17-letter words containing f, e, d, i
- indefinite number — a variable or unspecified number.
- induction furnace — a type of electric furnace used for melting a charge of scrap by the heat produced by its own electrical resistance.
- influence peddler — a person who arranges to obtain favors, as government contracts, from high officials on behalf of others for a fee.
- interference drag — the drag on an aircraft caused by the interaction of two aerodynamic bodies.
- isherwood 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.
- island of the sun — Sicily: the island where Helius kept his oxen.
- judgment of paris — the decision by Paris to award Aphrodite the golden apple of discord competed for by Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera.
- juvenile offender — a child or young person who has been found guilty of some offence, act of vandalism, or antisocial behaviour before a juvenile court
- kolar gold fields — a city in S India, in SE Karnataka: a major gold-mining centre since 1881. Pop: 176 000 (2005 est)
- lady of the night — a tropical American shrub, Brunfelsia americana, of the nightshade family, having berrylike yellow fruit and fragrant white flowers.
- lady-of-the-night — a tropical American shrub, Brunfelsia americana, of the nightshade family, having berrylike yellow fruit and fragrant white flowers.
- lead a dog's life — a domesticated canid, Canis familiaris, bred in many varieties.
- least fixed point — (mathematics) A function f may have many fixed points (x such that f x = x). For example, any value is a fixed point of the identity function, (\ x . x). If f is recursive, we can represent it as f = fix F where F is some higher-order function and fix F = F (fix F). The standard denotational semantics of f is then given by the least fixed point of F. This is the least upper bound of the infinite sequence (the ascending Kleene chain) obtained by repeatedly applying F to the totally undefined value, bottom. I.e. fix F = LUB {bottom, F bottom, F (F bottom), ...}. The least fixed point is guaranteed to exist for a continuous function over a cpo.
- life and/or death — If you say that something is a matter of life and death, you are emphasizing that it is extremely important, often because someone may die or suffer great harm if people do not act immediately.
- lifestyle disease — a disease that potentially can be prevented by changes in diet, environment, and lifestyle, such as heart disease, stroke, obesity, and osteoporosis
- line of induction — (formerly) a line of force in a magnetic field.
- line of longitude — an imaginary line on a globe, map, etc, indicating longitude
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- live free or die! — 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's automobile licence plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the fascist design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on commercial operating systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake licence plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New Hampshire colours of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
- loose-leaf binder — a hard cover with metal rings inside which is used to hold loose pieces of paper
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- make a difference — have a significant impact
- man's best friend — a dog, especially as a pet.
- mare fecunditatis — (Sea of Fertility) a dark plain in the fourth quadrant and extending into the first quadrant of the face of the moon: about 160,000 sq. mi. (415,000 sq. km).
- memoised function — memo function
- memoized function — memo function
- mental deficiency — mental retardation
- mexican stand-off — A Mexican stand-off is a situation in which neither of the people or groups in a conflict or dispute can win and neither wants to give in first.
- microfiche reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfiche
- middle of nowhere — a completely isolated, featureless, or insignificant place
- misidentification — to identify incorrectly.
- negative feedback — Electronics. the process of returning part of the output of a circuit, system, or device to the input, either to oppose the input (negative feedback) or to aid the input (positive feedback) acoustic feedback.
- newfoundland time — a form of civil time observed on the island of Newfoundland, one and one-half hours later than Eastern time and a half hour later than Atlantic time.
- niger-kordofanian — a language family comprising Niger-Congo and Kordofanian.
- nightshade family — the plant family Solanaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, trees, shrubs, and vines having alternate, simple or pinnate leaves, conspicuous flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry or capsule, and including belladonna, eggplant, nightshade, peppers of the genus Capsicum, petunia, potato, tobacco, and tomato.
- north frigid zone — the part of the earth's surface between the Arctic Circle and the North Pole.
- northern studfish — See under studfish.
- not one's idea of — not what one regards as (hard work, a holiday, etc)
- not the full quid — mentally subnormal
- noun pre-modifier — a noun that occurs before and modifies another noun, as toy in toy store or tour in tour group.
- object identifier — (programming) (OID) Generally an implementation-specific integer or pointer that uniquely identifies an object.
- odds-on favourite — a person, team, horse, etc that is regarded as the most likely to win a competition
- on the foundation — an endowment or legacy for the perpetual support of an institution such as a school or hospital
- order of business — a task assigned or to be dealt with: Our first order of business is to reduce expenses.
- orfeo ed euridice — an opera (1762), with music by Christoph Willibald von Gluck.
- organized ferment — ferment (def 1).
- orifice discharge — Orifice discharge is a model for calculating how quickly a fluid will come out of a punctured vessel or pipe.
- out in left field — Baseball. the area of the outfield to the left of center field, as viewed from home plate. the position of the player covering this area.
- out of one's mind — (in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind.
- out of the window — dispensed with; disregarded