15-letter words containing f, i, l, e
- cauliflower ear — permanent swelling and distortion of the external ear as the result of ruptures of the blood vessels: usually caused by blows received in boxing
- cauliflowerette — a single floret from the head of a cauliflower.
- cavalry officer — an officer in a cavalry regiment
- central african — of or relating to the Central African Republic, its inhabitants, or their language.
- centrifugal box — a revolving chamber, used in the spinning of manufactured filaments, in which the plastic fibers, subjected to centrifugal force, are slightly twisted and emerge in the form of yarn wound into the shape of a hollow cylinder.
- channel catfish — a food fish, Ictalurus punctatus, common in fresh waters throughout central U.S.
- channel surfing — to change from one channel on a television set to another with great or unusual frequency, especially by using a remote control.
- channel-surfing — Channel-surfing is the same as channel-hopping.
- charles tiffany — Charles Lewis, 1812–1902, U.S. jeweler.
- chesterfieldian — of or like Lord Chesterfield; suave; elegant; polished
- cheval de frise — a portable obstacle, usually a sawhorse, covered with projecting spikes or barbed wire, for military use in closing a passage, breaking in a defensive wall, etc.
- cheval-de-frise — a portable barrier of spikes, sword blades, etc, used to obstruct the passage of cavalry
- chief constable — A Chief Constable is the officer who is in charge of the police force in a particular county or area in Britain.
- chief of police — (in the US) the head of a regional or municipal police department
- children of god — a highly disciplined, fundamentalist Christian sect, active especially in the early 1970s, whose mostly young converts live in communes.
- chilling effect — a discouraging or deterring effect, especially one resulting from a restrictive law or regulation.
- cholecalciferol — a compound occurring naturally in fish-liver oils, used to treat rickets. Formula: C27H44O
- circular buffer — (programming) An area of memory used to store a continuous stream of data by starting again at the beginning of the buffer after reaching the end. A circular buffer is usually written by one process and read by another. Separate read and write pointers are maintained. These are not allowed to pass each other otherwise either unread data would be overwritten or invalid data would be read. A circuit may implement a hardware circular buffer.
- circumferential — of, at, or near the circumference; surrounding; lying along the outskirts.
- citrus whitefly — See under whitefly.
- clare of assisi — Saint. 1194–1253, Italian nun; founder of the Franciscan Order of Poor Clares. Feast day: Aug 11
- collective farm — (chiefly in Communist countries) a farm or group of farms managed and owned, through the state, by the community
- colonial office — a government body that was set up to oversee the affairs of the British Empire colonies
- common-law wife — a woman considered to be a man's wife after the couple have cohabited for several years
- cone of silence — a space, in the shape of an inverted cone, above a radio beacon, in which there is a sharp reduction in the intensity of transmitted signals.
- confessionalism — the belief that a religion, esp Christianity, should have a set of essential doctrines to which members of that religion must adhere
- confessionalist — an advocate of confessionalism
- confidentiality — spoken, written, acted on, etc., in strict privacy or secrecy; secret: a confidential remark.
- congelifraction — the shattering or splitting of rock or frozen soil due to the action of frost.
- coolgardie safe — a cupboard with wetted hessian walls for keeping food cool: used esp in Australia
- coriolis effect — a deflection in the path of a body moving in latitude relative to the Earth when observed from the Earth. The deflection is due to the Earth's rotation and is to the east when the motion is towards a pole
- corn-leaf aphid — a green aphid, Rhopalosiphum maidis, widely distributed in the U.S.: a pest of corn and other grasses.
- counterflashing — (construction) Formed metal or elastomeric sheeting secured on or into a wall, curb, pipe or other surface, to cover and protect the upper edge of a base flashing and its associated fasteners.
- cross-fertilize — to subject or be subjected to cross-fertilization
- crystalliferous — producing or containing crystals
- daffodil yellow — a bright yellow colour
- decalcification — the act or process of decalcifying.
- deerfield beach — a town in S Florida.
- defect analysis — (programming) Using defects as data for continuous quality improvement. Defect analysis generally seeks to classify defects into categories and identify possible causes in order to direct process improvement efforts.
- definite clause — (logic) A Horn clause that has exactly one positive literal.
- deflection yoke — an assembly of one or more coils through which a controlled current is passed to produce a magnetic field for deflecting a beam of electrons, as in a picture tube.
- deformalization — to make less formal; reduce the strictness, preciseness, etc., of.
- democratifiable — able to be made into a democracy
- demulsification — to break down (an emulsion) into separate substances incapable of re-forming the emulsion that was broken down.
- desulfurization — The process of removing sulfur from a substance, such as flue gas or crude.
- dexfenfluramine — an adrenergic drug, a form of fenfluramine, formerly used in treating obesity but withdrawn from the market in 1997 because of its potential to cause valvular heart disease.
- diallyl sulfide — allyl sulfide.
- dichroic filter — an optical colour filter operating on the principle of wave interference between closely spaced reflecting surfaces, rather than by colour absorption
- dimethylsulfide — Alternative spelling of dimethyl sulfide.
- dinoflagellates — Plural form of dinoflagellate.