16-letter words containing c, o, f, l
- confidence level — a measure of the reliability of a result. A confidence level of 95 per cent or 0.95 means that there is a probability of at least 95 per cent that the result is reliable
- confidentialness — The state or quality of being confidential.
- 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.
- confused elderly — old and no longer having mental abilities sufficient for independent living
- 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.
- control freakery — an obsessive need to be in control of what is happening
- cook-chill foods — foods which are chilled rapidly and reheated as required
- coreferentiality — (of two words or phrases) having reference to the same person or thing.
- corkscrew flower — snailflower.
- correction fluid — a fluid, usually white, that can be painted over a mistake in writing or typing so that the correct form can be written or typed on top
- cost-effectively — in a cost-effective way; efficiently
- cost-efficiently — cost-effective.
- council of state — a council that deliberates on high-level policies of a government.
- council of trent — the council of the Roman Catholic Church that met between 1545 and 1563 at Trent in S Tyrol. Reacting against the Protestants, it reaffirmed traditional Catholic beliefs and formulated the ideals of the Counter-Reformation
- counterfactually — a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.”.
- court of appeals — A Court of Appeals is a court which deals with appeals against legal judgments.
- criminal offence — an action which is punishable under the law
- cross of calvary — a Latin cross with a representation of steps beneath it.
- 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
- customer profile — a description or analysis of a typical or ideal customer for one's business
- cycle of erosion — the hypothetical sequence of modifications to the earth's surface by erosion, from the original uplift of the land to the ultimate low plain, usually divided into the youthful, mature, and old stages
- 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).
- deflecting force — the apparent deflection (Coriolis acceleration) of a body in motion with respect to the earth, as seen by an observer on the earth, attributed to a fictitious force (Coriolis force) but actually caused by the rotation of the earth and appearing as a deflection to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and a deflection to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.
- 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.
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- dolce far niente — pleasing inactivity.
- dorothy canfield — Dorothy, Fisher, Dorothy Canfield.
- duchess of malfi — a tragedy (1614?) by John Webster.
- dysfunctionality — (uncountable) The condition of being dysfunctional.
- economy of scale — a fall in average costs resulting from an increase in the scale of production
- elected official — person voted into office
- electronic flash — Photography
- error of closure — the amount by which a computed, plotted, or observed quantity or position differs from the true or established one, esp when plotting a closed traverse
- exemplifications — Plural form of exemplification.
- false beechdrops — either of two parasitic or saprophytic plants of the genus Monotropa, especially the tawny or reddish M. hypopithys (false beechdrops) of eastern North America.
- 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.
- family allowance — a regular government payment to the parents of children up to a certain age
- family of curves — a collection of curves whose equations differ only by values assigned a parameter or parameters.
- 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.
- feel constrained — If you feel constrained to do something, you feel that you must do it, even though you would prefer not to.
- feel-good factor — When journalists refer to the feel-good factor, they mean that people are feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future.
- ferroelectricity — (physics) The electric polarization of a substance (spontaneous presence of a dipole moment) that is analagous to ferromagnetism.
- fertility factor — a sex-determining chromosome or gene.
- feulgen reaction — a reaction in which an aldehyde combines with a modified Schiff's reagent to produce a purplish compound: used especially to test for the presence of DNA
- fictionalisation — Alternative spelling of fictionalization.
- fictionalization — to make into fiction; give a somewhat imaginative or fictional version of: to fictionalize a biography.
- 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.
- file composition — A typesetting language.