minimus, of eastern North America.