18-letter words containing f, a, l
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- offensive material — any published or broadcast content (such as articles, photographs, films, or websites) that is likely to be upsetting, insulting, or objectionable to some or most people
- official solicitor — an officer of the Supreme Court of Judicature with special responsibilities for protecting the interests of persons under disability
- offset lithography — offset (def 6).
- oil of catechumens — holy oil used in baptism, the ordination of a cleric, the coronation of a sovereign, or in the consecration of a church.
- old low franconian — a Low German dialect of the Franks of the lower Rhine valley before c1100.
- old man of the sea — (in The Arabian Nights' Entertainments) an old man who clung to the shoulders of Sindbad the Sailor for many days and nights.
- once in a lifetime — extremely rarely
- one false move and — You use one false move to introduce the very bad or serious consequences which will result if someone makes a mistake, even a very small one.
- order of australia — an order awarded to Australians for outstanding achievement or for service to Australia or to humanity at large; established in 1975
- out of circulation — If someone is out of circulation, they do not appear in public or at social gatherings for a period of time. You can also say that someone is out of circulation when they are in prison.
- overdraft facility — a facility (of a bank or building-society cheque account) that allows a withdrawal of money in excess of the account's credit balance
- pair of spectacles — a score of 0 in each innings of a match
- particulate filter — A particulate filter is a filter to remove particles that are present the air, for example in the exhaust of a diesel engine.
- pellitory of spain — a small Mediterranean plant, Anacyclus pyrethrum, the root of which contains an oil formerly used to relieve toothache: family Asteraceae (composites)
- people trafficking — the practice of bringing immigrants into a country illegally
- perceptual defence — the process by which it is thought that certain stimuli are either not perceived or are distorted due to their offensive, unpleasant, or threatening nature
- percussion flaking — a method of forming a flint tool by striking flakes from a stone core with another stone or a piece of bone or wood.
- perfect participle — past participle.
- peter and the wolf — a composition by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1936. It is a children's story with both music and text, spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra
- pilotless aircraft — an aircraft equipped for operation by radio or by robot control, without a human pilot aboard; drone.
- plane of incidence — a plane determined by a given ray, incident on a surface, and the normal at the point where the incident ray strikes the surface.
- play second fiddle — be considered less important
- play someone false — to deceive, cheat, hoodwink, or betray someone
- political football — a political issue that is continually debated but has not yet been resolved
- pontifical college — the chief body of priests in ancient Rome.
- population figures — population totals; statistics relating to the size of populations
- portrait of a lady — a novel (1881) by Henry James.
- potassium fluoride — a white, crystalline, hygroscopic, toxic powder, KF, used chiefly as an insecticide, a disinfectant, and in etching glass.
- presumption of law — a presumption based upon a policy of law or a general rule and not upon the facts or evidence in an individual case.
- primate of england — a title of the archbishop of Canterbury.
- provably difficult — The set or property of problems for which it can be proven that no polynomial-time algorithm exists, only exponential-time algorithms.
- put a bold face on — to seem bold or confident about
- quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
- quarry-tiled floor — a floor covered with square or diamond-shaped unglazed floor tiles
- quarterlife crisis — a crisis that may be experienced in one's twenties, involving anxiety over the direction and quality of one's life
- rabbit-foot clover — a plant, Trifolium arvense, having trifoliate leaves with narrow leaflets and fuzzy, cylindrical, grayish-pink flower heads.
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- real-estate office — the place where a real-estate agent works
- refrigerated lorry — a lorry which is chilled in the back as for storing food
- reinforced plastic — plastic with fibrous matter, such as carbon fibre, embedded in it to confer additional strength
- relative frequency — the ratio of the number of times an event occurs to the number of occasions on which it might occur in the same period.
- rule of engagement — a directive issued by a military authority controlling the use and degree of force, especially specifying circumstances and limitations for engaging in combat.
- run in sb's family — If a characteristic runs in someone's family, it often occurs in members of that family, in different generations.
- sacrificial victim — a person who is ritually killed with the intention of propitiating or pleasing a deity
- safety regulations — regulations or rules that are put in place to ensure a product, event, etc, is safe and not dangerous
- salt of phosphorus — a colorless, odorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaNH 4 HPO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, originally obtained from human urine: used as a blowpipe flux in testing metallic oxides.
- sampling frequency — sample rate
- schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
- school certificate — (in England and Wales between 1917 and 1951 and currently in New Zealand) a certificate awarded to school pupils who pass a public examination: the equivalent of GCSE