16-letter words containing f, a, l, o
- hold a brief for — to argue for; champion
- hourglass figure — the shape of a woman who is well-proportioned and has a small waist
- hydroformylation — the addition of a hydrogen atom and the formyl group to a double bond of a hydrocarbon by reaction with a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the presence of a catalyst.
- infant mortality — death during infancy
- inflationary gap — the excess of total spending in an economy over the value, at current prices, of the output it can produce
- intentional foul — a foul deliberately committed by a defensive player to stop play, tactically conceding the penalty of having the fouled player attempt the awarded foul shots in return for possession of the ball.
- intestinal flora — microorganisms that normally inhabit the lumen of the intestinal tract
- isle of portland — a rugged limestone peninsula in SW England, in Dorset, connected to the mainland by a narrow isthmus and by Chesil Bank: the lighthouse of Portland Bill lies at the S tip; famous for the quarrying of Portland stone, a fine building material. Pop (town): 12 000 (latest est)
- isoplastic graft — syngraft.
- kekule's formula — the structural formula of benzene represented as a hexagonal ring with alternate single and double bonds between the carbon atoms.
- kingdom of arles — a kingdom in SE France which had dissolved by 1378: known as the Kingdom of Burgundy until about 1200
- kirchhoff's laws — the law that the algebraic sum of the currents flowing toward any point in an electric network is zero.
- knights of labor — a secret workingmen's organization formed in 1869 to defend the interests of labor.
- knights of malta — the order of Hospitalers.
- knock for a loop — a portion of a cord, ribbon, etc., folded or doubled upon itself so as to leave an opening between the parts.
- la rochefoucauld — François [frahn-swa] /frɑ̃ˈswa/ (Show IPA), 6th Duc de, 1613–80, French moralist and composer of epigrams and maxims.
- lady of pleasure — a prostitute.
- lady of the lake — a narrative poem (1810) by Sir Walter Scott.
- land-poor farmer — a farmer who owns much unprofitable land and lacks the money to maintain its fertility or improve it
- law of exponents — the theorem stating the elementary properties of exponents, as the property that the product of the same bases, each raised to an exponent, is equal to the base raised to the sum of the exponents: xa ⋅ xb = xa + b .
- law of parsimony — a principle according to which an explanation of a thing or event is made with the fewest possible assumptions.
- lay oneself open — to make oneself vulnerable (to criticism, attack, etc)
- leasehold reform — reform of the law relating to leasehold property
- leave of absence — permission to be absent from duty, employment, service, etc.; leave.
- letter of advice — a notification from a consignor to a consignee giving specific information as to a shipment, the name of the carrier, the date shipped, etc.
- letter of marque — license or commission granted by a state to a private citizen to capture and confiscate the merchant ships of another nation.
- lignin sulfonate — a brown powder consisting of a sulfonate salt made from waste liquor of the sulfate pulping process of soft wood: used in concrete, leather tanning, as an additive in oil-well drilling mud, and as a source of vanillin.
- line of latitude — an imaginary line on a globe, map, etc, indicating latitude
- lissajous figure — the series of plane curves traced by an object executing two mutually perpendicular harmonic motions.
- littoral warfare — military combat conducted in coastal areas.
- louisiana french — French as spoken in Louisiana; Cajun. Abbreviation: LaF.
- lower california — Baja California.
- luck of the draw — the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia.
- maid of all work — a maid who does all types of housework
- mallowpuff māori — a Māori who is considered to behave like a white person
- man of the cloth — a clergyman or other ecclesiastic.
- man of the world — a man who is widely experienced in the ways of the world and people; an urbane, sophisticated man.
- marsh cinquefoil — a variety of cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, that grows in marshy areas
- matter-of-factly — adhering strictly to fact; not imaginative; prosaic; dry; commonplace: a matter-of-fact account of the political rally.
- medal of bravery — a Canadian award for courage
- medal of freedom — a former name of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
- metallofullerene — (chemistry) A fullerene containing an enclosed metal atom.
- microfilm reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfilm
- milk of magnesia — a milky white suspension in water of magnesium hydroxide, Mg (OH) 2 , used as an antacid or laxative.
- miraculous fruit — miracle fruit.
- modacrylic fiber — any of various synthetic copolymer textile fibers, as Dynel, containing less than 85 percent but more than 35 percent of acrylonitrile.
- modified-release — denoting a formulation of a medicinal drug taken orally that releases the active ingredients over several hours, in order to maintain a relatively constant plasma concentration of the drug
- monkey-faced owl — barn owl.
- multifariousness — (uncountable) The characteristic of being multifarious.
- multilinear form — a function or functional of several variables such that when all variables but one are held fixed, the function is linear in the remaining variable.