18-letter words containing f, e, t, o
- 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.
- heat of combustion — the heat evolved when one mole of a substance is burnt in oxygen at constant volume
- 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.
- hippocratic facies — the sallow facial expression, with listless staring eyes, often regarded as denoting approaching death
- 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.
- house of detention — a place maintained by the civil authorities for persons charged with a crime, and sometimes for witnesses, awaiting trial.
- 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.
- identification tag — either of two oblong metal tags, issued to armed forces personnel, on which are impressed the serial number, name, etc., of the person to whom it is issued, and carried on or about the person at all times.
- 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 face of sth — If you take a particular action or attitude in the face of a problem or difficulty, you respond to that problem or difficulty in that way.
- in the grip of sth — If a person, group, or place is in the grip of something, they are being severely affected by it.
- in the interest of — the feeling of a person whose attention, concern, or curiosity is particularly engaged by something: She has a great interest in the poetry of Donne.
- in the mood for/to — If you say that you are in the mood for something, you mean that you want to do it or have it. If you say that you are in no mood to do something, you mean that you do not want to do it or have it.
- in the name of sth — If you do something in the name of an ideal or an abstract thing, you do it in order to preserve or promote that thing.
- in the vicinity of — near to, in the area around
- indefinite pronoun — a pronoun, as English some, any, somebody, that leaves unspecified the identity of its referent.
- infectious disease — illness spread by person to person
- information bureau — an office where you can go to get information
- information centre — help desk, office
- information office — an office where you can go to get information
- information system — a computer system or set of components for collecting, creating, storing, processing, and distributing information, typically including hardware and software, system users, and the data itself: the use of information systems to solve business problems.
- information theory — the mathematical theory concerned with the content, transmission, storage, and retrieval of information, usually in the form of messages or data, and especially by means of computers.
- 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.
- infrared astronomy — the study of infrared radiation emitted by celestial objects.
- inspector of taxes — an official of HMRC whose work is to assess individuals' income tax liability
- integrating factor — a factor that upon multiplying a differential equation with the right-hand side equal to zero makes the equation integrable, usually by making the resulting expression an exact differential of some function.
- internet of things — a network of everyday devices, appliances, and other objects equipped with computer chips and sensors that can collect and transmit data through the Internet. Abbreviation: IoT.
- jack of all trades — a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.
- jack-of-all-trades — a person who is adept at many different kinds of work.
- joint life annuity — an annuity, the payments of which cease at the death of the first of two or more specified persons.
- king of the castle — most powerful figure
- king of the forest — the oak tree.
- king-of-the-salmon — a ribbonfish, Trachypterus altivelis, of northern parts of the Pacific Ocean.
- knight of the bath — a member of a knightly order founded by George I of England in 1725.
- knight of the road — a tramp
- lambeth conference — a convention of the bishops of the Anglican communion, held about every 10 years at Lambeth Palace to confer but not to define doctrine or to legislate on ecclesiastical matters.
- law of segregation — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that during the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.
- lay at the door of — to blame (a person) for
- left-eyed flounder — any of several flat-fishes of the family Bothidae, having both eyes on the left side of the head.
- let oneself in for — If you say that you did not know what you were letting yourself in for when you decided to do something, you mean you did not realize how difficult, unpleasant, or expensive it was going to be.
- lily of the valley — a plant, Convallaria majalis, having an elongated cluster of small, drooping, bell-shaped, fragrant white flowers.
- lives of the poets — a collection (1779–81), by Samuel Johnson, of biographical and critical essays on 52 English poets.
- locally finite set — a collection of sets in a topological space in which each point of the space has a neighborhood that intersects a finite number of sets of the collection.