15-letter words containing f, e, i, s
- pilgrim fathers — the Pilgrims (of Plymouth Colony)
- pinkster flower — a wild azalea, Rhododendron periclymenoides, of the U.S., having pink or purplish flowers.
- platform tennis — a variation of tennis played on a wooden platform enclosed with chicken wire in which the players hit a rubber ball with wooden paddles following the same basic rules as tennis except that only one serve is permitted and balls can be played off the back and side fences.
- play favourites — to display favouritism
- play kissy-face — to engage in kissing, caressing, etc., esp. overtly or publicly
- plumbers-friend — Machinery. a pistonlike reciprocating part moving within the cylinder of a pump or hydraulic device.
- position effect — the alteration in the expression of a gene or genetic region due to its relocation within the genome as a result of inversion or translocation.
- post office box — (in a post office) a locked compartment into which the mail of a box renter is put to be called for. Abbreviation: POB, P.O.B.
- post-office box — (in a post office) a locked compartment into which the mail of a box renter is put to be called for. Abbreviation: POB, P.O.B.
- preferentialism — the economic system of preference, esp amongst British commonwealth countries
- preferentialist — someone who believes in preferentialism
- preformationism — the belief in the theory of preformation
- preformationist — someone who advocates the theory of preformation
- preprofessional — of or relating to the time preceding one's concentrated study or practice of a profession: preprofessional training.
- primrose family — the plant family Primulaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants having simple, opposite, whorled, or basal leaves, flowers with a five-lobed corolla, and capsular fruit, and including cyclamen, loosestrife of the genus Lysimachia, pimpernel, primrose, and shooting star.
- prince of wales — Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall ("The Black Prince") 1330–76, English military leader (son of Edward III).
- prisoner of war — a person who is captured and held by an enemy during war, especially a member of the armed forces. Abbreviation: POW.
- professionalism — professional character, spirit, or methods.
- professionalist — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- professionalize — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- purslane family — the plant family Portulacaceae, characterized by chiefly herbaceous plants having simple, often fleshy leaves, sometimes showy flowers, and capsular fruit, and including bitterroot, purslane, red maids, rose moss, and spring beauty.
- quadric surface — a three-dimensional surface whose equation is a quadratic equation.
- quarterfinalist — a participant in a quarterfinal contest.
- question of law — a question concerning a rule or the legal effect or consequence of an event or circumstance, usually determined by a court or judge.
- ranfurly shield — (in New Zealand) the premier rugby trophy, competed for annually by provincial teams
- ray of sunshine — beam of sunlight
- ray-finned fish — any of various bony fishes of the subclass Actinopterygii, having strong slender rays, excluding the coelacanth and lungfish.
- rayside-balfour — a town in S Ontario, in S Canada.
- read oneself in — to assume possession of a benefice by publicly reading the Thirty-nine Articles
- ready-furnished — (of a room, house, office, etc) fitted with furniture before being rented or sold
- reafforestation — replanting with trees
- reference strip — a strip of film used to help calculate and monitor the exposing and processing of photographs
- refuelling stop — a stop made so that fresh fuel can be supplied (to an aircraft, vehicle, etc)
- refuse disposal — the act of disposing of rubbish and waste
- register office — building where civil records are kept
- registry office — a government office and depository in which records and civil registers are kept and civil marriages performed.
- relapsing fever — one of a group of fevers characterized by relapses, occurring in many tropical countries, and caused by several species of spirochetes transmitted by several species of lice and ticks.
- relief supplies — food, water, medication, clothes, etc given to people in need, esp in disaster areas
- relieve oneself — to ease or alleviate (pain, distress, anxiety, need, etc.).
- reserve officer — a noncareer commissioned officer in a military reserve unit who has served on active duty and who may be recalled to active service during an emergency.
- respecification — the act of specifying.
- reversing falls — a series of rapids in the Saint John River, New Brunswick, Canada, the flow of which regularly reverses itself owing to the force an incoming tide
- reworked fossil — a fossil eroded from sediment and redeposited in younger sediment
- rhodesian front — the governing party in Zimbabwe (then called Rhodesia) 1962–78
- riemann surface — a geometric representation of a function of a complex variable in which a multiple-valued function is depicted as a single-valued function on several planes, the planes being connected at some of the points at which the function takes on more than one value.
- right of search — the privilege of a nation at war to search neutral ships on the high seas for contraband or other matter, carried in violation of neutrality, that may subject the ship to seizure.
- rime suffisante — full rhyme.
- rite of passage — Anthropology. a ceremony performed to facilitate or mark a person's change of status upon any of several highly important occasions, as at the onset of puberty or upon entry into marriage or into a clan.
- roaring forties — the stormy oceanic areas between 40° and 50° south latitude
- rockrose family — the plant family Cistaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants and shrubs having simple, usually opposite leaves, solitary or clustered flowers, and capsular fruit, and including the frostweed, pinweed, and rockrose.