17-letter words containing f, e, m
- 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.
- degree of freedom — one of the minimum number of parameters necessary to describe a state or property of a system
- dimethylformamide — a colourless liquid widely used as a solvent and sometimes as a catalyst. Formula: (CH3)2NCHO
- dimethylsulfoxide — DMSO.
- director of music — a person in charge of musical training and performance at an institution such as a college, especially the head bandmaster of a military band
- eat flaming death — (humour, abuse) A construction popularised among hackers by the infamous CPU Wars comic; supposedly derive from a famously turgid line in a WWII-era anti-Nazi propaganda comic that ran "Eat flaming death, non-Aryan mongrels!" or something of the sort (however, it is also reported that the Firesign Theater's 1975 album "In The Next World, You're On Your Own" included the phrase "Eat flaming death, fascist media pigs"; this may have been an influence). Used in humorously overblown expressions of hostility. "Eat flaming death, EBCDIC users!"
- empirical formula — a chemical formula indicating the proportion of each element present in a molecule
- employee benefits — benefits, such as health insurance, pension payments, or childcare, given to employees in addition to their usual salary or wage
- employment office — any of a number of government offices established to collect and supply to the unemployed information about job vacancies and to employers information about availability of prospective workers
- enforcement order — an order by a court to force a person or organization to comply with a regulation or law
- enrolment figures — the numbers of people enrolling at an institution, on a course, etc
- enzyme deficiency — failure of the body to produce a specific enzy
- error of judgment — a wrong or bad decision
- exfoliating cream — a granular cosmetic preparation that removes dead cells from the skin's surface
- explosive forming — a rapid method of forming a metal object in which components are made by subjecting the metal to very high pressures generated by a controlled explosion
- facsimile catalog — a catalog that includes small reproductions of the items listed, as paintings, slides, designs, or the like.
- facsimile machine — a machine which transmits and receives documents in facsimile transmission
- fair market price — the price of something at which both a seller and a buyer are willing to strike a deal.
- fair market value — The fair market value of an asset is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller for it on the open market.
- far be it from me — I would not presume; on no account
- farmers' alliance — an informal name for various regional political organizations that farmers established in the 1880s and that led to the formation of the Peoples' party in 1891–92.
- fellow countryman — sb of same nationality
- female chauvinist — a female who patronizes, disparages, or otherwise denigrates males in the belief that they are inferior to females and thus deserving of less than equal treatment or benefit.
- female-chauvinist — a person who is aggressively and blindly patriotic, especially one devoted to military glory.
- fermentation lock — a valve placed on the top of bottles of fermenting wine to allow bubbles to escape
- ferrimagnetically — In a ferrimagnetic manner.
- ferroelectric ram — Ferroelectric Random Access Memory
- fifth commandment — “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee”: fifth of the Ten Commandments.
- financial manager — a person responsible for the supervision and handling of the financial affairs of an organization
- fine-toothed comb — a comb with fine, closely set teeth
- fire commissioner — the senior or officer at state or provincial level in charge of fire prevention and fire safety
- firehose syndrome — (networking, jargon) An absence, failure or inadequacy of flow control mechanisms causing the sender to overwhelm the receiver. The implication is that, like trying to drink from a firehose, the consequenses are worse than just loss of data, e.g. the receiver may crash. See ping-flood.
- first commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”: first of the Ten Commandments.
- first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
- first triumvirate — the political alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, formed in 60 bc
- fitness programme — a plan to help someone improve their health and physical condition
- flight instrument — any instrument used to indicate the altitude, attitude, airspeed, drift, or direction of an aircraft.
- flight supplement — an additional charge payable on the price of an air ticket
- foam at the mouth — a collection of minute bubbles formed on the surface of a liquid by agitation, fermentation, etc.: foam on a glass of beer.
- footmen's gallery — the rearmost section of seats in the balcony of an English theater, especially in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
- for love or money — If you cannot or will not do something for love or money, you are completely unable to do it or you do not intend to do it.
- for the most part — a portion or division of a whole that is separate or distinct; piece, fragment, fraction, or section; constituent: the rear part of the house; to glue the two parts together.
- forensic medicine — the application of medical knowledge to questions of civil and criminal law, especially in court proceedings.
- formative element — a morpheme that serves as an affix, not as a base, or root, in word formation.
- foucault pendulum — a pendulum that demonstrates the rotation of the earth by exhibiting an apparent change in its plane of oscillation.
- four-eyed opossum — a small opossum, Metachirops (Philander) opossum, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, having a white spot above each eye.
- fourier transform — a mapping of a function, as a signal, that is defined in one domain, as space or time, into another domain, as wavelength or frequency, where the function is represented in terms of sines and cosines.
- fractal dimension — (mathematics) A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
- frames per second — (unit) (fps) The unit of measurement of the frame rate of a moving image.
- frederick william — 1795–1861, king of Prussia 1840–61 (brother of William I of Prussia).