16-letter words containing f, i, c, a
- in a cleft stick — If you say that a person or organization is in a cleft stick, you mean that they are in a difficult situation which will bring them problems and harm whatever they decide to do.
- infant education — (in England and Wales) education provided for children at infant schools
- infernal machine — a concealed or disguised explosive device intended to destroy life or property.
- infinite decimal — nonterminating decimal.
- information pack — a set of leaflets giving information about something
- intensifications — Plural form of intensification.
- interfacial area — The interfacial area is the total area of contact between two liquids in a liquid-liquid operation.
- intrinsic factor — a glycoprotein, secreted by the gastric mucosa, that is involved in the intestinal absorption of vitamin B 12 .
- isoplastic graft — syngraft.
- joachim of fiore — ?1132–1202 ad, Italian mystic and philosopher, best known for teaching that history can be divided into three ages, those of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
- job satisfaction — Job satisfaction is the pleasure that you get from doing your job.
- kirchhoff's laws — the law that the algebraic sum of the currents flowing toward any point in an electric network is zero.
- larsen ice shelf — an ice barrier in Antarctica, in the NW Weddell Sea, on the E coast of the Antarctic Peninsula: first explored 1893.
- leaf-cutting ant — any of several tropical American ants of the genus Atta that cut and chew bits of leaves and flowers into a mash that they use to cultivate a fungus garden.
- leaf-cutting bee — any of the bees of the family Megachilidae that cut circular pieces from leaves or flowers to line their nests.
- letter of advice — a notification from a consignor to a consignee giving specific information as to a shipment, the name of the carrier, the date shipped, etc.
- louisiana french — French as spoken in Louisiana; Cajun. Abbreviation: LaF.
- lower california — Baja California.
- maintenance-free — requiring little or no maintenance: a maintenance-free swimming pool.
- make a pitch for — to give verbal support to
- marsh cinquefoil — a variety of cinquefoil, Potentilla palustris, that grows in marshy areas
- mental defective — a person who suffers from a learning disability or from some form of mental illness
- mexican fruitfly — a brightly colored fly, Anastrepha ludens, whose larvae are a serious pest chiefly of citrus fruits and mangoes in Mexico, Central America, and southern Texas.
- mexican standoff — a stalemate or impasse; a confrontation that neither side can win.
- micro-microfarad — picofarad. Symbol: μμF.
- microfilm reader — a machine that displays on a screen a magnified image of a microfilm
- microsoft access — 1. (database) A relational database running under Microsoft Windows. Data is stored as a number of "tables", e.g. "Stock". Each table consists of a number of "records" (e.g. for different items) and each record contains a number of "fields", e.g. "Product code", "Supplier", "Quantity in stock". Access allows the user to create "forms" and "reports". A form shows one record in a user-designed format and allows the user to step through records one at a time. A report shows selected records in a user-designed format, possibly grouped into sections with different kinds of total (including sum, minimum, maximum, average). There are also facilities to use links ("joins") between tables which share a common field and to filter records according to certain criteria or search for particular field values. Version: 2 (date?). 2. (communications) A communications program from Microsoft, meant to compete with ProComm and other programs. It sucked and was dropped. Years later they reused the name for their database.
- miraculous fruit — miracle fruit.
- misconfiguration — An incorrect or inappropriate configuration.
- misspecification — An incorrect specification.
- modacrylic fiber — any of various synthetic copolymer textile fibers, as Dynel, containing less than 85 percent but more than 35 percent of acrylonitrile.
- multiple factors — polygene.
- narcotraffickers — Plural form of narcotrafficker.
- narcotrafficking — the buying and selling of illegal drugs.
- neo-confucianist — of or relating to neo-Confucians or neo-Confucianism.
- newspaper office — an office where the editorial and production staff of a newspaper work
- nicholas of cusa — 1401–64, German cardinal, philosopher, and mathematician: anticipated Copernicus in asserting that the earth revolves around the sun
- no-fault divorce — a divorce granted without anyone being found guilty of marital misconduct
- non-confidential — spoken, written, acted on, etc., in strict privacy or secrecy; secret: a confidential remark.
- non-confirmation — the act of confirming.
- non-confirmatory — serving to confirm; corroborative.
- non-satisfaction — an act of satisfying; fulfillment; gratification.
- nonfinite clause — a clause with a nonfinite verb or with no verb, as the hour being late in The hour being late, we left.
- nonmanufacturing — (economics) Outside of the manufacturing sector.
- of a certain age — of an unspecified age, but no longer young
- of it own accord — If something happens of its own accord, it seems to happen by itself, without anyone making it happen.
- off-road vehicle — An off-road vehicle is a vehicle that is designed to travel over rough ground.
- official referee — (in England) a circuit judge attached to the High Court who is empowered to try certain cases, esp where a detailed examination of accounts or other documents is involved
- one-way function — (cryptography, mathematics) A function which is easy to compute but whose inverse is very difficult to compute. Such functions have important applications in cryptography, specifically in public-key cryptography. See also: trapdoor function.
- orthoformic acid — a hypothetical acid, HC(OH) 3 , known only in the form of its esters.