15-letter words containing c, o, f, e, s
- confraternities — Plural form of confraternity.
- control surface — a movable surface, such as a rudder, elevator, aileron, etc, that controls an aircraft or rocket
- coolgardie safe — a cupboard with wetted hessian walls for keeping food cool: used esp in Australia
- coriolis effect — a deflection in the path of a body moving in latitude relative to the Earth when observed from the Earth. The deflection is due to the Earth's rotation and is to the east when the motion is towards a pole
- cosignificative — having the same meaning or sense
- counterfactuals — Plural form of counterfactual.
- counterfeisance — the act of counterfeiting
- counterflashing — (construction) Formed metal or elastomeric sheeting secured on or into a wall, curb, pipe or other surface, to cover and protect the upper edge of a base flashing and its associated fasteners.
- course of study — an extended period of organized study, often leading to a qualification
- court of arches — the court of appeal of the Province of Canterbury, formerly held under the arches of Bow Church
- crisis software — A small UK company producing software for the Acorn Archimedes range of computers.
- cross-fertilize — to subject or be subjected to cross-fertilization
- cross-reference — A cross-reference is a note in a book which tells you that there is relevant or more detailed information in another part of the book.
- crown-of-jewels — an annual herb, Lopezia coronata, of Mexico, having lilac-colored flowers with a red base.
- crystalliferous — producing or containing crystals
- customer-facing — interacting or communicating directly with customers
- customs officer — a person employed by a customs service
- declare oneself — to state strongly one's opinion
- defence counsel — a barrister or group of barristers responsible for defending someone on trial
- defunct process — zombie process
- demassification — to cause (society or a social system) to become less uniform or centralized; diversify or decentralize: to demassify the federal government.
- demulsification — to break down (an emulsion) into separate substances incapable of re-forming the emulsion that was broken down.
- demystification — to rid of mystery or obscurity; clarify: to demystify medical procedures.
- desertification — Desertification is the process by which a piece of land becomes dry, empty, and unsuitable for growing trees or crops on.
- despecification — The act of generalizing, or making less specific.
- diffractometers — Plural form of diffractometer.
- disaffectionate — not affectionate
- disconformities — Plural form of disconformity.
- diversification — the act or process of diversifying; state of being diversified.
- doctor's office — doctor's surgery
- edict of nantes — a seaport in and the capital of Loire-Atlantique, in W France, at the mouth of the Loire River.
- efficaciousness — capable of having the desired result or effect; effective as a means, measure, remedy, etc.: The medicine is efficacious in stopping a cough.
- existence proof — non-constructive proof
- extensification — The process of making something (more) extensive.
- fabric softener — a substance added to fabrics during laundering to make them puffier and softer.
- fahnestock clip — a type of terminal using a spring that clamps readily onto a connecting wire.
- false buckthorn — a spiny shrub or small tree, Bumelia lanuginosa, of the sapodilla family, native to the southern U.S., having gummy, milky sap and white, bell-shaped flowers and yielding a hard, light-brown wood.
- fee-for-service — pertaining to the charging of fees for specific services rendered in health care, as distinguished from participating in a prepaid medical practice: fee-for-service medicine.
- fencepost error — 1. (Rarely "lamp-post error") A problem with the discrete equivalent of a boundary condition, often exhibited in programs by iterative loops. From the following problem: "If you build a fence 100 feet long with posts 10 feet apart, how many posts do you need?" (Either 9 or 11 is a better answer than the obvious 10). For example, suppose you have a long list or array of items, and want to process items m through n; how many items are there? The obvious answer is n - m, but that is off by one; the right answer is n - m + 1. The "obvious" formula exhibits a fencepost error. See also zeroth and note that not all off-by-one errors are fencepost errors. The game of Musical Chairs involves a catastrophic off-by-one error where N people try to sit in N - 1 chairs, but it's not a fencepost error. Fencepost errors come from counting things rather than the spaces between them, or vice versa, or by neglecting to consider whether one should count one or both ends of a row. 2. (Rare) An error induced by unexpected regularities in input values, which can (for instance) completely thwart a theoretically efficient binary tree or hash coding implementation. The error here involves the difference between expected and worst case behaviours of an algorithm.
- ferroelasticity — (physics) A phenomenon, analogous to ferromagnetism and ferroelectricity, in which spontaneous strain arises within a material.
- fibrocartilages — Plural form of fibrocartilage.
- fideicommissary — the recipient of a fideicommissum.
- file descriptor — (programming, operating system) An integer that identifies an open file within a process. This number is obtained as a result of opening a file. Operations which read, write, or close a file would take the file descriptor as an input parameter. In many operating system implementations, file descriptors are small integers which index a table of open files. In Unix, file descriptors 0, 1 and 2 correspond to the standard input, standard output and standard error files respectively. See file descriptor leak.
- fireless cooker — an insulated container that seals in heat to cook food.
- first-day cover — a cover marked so as to indicate that it was mailed on the first day of issue of the stamp it bears and from one of the cities at which the stamp was issued on that day.
- fission reactor — a nuclear reactor in which a fission reaction takes place
- floating screed — Building Trades. screed (def 3).
- flood insurance — insurance covering loss or damage to property arising from a flood, flood tide, or the like.
- floor exercises — exercises designed to improve fitness, carried out on the floor
- flowers of zinc — a white or yellowish-white, amorphous, odorless, water-insoluble powder, ZnO, used chiefly as a paint pigment, in cosmetics, dental cements, matches, white printing inks, and opaque glass, and in medicine in the treatment of skin conditions.