17-letter words containing f, e, n, c, l
- inclusive fitness — the fitness of an individual organism as measured in terms of the survival and reproductive success of its kin, each relative being valued according to the probability of shared genetic information, an offspring or sibling having a value of 50 percent and a cousin 25 percent.
- incomplete flower — a flower without one or more of the normal parts, as carpels, sepals, petals, pistils, or stamens.
- infinitive clause — a clause containing an infinitive as its main or only verb form, as to speak clearly in Try to speak clearly.
- influence peddler — a person who arranges to obtain favors, as government contracts, from high officials on behalf of others for a fee.
- integral function — an entire function.
- interconfessional — common to or occurring between churches having different confessions.
- internal conflict — psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character, the resolution of which creates the plot's suspense: Hamlet's inaction is caused by internal conflict.
- intraspecifically — Between individuals of the same species.
- john of lancaster — Duke of Bedford, 1389–1435, Bedford, John of Lancaster, Duke of.
- jumping-off place — a place for use as a starting point: Paris was the jumping-off place for our tour of Europe.
- knock oneself out — to make great efforts; exhaust oneself
- lance of courtesy — a lance having a blunt head to prevent serious injury by a jouster to an opponent.
- 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.
- law of reflection — the principle that when a ray of light, radar pulse, or the like, is reflected from a smooth surface the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, and the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- law of refraction — the principle that for a ray, radar pulse, or the like, that is incident on the interface of two media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the velocity of the ray in the first medium to the velocity in the second medium and the incident ray, refracted ray, and normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- line of induction — (formerly) a line of force in a magnetic field.
- 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.
- mental deficiency — mental retardation
- monarch butterfly — a large, deep-orange butterfly, Danaus plexippus, having black and white markings, the larvae of which feed on the leaves of milkweed.
- natural frequency — the frequency at which a system vibrates when set in free vibration
- nuclear-free zone — any area in which nuclear weapons, power plants, or materials are not allowed.
- off-year election — (in the US) an election held in a year when a presidential election does not take place
- old norman french — Norman French (sense 1)
- open-channel flow — Open-channel flow is a liquid flow in a channel, which has a free liquid surface.
- overreach oneself — to fail because of trying to do more than one can
- peridot of ceylon — a honey-colored tourmaline, used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- personnel officer — a worker responsible for recruiting employees and dealing with matters relating to them
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- pincushion flower — scabious2 (def 1).
- pre-qualification — a quality, accomplishment, etc., that fits a person for some function, office, or the like.
- profile component — attainment targets in different subjects brought together for the general assessment of a pupil
- 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
- reference library — A reference library is a library that contains books which you can look at in the library itself but which you cannot borrow.
- reflection nebula — a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light of neighboring stars.
- refuse collection — the collection of rubbish and waste, usually in a rubbish or refuse truck, before final disposal
- republic of china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- republic of yemen — Republic of, a country in S Arabia, formed in 1990 by the merger of the Yemen Arab Republic and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. 207,000 sq. mi. (536,130 sq. km). Capital: Aden.
- republic-of-china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- return of capital — A return of capital is a situation in which you receive back money that was previously invested.
- road-fund licence — a licence showing that the tax payable in respect of a motor vehicle has been paid
- sacrificial anode — Chemistry. an anode that is attached to a metal object subject to electrolysis and is decomposed instead of the object.
- scarlet firethorn — a Eurasian evergreen, thorny shrub, Pyracantha coccinea, of the rose family, having white, hairy flower clusters and bright red berries.
- self-acknowledged — widely recognized; generally accepted: an acknowledged authority on Chinese art.
- self-appreciation — gratitude; thankful recognition: They showed their appreciation by giving him a gold watch.
- self-commendation — the act of commending; recommendation; praise: commendation for a job well done.
- self-condemnation — the act of condemning.
- self-conditioning — Also called operant conditioning, instrumental conditioning. a process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing a subject each time an action is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress.