18-letter words containing f, a
- dead man's fingers — a soft coral, Alcyonium digitatum, with long finger-like polyps
- dead-letter office — an office where undeliverable letters were taken for storage
- dead-man's fingers — any of various fungi, sponges, plant roots, animal parts, etc., having fingerlike projections and a pale or dull color, as the gray-black woodland fungus Xylaria polymorpha or the whitish spongy gills of a food crab.
- declaration of war — a formal statement made by one country to another that a state of war now exists between them
- deep-sea fisherman — a person who takes part in deep-sea fishing
- defense calculator — IBM 701
- deferred liability — income received in advance and carried forward as a liability until the associated goods, services, or benefits are delivered
- deficiency account — an account summarizing the financial condition of an individual or company in danger of bankruptcy.
- deficiency disease — any condition, such as pellagra, beriberi, or scurvy, produced by a lack of vitamins or other essential substances
- deficiency payment — a payment made to a commodity producer that represents the difference between the market price and the guaranteed price
- definitive plumage — the plumage of a bird that, once attained, does not change significantly in color or pattern for the rest of the bird's life.
- democratic deficit — any situation in which there is believed to be a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision-making process
- departure platform — a raised area at a railway station from which passengers can board trains prior to their departing
- 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.
- disidentifications — Plural form of disidentification.
- division of labour — a system of organizing the manufacture of an article in a series of separate specialized operations, each of which is carried out by a different worker or group of workers
- dna fingerprinting — the use of a DNA probe for the identification of an individual, as for the matching of genes from a forensic sample with those of a criminal suspect.
- due process of law — the administration of justice in accordance with established rules and principles
- dwarf storage unit — (humour) (DSU) An IBM term for a cupboard.
- dysfunctionalities — Plural form of dysfunctionality.
- economies of scale — Economies of scale are the financial advantages that a company gains when it produces large quantities of products.
- 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
- fall on one's feet — a plural of foot.
- fall to the ground — (of a plan, theory, etc) to be rendered invalid, esp because of lack of necessary information
- fall-back position — an alternative plan
- fallot's tetralogy — a congenital heart disease in which there are four defects: pulmonary stenosis, enlarged right ventricle, a ventricular septal defect, and an aorta whose origin lies over the septal defect. In babies suffering this disease the defects can be corrected by surgery
- false imprisonment — the unlawful restraint of a person from exercising the right to freedom of movement.
- family-size packet — a packet large enough to be suitable for a family
- family-tree theory — a theory that describes language change in terms of genetically related languages developing in successive splits from a common parent language, such as Indo-European, as depicted by a family tree diagram.
- fantasy basketball — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
- far eastern region — former name of Khabarovsk.
- faraday dark space — the dark region between the negative glow and the positive column in a vacuum tube occurring when the pressure is low.
- farewell-to-spring — a slender, showy plant, Clarkia amoena, of the evening primrose family, native to western North America, having satiny, cup-shaped, lilac-crimson or reddish-pink flowers and roundish fruit.
- farm the long acre — to graze cows on the verge of a road
- farmer in the dell — a game, accompanied by a song with several verses, in which one person, designated as the farmer, occupies the center of a circle of persons and is joined in the circle by other players designated as wife, child, nurse, cat, rat, and cheese, these then leaving the circle in order except for the one designated as cheese, who is left standing alone in the circle at the end.
- farmer-labor party — a political party in Minnesota, founded in 1920 and merged with the Democratic Party in 1944.
- fascicular cambium — cambium that develops within the vascular bundles, producing secondary xylem and phloem.
- fast-food industry — the industry surrounding fast-food restaurants
- fatty degeneration — deterioration of the cells of the body, accompanied by the formation of fat globules within the diseased cells.
- feast of orthodoxy — a solemn festival held on the first Sunday of Lent (Orthodoxy Sunday) commemorating the restoration of the use of icons in the church (a.d. 842) and the triumph over all heresies.
- feather one's nest — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
- federal funds rate — The federal funds rate is the overnight rate between banks.
- federal government — pertaining to or of the nature of a union of states under a central government distinct from the individual governments of the separate states, as in federal government; federal system.