18-letter words containing f, e, p, i
- hippocratic facies — the sallow facial expression, with listless staring eyes, often regarded as denoting approaching death
- hyperproliferation — (biology) An abnormally high rate of proliferation of cells by rapid division.
- in complete flower — a flower without one or more of the normal parts, as carpels, sepals, petals, pistils, or stamens.
- in praise of folly — Latin Moriae Encomium. a prose satire (1509) by Erasmus, written in Latin and directed against theologians and church dignitaries.
- in the first place — firstly
- in the grip of sth — If a person, group, or place is in the grip of something, they are being severely affected by it.
- incapacity benefit — (in Britain) a regular government payment made to people who are unable to work for an extended period through disability
- indefinite pronoun — a pronoun, as English some, any, somebody, that leaves unspecified the identity of its referent.
- influence peddling — the use of power or influence on someone else's behalf in return for money or favours
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- learned profession — any of the three vocations of theology, law, and medicine, commonly held to require highly advanced learning. Compare profession (def 1).
- lives of the poets — a collection (1779–81), by Samuel Johnson, of biographical and critical essays on 52 English poets.
- lone-parent family — a family in which there is only one parent
- magnetic amplifier — an amplifier that applies the input signal to a primary winding and feeds an alternating current to a secondary winding where this current is modulated by the variations in the primary winding.
- make a practice of — be in the habit of
- medical profession — the body of people who work as doctors of medicine
- metamorphic facies — Geology. a group of metamorphic rock units characterized by particular mineralogic associations.
- mexican fire-plant — a showy plant, Euphorbia heterophylla, of the spurge family, growing in the central U.S. to central South America, having red or mottled red and white bracts.
- misplaced modifier — Grammar. a word, phrase, or clause that seems to refer to or modify an unintended word because of its placement in a sentence, as when young in When young, circuses appeal to all of us.
- mop the floor with — that part of a room, hallway, or the like, that forms its lower enclosing surface and upon which one walks.
- morning-after pill — a contraceptive pill containing only an estrogen and used by women within a few hours after sexual intercourse.
- multiflow computer — (company) A now-defunct computer company, best known for its work in Very Long Instruction Word processors. Address: New Haven, Conn. USA.
- myeloproliferative — (medicine) of or pertaining to the presence of an abnormal proliferation of myelopoietic cells (from bone marrow).
- nonpreferentialism — of, relating to, or of the nature of preference: preferential policies.
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- off-street parking — spaces for cars located on private property rather than on a public street
- offset lithography — offset (def 6).
- operating software — software used in the operation of a computer system, typically by performing such tasks as memory allocation, job scheduling, and input/output control
- pair of spectacles — a score of 0 in each innings of a match
- paper handkerchief — a handkerchief made from tissue paper
- particulate filter — A particulate filter is a filter to remove particles that are present the air, for example in the exhaust of a diesel engine.
- peacekeeping force — a force designated to the maintenance of peace, esp the prevention of further fighting between hostile forces in an area
- pedestrian traffic — the people coming and going on foot in a street, town, etc
- pellitory of spain — a small Mediterranean plant, Anacyclus pyrethrum, the root of which contains an oil formerly used to relieve toothache: family Asteraceae (composites)
- people trafficking — the practice of bringing immigrants into a country illegally
- percussion flaking — a method of forming a flint tool by striking flakes from a stone core with another stone or a piece of bone or wood.
- perfect continuous — perfect progressive.
- perfect contrition — sincere penitence or remorse.
- perfect participle — past participle.
- performance artist — an artist that is involved in a theatrical presentation that incorporates various art forms, such as dance, sculpture, music, etc
- phase-shift keying — (communications) (PSK) A digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing the phase of a carrier wave. The data can either determine the absolute phase relative to the unmodulated carrier or reference signal ("coherent phase-shift keying", CPSK) or the change in phase ("differential phase-shift keying", DPSK). The number of different phases used determines the amount of data that can be transmitted in each cycle. Each cycle can be considered to constitute one "symbol", e.g. with two possible phases, each cycle carries one bit. The more phases that are used, the less tollerant to noise the transmissions becomes. Alternatives to PSK are amplitude-shift keying (ASK) and frequency-shift keying (FSK).
- phenol coefficient — the number indicating the effectiveness of a disinfectant as a germicide relative to phenol, which is arbitrarily assigned the number 1: based on the time required to kill a given quantity of a specific type of bacteria.
- philosophy of life — any philosophical view or vision of the nature or purpose of life or of the way that life should be lived.
- pick of the litter — objects strewn or scattered about; scattered rubbish.
- piecewise function — a function whose definition changes depending on the value of the independent variable
- pilotless aircraft — an aircraft equipped for operation by radio or by robot control, without a human pilot aboard; drone.
- plane of incidence — a plane determined by a given ray, incident on a surface, and the normal at the point where the incident ray strikes the surface.
- play second fiddle — be considered less important
- point of departure — Nautical. the precise location of a vessel, established in order to set a course, especially in beginning a voyage in open water.
- point of no return — Aviation. the point in a flight at which an aircraft will lack sufficient fuel to return to its starting point.