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17-letter words containing f, e, r, t

  • compound fracture — A compound fracture is a fracture in which the broken bone sticks through the skin.
  • computer confetti — (jargon)   (Or "chad") A common term for punched-card chad, which, however, does not make good confetti, as the pieces are stiff and have sharp corners that could injure the eyes.
  • conference centre — a large venue designed for conferences often consisting of a large hall as well as a number of smaller lecture rooms and other facilities
  • conscript fathers — august legislators, esp Roman senators
  • contempt of court — Contempt of court is the criminal offence of disobeying an instruction from a judge or a court of law.
  • continental drift — Continental drift is the slow movement of the Earth's continents towards and away from each other.
  • contraflow system — a system of traffic lanes whose normal direction is reversed to allow traffic to move during repairs or an accident
  • copious free time — (jargon)   (Apple; originally from the introduction to Tom Lehrer's song "It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier") Used ironically to indicate the speaker's lack of the quantity in question; a mythical schedule slot for accomplishing tasks held to be unlikely or impossible. Sometimes used to indicate that the speaker is interested in accomplishing the task, but believes that the opportunity will not arise. "I'll implement the automatic layout stuff in my copious free time." The phrase is also used for time reserved for bogus or otherwise idiotic tasks, such as implementation of bad chrome, or the stroking of suits. "I'll get back to him on that feature in my copious free time."
  • counter-influence — the capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract.
  • counteroffensives — Plural form of counteroffensive.
  • court of chancery — (in the US) a court of equity
  • court of sessions — any of state courts of criminal jurisdiction in California, New York, and a few other states.
  • court-of-chancery — chancery (def 4a).
  • cream of the crop — the best of a group
  • creature comforts — Creature comforts are the things that you need to feel comfortable in a place, for example good food and modern equipment.
  • creature of habit — If you say that someone is a creature of habit, you mean that they usually do the same thing at the same time each day, rather than doing new and different things.
  • credit facilities — a type of loan made by a bank
  • culture diffusion — the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point.
  • culture-fair test — a test, usually for intelligence, that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, esp regarding material or cultural background
  • culture-free test — a test (usually for intelligence) that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, for instance, as regards material or cultural background
  • cut a good figure — to appear or behave well
  • cut a poor figure — to appear or behave badly
  • darwinian fitness — fitness (def 3).
  • darwinian-fitness — health.
  • de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
  • death certificate — A death certificate is an official certificate signed by a doctor which states the cause of a person's death.
  • dedifferentiating — Present participle of dedifferentiate.
  • dedifferentiation — the reversion of the cells of differentiated tissue to a less specialized form
  • defamiliarisation — (arts) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.
  • defamiliarization — Art, Literature. a theory and technique, originating in the early 20th century, in which an artistic or literary work presents familiar objects or situations in an unfamiliar way, prolonging the perceptive process and allowing for a fresh perspective.
  • defence secretary — the member of a government who is responsible for the country's armed forces
  • deferred sentence — a sentence that is postponed for a specific period to allow a court to examine the conduct of the offender during the deferment
  • definite integral — the evaluation of the indefinite integral between two limits, representing the area between the given function and the x-axis between these two values of x
  • differentiability — The ability to be differentiated.
  • differential gear — differential (def 7).
  • differential line — (hardware)   A kind of electrical connection using two wires, one of which carries the normal signal (V) and the other carries an inverted version the signal (-V). A differential amplifier at the receiver subtracts the inverted signal from the normal signal to yield a signal proportional to V. This subtraction is intended to cancel out any noise induced in the wires, on the assmption that the same level of noise will have been induced in both wires. Twisted pair wiring is often used to try to ensure that this is the case. The two wires might be connected at the receiver to separate analogue to digital converters and the subtraction performed digitally. The RS-422 serial line standard specifies differential drivers and receivers, whereas the earlier RS-232 standard does not. Opposite: single ended.
  • differential rate — a special lower rate, as one charged by one of two or more competing businesses.
  • differential tone — a musical sound sometimes heard when two loud notes are sounded together, lower in pitch than either
  • dimethylformamide — a colourless liquid widely used as a solvent and sometimes as a catalyst. Formula: (CH3)2NCHO
  • 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
  • disrespectfulness — The state or quality of being disrespectful; disrespect; disregard.
  • distributed force — A distributed force is a force that acts on a large part of a surface, not just on one place.
  • double quatrefoil — a charge having the form of a foil with eight leaves, used especially as the cadency mark of a ninth son.
  • double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
  • drop on the floor — To react to an error condition by silently discarding messages or other valuable data. "The gateway ran out of memory, so it just started dropping packets on the floor." Also frequently used of faulty mail and netnews relay sites that lose messages. See also black hole, bit bucket.
  • droplet infection — infection spread by airborne droplets of secretions from the nose, throat, or lungs.
  • east pacific rise — a long north-south elevation of the sea floor in the E Pacific Ocean extending southward from SW Mexico to the Antarctic Ocean.
  • east renfrewshire — a council area of W central Scotland, comprising part of the historical county of Renfrewshire; part of Strathclyde region from 1975 to 1996: chiefly agricultural and residential. Administrative centre: Giffnock. Pop: 89 680 (2003 est). Area: 173 sq km (67 sq miles)
  • edward fitzgerald — Edward, 1809–83, English poet: translator of drama and poetry, especially of Omar Khayyám.
  • effective current — the magnitude of an alternating current having the same heating effect as that of a given magnitude of direct current.
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