20-letter words containing f, a, n, o, l

ideal of pure reason — God, seen as an idea of pure reason unifying the personal soul with the cosmos.
ignatius (of) loyola — Saint(born Iñigo López de Recalde) (1491-1556); Sp. priest: founder of the Society of Jesus (Jesuit order): his day is July 31
in (or out of) play — in (or not in) the condition for continuing play
in flagrante delicto — Law. in the very act of committing the offense.
in the lap of luxury — If you say that someone lives in the lap of luxury, you mean that they live in conditions of great comfort and wealth.
infiltration gallery — a conduit, built in permeable earth, for collecting ground water.
information builders — Distributors of LEVEL5 OBJECT. Telephone +1 800 969 INFO.
information overload — an excess of incoming information, as might confront a pedestrian on a crowded city street, that forces one to be selective in the information received and retained.
intestinal fortitude — courage; resoluteness; endurance; guts: to have intestinal fortitude.
islets of langerhans — biology: pancreatic cells
jerez de la frontera — a town in SW Spain: famous for the making of sherry. Pop: 191 002 (2003 est)
joint life insurance — life insurance covering two or more persons, the benefits of which are paid after the first person dies.
land-office business — a lively, booming, expanding, or very profitable business.
last of the mohicans — a historical novel (1826) by James Fenimore Cooper.
laugh one's head off — Phrases such as laugh your head off and scream your head off can be used to emphasize that someone is laughing or screaming a lot or very loudly.
law of contradiction — the law that a proposition cannot be both true and false or that a thing cannot both have and not have a given property.
law of large numbers — the theorem in probability theory that the number of successes increases as the number of experiments increases and approximates the probability times the number of experiments for a large number of experiments.
law of superposition — Geology. a basic law of geochronology, stating that in any undisturbed sequence of rocks deposited in layers, the youngest layer is on top and the oldest on bottom, each layer being younger than the one beneath it and older than the one above it.
life-support machine — A life-support machine is the equipment that is used to keep a person alive when they are very ill and cannot breathe without help.
like a house on fire — If two people get on like a house on fire, they quickly become close friends, for example because they have many interests in common.
like a ton of bricks — (used esp of the manner of punishing or reprimanding someone) with great force; severely
logarithmic function — a function defined by y = log bx, especially when the base, b, is equal to e, the base of natural logarithms.
longitudinal framing — a system for framing steel vessels in which light, closely spaced, longitudinal frames are connected by heavy, widely spaced transverse frames with deep webs.
madwoman of chaillot — a satirical comedy (1945) by Jean Giraudoux.
margaret of scotland — Saint. 1045–93, queen consort of Malcolm III of Scotland. Her piety and benefactions to the church led to her canonization (1250). Feast days: June 10, Nov 16
member of parliament — A Member of Parliament is a person who has been elected by the people in a particular area to represent them in a country's parliament. The abbreviation MP is often used.
morning glory family — the plant family Convulvulaceae, characterized by twining herbaceous vines, shrubs, and trees having alternate, simple, or compound leaves, funnel-shaped, often showy flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry or capsule, and including bindweed, dodder, moonflower, morning glory, and sweet potato.
most general unifier — (logic) If U is the most general unifier of a set of expressions then any other unifier, V, can be expressed as V = UW, where W is another substitution. See also unification.
no lack of something — If you say there is no lack of something, you are emphasizing that there is a great deal of it.
normal magnification — the magnification produced by a telescope or microscope such that the diameter of the exit pupil of the instrument is equal to the diameter of the pupil of the eye.
normal zeeman effect — the dividing of a spectral line or lines as a result of placing a radiation source in a magnetic field. The division consists of three equally spaced lines (normal Zeeman effect) in systems for which the spin quantum number is zero, or of three or more unequally spaced lines (anomalous Zeeman effect) in systems for which the spin quantum number is not zero.
north atlantic drift — an ocean current flowing NE toward the British Isles, formed by the convergence of the Gulf Stream and the Labrador Current SE of Newfoundland.
northern leaf blight — a disease of corn caused by the fungus Exsherohilum turcicum, characterized by elongate tan-gray elliptical spots with subsequent blighting and necrosis of leaves.
of no/little account — If you say that something is of no account or of little account, you mean that it is very unimportant and is not worth considering.
of value/of no value — If something is of value, it is useful or important. If it is of no value, it has no usefulness or importance.
old man of the woods — an edible, mild-tasting mushroom, Strobilomyces floccopus, occurring in coniferous woodlands of eastern North America.
olfactory anesthesia — absence or loss of the sense of smell.
on the factory floor — in a factory; as a factory worker
order bill of lading — a bill of lading that is issued to the order of a shipper or consignee for delivery of the goods and that can be transferred by endorsement to third parties.
paper qualifications — qualifications gained through official examinations, etc, rather than through experience
pappus of alexandria — 3rd century bc, Greek mathematician, whose eight-volume Synagoge is a valuable source of information about Greek mathematics
patent foramen ovale — a congenital heart defect resulting from failure of the foramen ovale to close shortly after birth.
peaceful coexistence — competition without war, or a policy of peace between nations of widely differing political systems and ideologies, especially between Communist and non-Communist nations: peaceful coexistence between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
permonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
pleased with oneself — If someone seems very satisfied with something they have done, you can say that they are pleased with themselves, especially if you think they are more satisfied than they should be.
pledge of allegiance — a solemn oath of allegiance or fidelity to the U.S., beginning, “I pledge allegiance to the flag,” and forming part of many flag-saluting ceremonies in the U.S.
potential difference — voltage
probability function — the function the values of which are probabilities of the distinct outcomes of a discrete random variable
quantum field theory — any theory in which fields are treated by the methods of quantum mechanics; each field can then be regarded as consisting of particles of a particular kind, which may be created and annihilated.
refracting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.

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