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16-letter words containing f, e, t, l

  • external affairs — (formerly) the Canadian federal Foreign Affairs department
  • fahrenheit scale — Gabriel Daniel [German gah-bree-el dah-nee-el] /German ˈgɑ briˌɛl ˈdɑ niˌɛl/ (Show IPA), 1686–1736, German physicist: devised a temperature scale and introduced the use of mercury in thermometers.
  • fantasy baseball — imagination, especially when extravagant and unrestrained.
  • farewell to arms — a novel (1929) by Ernest Hemingway.
  • fast of gedaliah — Tzom Gedaliah.
  • fat-tailed sheep — one of a class of sheep with much fat along the sides of the tail bones, raised for their meat and widely distributed in southeast Europe, northern Africa, and Asia.
  • federal district — a district in which the national government of a country is located, especially one in Latin America.
  • federal register — a bulletin, published daily by the U.S. federal government, containing the schedule of hearings before Congressional and federal agency committees, together with orders, proclamations, etc., released by the executive branch of the government.
  • federalist party — a political group that favored the adoption by the states of the Constitution.
  • feedback control — (electronics)   A control system which monitors its effect on the system it is controlling and modifies its output accordingly. For example, a thermostat has two inputs: the desired temperature and the current temperature (the latter is the feedback). The output of the thermostat changes so as to try to equalise the two inputs. Computer disk drives use feedback control to position the read/write heads accurately on a recording track. Complex systems such as the human body contain many feedback systems that interact with each other; the homeostasis mechanisms that control body temperature and acidity are good examples.
  • feel constrained — If you feel constrained to do something, you feel that you must do it, even though you would prefer not to.
  • feel the draught — to be short of money
  • feel-good factor — When journalists refer to the feel-good factor, they mean that people are feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future.
  • feline distemper — distemper1 (def 1c).
  • fellow traveller — a companion on a journey
  • feme-sole trader — a married woman who is entitled to carry on business on her own account and responsibility, independently of her husband.
  • ferroelectricity — (physics) The electric polarization of a substance (spontaneous presence of a dipole moment) that is analagous to ferromagnetism.
  • ferrous sulphate — an iron salt with a saline taste, usually obtained as greenish crystals of the heptahydrate, which are converted to the white monohydrate above 100°C: used in inks, tanning, water purification, and in the treatment of anaemia. Formula: FeSO4
  • fertile crescent — an agricultural region extending from the Levant to Iraq.
  • fertile material — material which can be converted into a fissile material by a neutron-induced nuclear reaction, as uranium-238 or thorium-232
  • fertility clinic — a place at which a couple who are unable to conceive may receive medical advice and treatments to help them to have a child
  • fertility factor — a sex-determining chromosome or gene.
  • fertility symbol — an object, esp a phallic symbol, used in fertility-cult ceremonies to symbolize regeneration
  • feulgen reaction — a reaction in which an aldehyde combines with a modified Schiff's reagent to produce a purplish compound: used especially to test for the presence of DNA
  • file composition — A typesetting language.
  • fill one's boots — to take or do as much of something as one wants
  • filter cigarette — a cigarette with a filter tip
  • filter promotion — (algorithm)   In a generate and test algorithm, combining part of the filter with the generator in order to reduce the number of potential solutions generated. A trivial example: filter (< 100) [1..1000] ==> [1..99] where [1..n] generates the list of integers from 1 to n. Here the filter has been combined completely with the generator. This is an example of fusion.
  • filterable virus — a virus particle small enough to pass through a filter of diatomaceous earth or porcelain, which will not pass bacteria: chiefly historical or an informal indicator of size, as synthetic membrane filters now permit passage of the smallest virus.
  • fire regulations — rules intended to make sure that people and property stay safe in the event of a fire
  • fire-tube boiler — any boiler for generating steam by passing hot gases and other combustible products through tubes (fire tubes) immersed in water to a chimney or uptake.
  • first lieutenant — an officer ranking next above second lieutenant and next below a captain.
  • fit like a glove — fit perfectly
  • flabbergastation — (colloquial) Bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted.
  • flabbergastingly — Surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly.
  • flame cultivator — an implement that kills weeds by scorching them with a directed flow of flaming gas.
  • flash eliminator — a device fitted to the muzzle of a firearm to reduce the flash made by the ignited propellant gases
  • flash in the pan — a brief, sudden burst of bright light: a flash of lightning.
  • flat-bed plotter — a mechanized drafting device, usually computer driven, incorporating a moving pen whose horizontal and vertical range in two dimensions is limited only by the size of the bed of the device.
  • flat-bed scanner — a type of optical scanner having a flat, stationary surface on which a page is scanned by a moving head.
  • flat-felled seam — a seam on the face of a garment, as on the outside of the legs of blue jeans, made by overlapping or interlocking one seam allowance with the other and top-stitching them together onto the garment with two parallel rows of stitches.
  • flathead catfish — a yellow and brown catfish, Pylodictus olivaris, common in the central U.S., having a flattened head and a projecting lower jaw.
  • flatheaded borer — the larva of a metallic wood-boring beetle, having an expanded and flattened anterior end.
  • flettner control — servocontrol (def 3).
  • flibbertigibbets — Plural form of flibbertigibbet.
  • flibbertigibbety — Like a flibbertigibbet; flighty; scatterbrained.
  • flight attendant — an airline employee who serves meals, attends to passengers' comfort, etc., during a flight.
  • floridean starch — the storage polysaccharide of red algae.
  • fluorescent lamp — a tubular electric discharge lamp in which light is produced by the fluorescence of phosphors coating the inside of the tube.
  • flutter tonguing — a method of sounding a wind instrument, esp the flute, with a rolling movement of the tongue
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