17-letter words containing f, e, a
- clifden nonpareil — a handsome nocturnal moth, Catocala fraxini, that is brown with bluish patches on the hindwings: related to the red underwing
- clinical efficacy — Clinical efficacy is a measure of how well a treatment succeeds in achieving its aim.
- cloverleaf aerial — a type of aerial, having three or four similar coplanar loops arranged symmetrically around an axis, to which in-phase signals are fed
- code of behaviour — the generally accepted rules governing how people behave
- code of hammurabi — a Babylonian legal code of the 18th century b.c. or earlier, instituted by Hammurabi and dealing with criminal and civil matters.
- coffee-table book — A coffee-table book is a large expensive book with a lot of pictures, which is designed to be looked at rather than to be read properly, and is usually placed where people can see it easily.
- coin of the realm — legal tender.
- coliform bacteria — a large group of bacteria inhabiting the intestinal tract of humans and animals that may cause disease and whose presence in water is an indicator of faecal pollution
- comedie francaise — the French national theatre, founded in Paris in 1680
- comedy of manners — a comedy dealing with the way of life and foibles of a social group
- complete fracture — a bone fracture in which the bone is split completely across.
- compound fracture — A compound fracture is a fracture in which the broken bone sticks through the skin.
- conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
- consolidated fund — a fund into which tax revenue is paid in order to meet standing charges, esp interest payments on the national debt
- continental drift — Continental drift is the slow movement of the Earth's continents towards and away from each other.
- continental shelf — The continental shelf is the area which forms the edge of a continent, ending in a steep slope to the depths of the ocean.
- contraflow system — a system of traffic lanes whose normal direction is reversed to allow traffic to move during repairs or an accident
- corporal of horse — a noncommissioned rank in the British Household Cavalry above that of sergeant and below that of staff sergeant
- court of chancery — (in the US) a court of equity
- court-of-chancery — chancery (def 4a).
- cream of the crop — the best of a group
- creature comforts — Creature comforts are the things that you need to feel comfortable in a place, for example good food and modern equipment.
- creature of habit — If you say that someone is a creature of habit, you mean that they usually do the same thing at the same time each day, rather than doing new and different things.
- credit facilities — a type of loan made by a bank
- cross of lorraine — a cross with two horizontal bars above and below the midpoint of the vertical bar, the lower longer than the upper
- culture-fair test — a test, usually for intelligence, that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, esp regarding material or cultural background
- cut a good figure — to appear or behave well
- cut a poor figure — to appear or behave badly
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- darwinian fitness — fitness (def 3).
- darwinian-fitness — health.
- david copperfield — a novel (1850) by Charles Dickens.
- de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
- de-baathification — the process of removing the members and influence of the Ba'ath Party from public office in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003
- death certificate — A death certificate is an official certificate signed by a doctor which states the cause of a person's death.
- dedifferentiating — Present participle of dedifferentiate.
- dedifferentiation — the reversion of the cells of differentiated tissue to a less specialized form
- defamiliarisation — (arts) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.
- defamiliarization — Art, Literature. a theory and technique, originating in the early 20th century, in which an artistic or literary work presents familiar objects or situations in an unfamiliar way, prolonging the perceptive process and allowing for a fresh perspective.
- defence mechanism — A defence mechanism is a way of behaving or thinking which is not conscious or deliberate and is an automatic reaction to unpleasant experiences or feelings such as anxiety and fear.
- defence secretary — the member of a government who is responsible for the country's armed forces
- defense mechanism — A defense mechanism is a way of behaving or thinking which is not conscious or deliberate and is an automatic reaction to unpleasant experiences or feelings such as anxiety and fear.
- deficit financing — Deficit financing is the financing of government spending through borrowing rather than revenue.
- definite integral — the evaluation of the indefinite integral between two limits, representing the area between the given function and the x-axis between these two values of x
- denial of service — a deliberate interruption in access to a computer system or network, esp by using multiple computers to generate an unmanageable volume of traffic (distributed denial of service)
- denial-of-service — pertaining to or being an incident in which a computer or computer network is disabled, disrupting access or service: a website hit by a denial-of-service attack; unintentional denial-of-service problems.
- deprofessionalise — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deprofessionalize — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deucalion's flood — a flood sent by Zeus that wiped out the entire population of the earth, except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
- devil's food cake — a rich chocolate cake