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18-letter words containing f, a, r, c, i, e

  • creeping featurism — (jargon)   /kree'ping fee'chr-izm/ (Or "feature creep") A systematic tendency to load more chrome and features onto systems at the expense of whatever elegance they may have possessed when originally designed. "The main problem with BSD Unix has always been creeping featurism." More generally, creeping featurism is the tendency for anything to become more complicated because people keep saying "Gee, it would be even better if it had this feature too". The result is usually a patchwork because it grew one ad-hoc step at a time, rather than being planned. Planning is a lot of work, but it's easy to add just one extra little feature to help someone, and then another, and another, .... When creeping featurism gets out of hand, it's like a cancer. Usually this term is used to describe computer programs, but it could also be said of the federal government, the IRS 1040 form, and new cars. A similar phenomenon sometimes afflicts conscious redesigns; see second-system effect. See also creeping elegance.
  • creme de framboise — a liqueur flavored with raspberries.
  • crude oil fraction — A crude oil fraction is a component of crude oil, which has its own particular molecular composition, weight, and boiling point.
  • curvature of field — a monochromatic aberration of a lens or other optical system in which the focal surface is curved, the refracted image of an object oriented perpendicular to the axis of the lens lying on a curved surface rather than in a plane perpendicular to the axis.
  • dead-letter office — an office where undeliverable letters were taken for storage
  • declaration of war — a formal statement made by one country to another that a state of war now exists between them
  • democratic deficit — any situation in which there is believed to be a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision-making process
  • depth-first search — (algorithm)   A graph search algorithm which extends the current path as far as possible before backtracking to the last choice point and trying the next alternative path. Depth-first search may fail to find a solution if it enters a cycle in the graph. This can be avoided if we never extend a path to a node which it already contains. Opposite of breadth first search. See also iterative deepening.
  • diaminofluorescein — (organic compound) A fluorescein into which two amino groups have been substituted.
  • disenfranchisement — to disfranchise.
  • eleanor of castile — 1246–90, Spanish wife of Edward I of England. Eleanor Crosses were erected at each place at which her body rested between Nottingham, where she died, and London, where she is buried
  • electrical failure — an instance when an electricity supply stops working
  • electronic warfare — the military use of electronics to prevent or reduce an enemy's effective use and to protect friendly use of electromagnetic radiation equipment
  • enforcement action — action by a body or organization, esp a financial one, to make sure that its rules are being followed
  • excess profits tax — a tax on profits exceeding a certain amount
  • fabric conditioner — a product used when washing clothes to make them feel softer
  • feeping creaturism — /fee'ping kree"ch*r-izm/ A deliberate spoonerism for creeping featurism, meant to imply that the system or program in question has become a misshapen creature of hacks. This term isn"t really well defined, but it sounds so neat that most hackers have said or heard it. It is probably reinforced by an image of terminals prowling about in the dark making their customary noises.
  • ferdinand schiller — Ferdinand Canning Scott [kan-ing] /ˈkæn ɪŋ/ (Show IPA), 1864–1937, English philosopher in the U.S.
  • fermat's principle — Optics. the law that the path taken by a ray of light in going from one point to another point will be the path that requires the least time.
  • fettuccine alfredo — fettuccine in cream sauce with grated Parmesan cheese.
  • fifth monarchy men — (during the Commonwealth in the 17th century) a militant sect of Puritans who identified the fifth monarchy with the millennial reign of Christ and who believed they should help to inaugurate that reign by force.
  • financial services — A company or organization that provides financial services is able to help you do things such as make investments or buy a pension or mortgage.
  • firecracker flower — a plant, Dichelostemma ida-maia, of the amaryllis family, native to California and Oregon, having clusters of tubular scarlet flowers.
  • first class module — (programming)   A module that is a first class data object of the programming language, e.g. a record containing functions. In a functional language, it is standard to have first class programs, so program building blocks can have the same status.
  • fischer von erlach — Johann Bernhard [yaw-hahn bern-hahrt] /ˈyɔ hɑn ˈbɛrn hɑrt/ (Show IPA), 1656–1723, Austrian architect.
  • fixed-focus camera — a camera with an unadjustable focal length and with a relatively large depth of field.
  • fixed-radio access — Wireless Local Loop
  • fixed-term tenancy — a tenancy arrangement for a particular and fixed period
  • formal equivalence — the relation that holds between two open sentences when their universal closures are materially equivalent
  • forward compatible — forward compatibility
  • frederick douglass — Frederick, 1817–95, U.S. ex-slave, abolitionist, and orator.
  • free-range chicken — a chicken kept in natural nonintensive conditions
  • french west africa — a former French federation in W Africa, including Dahomey (now Benin), French Guinea, French Sudan (now Mali), Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, and Upper Volta (now Burkina Fasso).
  • ftp software, inc. — (company)   Developers of the original PC/TCP Packet Driver specification. Address: 26 Princess St. Wakefield, MA 01880-3004. Telephone: +1 (617) 246 0900.
  • funeral procession — ceremonial cortège at a burial
  • general confession — a prayer confessing sins
  • german east africa — a former German territory in E Africa, the area now comprised of continental Tanzania and the independent republics of Rwanda and Burundi.
  • grand council fire — a formal gathering of camp fire members requiring a minimum attendance of three troops.
  • haemorrhagic fever — any of a group of fevers, such as Ebola virus disease and yellow fever, characterized by internal bleeding or bleeding into the skin
  • handkerchief table — corner table.
  • hippocratic facies — the sallow facial expression, with listless staring eyes, often regarded as denoting approaching death
  • ideas of reference — a schizophrenic symptom in which the patient thinks that things completely disconnected from him are influencing him or conveying messages to him
  • in the first place — firstly
  • indefinite article — an article, as English a, an, that denotes class membership of the noun it modifies without particularizing it.
  • inferior vena cava — See under vena cava.
  • information centre — help desk, office
  • information office — an office where you can go to get information
  • inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
  • integrating factor — a factor that upon multiplying a differential equation with the right-hand side equal to zero makes the equation integrable, usually by making the resulting expression an exact differential of some function.
  • interface analysis — (testing)   A software test which checks the interfaces between program elements for consistency and adherence to predefined rules or axioms.
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