17-letter words containing f, e, m, a, l
- in the family way — a basic social unit consisting of parents and their children, considered as a group, whether dwelling together or not: the traditional family. a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for: a single-parent family.
- inertial platform — self-contained navigational devices used in inertial guidance, along with their mounting.
- jumping-off place — a place for use as a starting point: Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.
- laplace transform — a map of a function, as a signal, defined especially for positive real values, as time greater than zero, into another domain where the function is represented as a sum of exponentials.
- letters of marque — a former government document authorizing an individual to make reprisals on the subjects of an enemy nation, specif. to arm a ship and capture enemy merchant ships and cargo
- line of scrimmage — an imaginary line parallel to the goal lines that passes from one sideline to the other through the point of the football closest to the goal line of each team.
- luminous efficacy — the quotient of the luminous flux of a radiation and its corresponding radiant flux
- macfarlane burnet — Sir (Frank) Macfarlane [muh k-fahr-luh n] /məkˈfɑr lən/ (Show IPA), 1899–1985, Australian physician: Nobel Prize in Physiology 1960.
- magnesium sulfate — a white, water-soluble salt, MgSO 4 , used chiefly in medicine and in the processing of leather and textiles.
- make light of sth — If you make light of something, you treat it as though it is not serious or important, when in fact it is.
- make the dust fly — earth or other matter in fine, dry particles.
- manganese sulfate — a pink, water-soluble, usually tetrahydrate salt, MnSO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, used chiefly in fertilizers, paints, and varnishes.
- mayflower compact — an agreement to establish a government, entered into by the Pilgrims in the cabin of the Mayflower on November 11, 1620.
- mental deficiency — mental retardation
- metallofullerenes — Plural form of metallofullerene.
- methyltransferase — any of a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of methyl groups from one molecule to another.
- minimal free form — the smallest unit of language that can make sense on its own
- minion of the law — a policeman.
- molecular formula — a chemical formula that indicates the kinds of atoms and the number of each kind in a molecule of a compound.
- monarch butterfly — a large, deep-orange butterfly, Danaus plexippus, having black and white markings, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of milkweed.
- 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.
- 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.
- noninertial frame — a frame of reference that moves with the object, so that the moving object appears to violate Newton's laws of motion since it accelerates despite having no horizontal forces on it.
- office by example — (language) (OBE) A sequel to QBE, described in publications by Moshe Zloof of IBM in the early 1980s but apparently never implemented.
- old norman french — Norman French (sense 1)
- one-parent family — A one-parent family is a family that consists of one parent and his or her children living together.
- palette of narmer — a king of Egypt identified by modern scholars as the Menes of tradition and depicted as the unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt on an ancient slate tablet (Narmer Palette or Palette of Narmer) c3200 b.c. with relief carvings on both sides.
- peer of the realm — any of a class of peers in Great Britain and Ireland entitled by heredity to sit in the House of Lords.
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- portfolio manager — a person employed by others to make investments for them
- potassium sulfate — a crystalline, water-soluble solid, K 2 SO 4 , used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers, alums, and mineral water, and as a reagent in analytical chemistry.
- professional army — an army of trained soldiers
- recursion formula — a formula for determining the next term of a sequence from one or more of the preceding terms.
- reduction formula — a formula, such as sin (90° ± A) = cos A, expressing the values of a trigonometric function of any angle greater than 90° in terms of a function of an acute angle
- saint elmo's fire — corona discharge.
- self-administered — to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of: to administer the law.
- self-commendation — the act of commending; recommendation; praise: commendation for a job well done.
- self-condemnation — the act of condemning.
- self-confirmation — the act of confirming.
- self-emancipation — the act of emancipating.
- self-estrangement — to turn away in feeling or affection; make unfriendly or hostile; alienate the affections of: Their quarrel estranged the two friends.
- self-impregnating — to make pregnant; get with child or young.
- self-incompatible — not capable of self-pollination.
- semi-professional — actively engaged in some field or sport for pay but on a part-time basis: semiprofessional baseball players.
- silk manufacturer — a person or business that is involved in the manufacture of silk thread and fabric
- software platform — a major piece of software, as an operating system, an operating environment, or a database, under which various smaller application programs can be designed to run.
- south farmingdale — a town on central Long Island, in SE New York.
- star of bethlehem — the star that is supposed to have appeared above Bethlehem at the birth of Christ
- star-of-bethlehem — any of several plants belonging to the genus Ornithogalum, of the lily family, having grasslike leaves and clusters of white flowers.
- star-of-jerusalem — meadow salsify.