18-letter words containing f, e, t, l
- flower arrangement — floral display
- fluorescent screen — a transparent screen coated on one side with a phosphor that fluoresces when exposed to X-rays or cathode rays
- fly in the face of — to move through the air using wings.
- fly off the handle — a part of a thing made specifically to be grasped or held by the hand.
- football supporter — a person who supports a particular football team
- for the hell of it — the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits; Gehenna or Tartarus.
- for the life of me — If you say that you cannot for the life of you understand or remember something, you are emphasizing that you cannot understand or remember it, even if you try hard.
- forced development — the processing of underexposed photographic film to increase the image density
- forethoughtfulness — The condition of being forethoughtful.
- forget-me-not blue — a shade of blue similar to the shade of the flowers of a forget-me-not
- forward compatible — forward compatibility
- free-range poultry — poultry kept in natural nonintensive conditions
- fringe-toed lizard — an iguanid lizard, Uma notata, of sandy deserts of the western U.S. and Mexico, having a wedge-shaped snout and toes fringed with long, pointed scales.
- fuller rose beetle — a beetle, Pantomorus godmani, that feeds on the leaves of roses as well as on those of citrus and other fruit trees.
- fulminating powder — powder that explodes by percussion.
- functional disease — a disease in which there is an abnormal change in the function of an organ, but no structural alteration in the tissues involved (opposed to organic disease).
- functional testing — (testing) (Or "black-box testing", "closed-box testing") The application of test data derived from functional requirements without regard to how the system is implemented.
- gainful employment — an occupation that pays an income
- garden loosestrife — any of various plants belonging to the genus Lysimachia, of the primrose family, having clusters of usually yellow flowers, as L. vulgaris (garden loosestrife) or L. quadrifolia (whorled loosestrife)
- gene amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- go for the jugular — Anatomy. of or relating to the throat or neck. noting or pertaining to any of certain large veins of the neck, especially one (external jugular vein) collecting blood from the superficial parts of the head or one (internal jugular vein) collecting blood from within the skull.
- grandfather clause — U.S. History. a clause in the constitutions of some Southern states after 1890 intended to permit whites to vote while disfranchising blacks: it exempted from new literacy and property qualifications for voting those men entitled to vote before 1867 and their lineal descendants.
- granulated surface — a roughened surface
- grease the palm of — to influence by giving money to; bribe
- grist for the mill — If you say that something is grist for the mill, you mean that it is useful for a particular purpose or helps support someone's point of view.
- gulf saint vincent — a shallow inlet of SE South Australia, to the east of the Yorke Peninsula: salt industry
- gulf stream system — a major ocean-current system consisting of the Gulf Stream and the Florida and North Atlantic currents.
- half-open interval — a set of numbers between two given numbers but including only one endpoint.
- handkerchief table — corner table.
- have two left feet — to be very clumsy
- hearts and flowers — maudlin sentimentality: The play is a period piece, full of innocence abused and hearts and flowers.
- helmholtz function — the thermodynamic function of a system that is equal to its internal energy minus the product of its absolute temperature and entropy: A decrease in the function is equal to the maximum amount of work available during a reversible isothermal process.
- highlight halftone — dropout (def 7).
- hilary of poitiers — Saint, a.d. c300–368, French bishop and theologian.
- home of the hirsel — Baron, title of Sir Alec Douglas-Home, formerly 14th Earl of Home. 1903–95, British Conservative statesman: he renounced his earldom to become prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1963–64); foreign secretary (1970–74)
- house of delegates — the lower house of the General Assembly in Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland.
- hydroflumethiazide — A diuretic drug.
- hyperproliferation — (biology) An abnormally high rate of proliferation of cells by rapid division.
- i know the feeling — You say 'I know the feeling' to show that you understand or feel sorry about a problem or difficult experience that someone is telling you about.
- i'll eat my hat if — I will be greatly surprised if (something happens that proves me wrong)
- idylls of the king — a series of poems by Tennyson, based on Arthurian legend.
- in complete flower — a flower without one or more of the normal parts, as carpels, sepals, petals, pistils, or stamens.
- in the belief that — If you do one thing in the belief that another thing is true or will happen, you do it because you think, usually wrongly, that it is true or will happen.
- in the first place — firstly
- indefinite article — an article, as English a, an, that denotes class membership of the noun it modifies without particularizing it.
- infertility clinic — a clinic which helps people who are having problems conceiving
- informatory double — a double intended to inform one's partner that one has a strong hand and to urge a bid regardless of the strength of his or her hand.
- interface analysis — (testing) A software test which checks the interfaces between program elements for consistency and adherence to predefined rules or axioms.
- invalidity benefit — (formerly, in the British National Insurance scheme) a weekly payment to a person who had been off work through illness for more than six months: replaced by incapacity benefit in 1995
- jack of all trades — a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.