20-letter words containing f, e, o, r, s
- roof over one's head — If you have a roof over your head, you have somewhere to live.
- royal air force list — an official list of all serving commissioned officers of the RAF and reserve officers liable for recall
- saint anthony's fire — any of certain skin conditions that are of an inflammatory or gangrenous nature, as erysipelas, hospital gangrene, or ergotism.
- second earl of essex — 2nd Earl of, Devereux, Robert.
- senior aircraftwoman — a rank in the Royal Air Force comparable to that of a private in the army, though not the lowest rank in the Royal Air Force
- separation of powers — the principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government.
- serious fraud office — a UK government office responsible for investigating and prosecuting serious fraud cases
- shear transformation — a map of a coordinate space in which one coordinate is held fixed and the other coordinate or coordinates are shifted.
- sinfonia concertante — a type of concerto for two or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra
- sing for your supper — If someone has to sing for their supper, they have to do a job before they are allowed to do something they want to do.
- snowflake generation — the generation of people who became adults in the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations
- sodium fluoroacetate — a white, amorphous, water-soluble, poisonous powder, C 2 H 2 FO 2 Na, used as a rodenticide.
- software engineering — the process of writing computer programs
- software methodology — (programming) The study of how to navigate through each phase of the software process model (determining data, control, or uses hierarchies, partitioning functions, and allocating requirements) and how to represent phase products (structure charts, stimulus-response threads, and state transition diagrams).
- soke of peterborough — a former administrative unit of E central England, generally considered part of Northamptonshire or Huntingdonshire: absorbed into Cambridgeshire in 1974
- solitary confinement — the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place in which he or she is completely isolated from others.
- span of apprehension — the maximum number of objects that can be correctly assessed after a brief presentation
- specific performance — (especially in the sale of land) literal compliance with one's contractual promises pursuant to a judicial mandate.
- spiral of archimedes — a curve that is the locus of a point that moves outward with uniform speed along a vector, beginning at the origin, while the vector rotates about the origin with uniform angular velocity. Equation (in polar coordinates): r = aθ.
- spirit of enterprise — the motivation to set up and succeed in business or commerce
- square of opposition — a diagrammatic representation of the opposition of categorical propositions.
- squirrel's-foot fern — ball fern.
- staff sergeant major — a noncommissioned officer equivalent in rank to a command sergeant major but having no command responsibility.
- states of the church — Papal States
- strike off the rolls — to expel from membership
- strong nuclear force — an interaction between elementary particles responsible for the forces between nucleons in the nucleus. It operates at distances less than about 10–15 metres, and is about a hundred times more powerful than the electromagnetic interaction
- the course of nature — the ordinary course of events
- the eye of the storm — If you say that someone or something is at the eye of the storm, you mean they are the main subject of a public disagreement.
- the founding fathers — any of the men who were members of the U.S. Constituional Convention of 1787
- the gnomes of zurich — Swiss bankers and financiers
- the legal profession — the profession of law
- the price of someone — what someone deserves, esp a fitting punishment
- the way of the cross — a series of images in a church or along a road to a church etc depicting the last hours of Christ
- the-comedy-of-errors — an early comedy (1594) by Shakespeare.
- there is no call for — If you say that there is no call for someone to behave in a particular way, you are criticizing their behaviour, usually because you think it is rude.
- theresa of avila, st — Saint. Also, Teresa. Also called Theresa of Avila [ah-vee-lah] /ˈɑ viˌlɑ/ (Show IPA), 1515–82, Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and writer.
- third-party software — software created by programmers or publishers independent of the manufacturer of the hardware for which it is intended.
- this time, for sure! — (exclamation) Ritual affirmation frequently uttered during protracted debugging sessions involving numerous small obstacles (e.g. attempts to bring up a UUCP connection). For the proper effect, this must be uttered in a fruity imitation of Bullwinkle J. Moose. Also heard: "Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!" The canonical response is, of course, "But that trick *never* works!" See hacker humour.
- thomas of erceldoune — Thomas of, Thomas of Erceldoune.
- thorn in one's flesh — a sharp excrescence on a plant, especially a sharp-pointed aborted branch; spine; prickle.
- thought transference — transference of thought by extrasensory means from the mind of one individual to another; telepathy.
- to burst into flames — If something bursts into flames or bursts into flame, it suddenly starts burning strongly.
- to fall on deaf ears — If a request falls on deaf ears or if the person to whom the request is made turns a deaf ear to it, they take no notice of it.
- to flex your muscles — If a group, organization, or country flexes its muscles, it does something to impress or frighten people, in order to show them that it has power and is considering using it.
- to flog a dead horse — If you say that someone is flogging a dead horse, you mean that they are trying to achieve something impossible.
- to have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they do not like you and they want to make life difficult for you.
- to hope for the best — If you are in a difficult situation and do something and hope for the best, you hope that everything will happen in the way you want, although you know that it may not.
- to take years off sb — if you say that something such as an experience or a way of dressing has taken years off someone, you mean that it has made them look or feel much younger
- transfer of training — transfer (def 19).
- transformation range — the temperature range within which austenite forms when a ferrous metal is heated, or within which it disappears when the metal is cooled.