21-letter words containing f, i, n, a, l
- differential calculus — the branch of mathematics that deals with differentials and derivatives.
- differential equation — an equation involving differentials or derivatives.
- differential geometry — the branch of mathematics that deals with the application of the principles of differential and integral calculus to the study of curves and surfaces.
- differential operator — a function, usually expressed as a polynomial, that indicates linear combinations of the derivatives of the expression on which it operates.
- differential quotient — derivative (def 6).
- differential topology — the branch of topology that studies the properties of differentiable manifolds that remain invariant under diffeomorphisms.
- differential windlass — a pair of hoisting drums of different diameter turning at the same rate, such that a pulley suspended below them on a line wound on the larger drum and unwound from the smaller drum is raised with mechanical advantage.
- differential-quotient — something that has been derived.
- dumfries and galloway — a region in S Scotland. 2460 sq. mi. (6371 sq. km).
- electromagnetic field — a field of force associated with a moving electric charge equivalent to an electric field and a magnetic field at right angles to each other and to the direction of propagation
- faculty board meeting — a meeting of the governing body of a faculty
- faisal ibn abdul aziz — 1905–75, king of Saudi Arabia (1964–75)
- fall ill/be taken ill — If you fall ill or are taken ill, you suddenly become ill.
- feline leukemia virus — a retrovirus, mainly affecting cats, that depresses the immune system and leads to opportunistic infections, lymphosarcoma, and other disorders. Abbreviation: FeLV, FLV.
- file allocation table — (file system) (FAT) The component of an MS-DOS or Windows 95 file system which describes the files, directories, and free space on a hard disk or floppy disk. A disk is divided into partitions. Under the FAT file system each partition is divided into clusters, each of which can be one or more sectors, depending on the size of the partition. Each cluster is either allocated to a file or directory or it is free (unused). A directory lists the name, size, modification time and starting cluster of each file or subdirectory it contains. At the start of the partition is a table (the FAT) with one entry for each cluster. Each entry gives the number of the next cluster in the same file or a special value for "not allocated" or a special value for "this is the last cluster in the chain". The first few clusters after the FAT contain the root directory. The FAT file system was originally created for the CP/M[?] operating system where files were catalogued using 8-bit addressing. MS DOS's FAT allows only 8.3 filenames. With the introduction of MS-DOS 4 an incompatible 16-bit FAT (FAT16) with 32-kilobyte clusters was introduced that allowed partitions of up to 2 gigabytes. Microsoft later created FAT32 to support partitions larger than two gigabytes and pathnames greater that 256 characters. It also allows more efficient use of disk space since clusters are four kilobytes rather than 32 kilobytes. FAT32 was first available in OEM Service Release 2 of Windows 95 in 1996. It is not fully backward compatible with the 16-bit and 8-bit FATs. Compare: NTFS.
- financial times index — one of the indexes of share prices produced by the Financial Times, especially the Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index
- financial underwriter — A financial underwriter is an insurance employee working in financial underwriting.
- flotation compartment — in a boat, an enclosed section filled with air or gas to give buoyancy
- forensic anthropology — the branch of physical anthropology in which anthropological data, criteria, and techniques are used to determine the sex, age, genetic population, or parentage of skeletal or biological materials in questions of civil or criminal law.
- fort lesley j. mcnair — a military reservation in SW Washington, D.C., on the Potomac River, SW of the Capitol.
- fractional extraction — Fractional extraction is a process of extracting a liquid from a liquid, in which two solutes are separated, with one leaving in the extract and one in the raffinate.
- franco-belgian system — French system.
- fraudulent conversion — conversion committed with the intent to defraud
- free alongside vessel — (of a shipment of goods) delivered to the dock without charge to the buyer, but excluding the cost of loading onto the vessel
- free-floating anxiety — chronic anxiety occurring for no identifiable cause
- friuli-venezia giulia — a region in NE Italy: formerly part of Venezia Giulia, most of which was ceded to Yugoslavia (now Croatia and Slovenia) in 1947. 2947 sq. mi. (7630 sq. km).
- full faith and credit — the obligation under Article IV of the U.S. Constitution for each state to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.
- fuming sulphuric acid — a mixture of pyrosulphuric acid, H2S2O7, and other condensed acids, made by dissolving sulphur trioxide in concentrated sulphuric acid
- functional dependency — (database) Given a relation R (in a relational database), attribute Y of R is functionally dependent on attribute X of R and X of R functionally determines Y of R (in symbols R.X -> R.Y) if and only if each X in R has associated with it precisely one Y in R (at any one time). Attributes X and Y may be composite. This is very close to a function in the mathematical sense.
- functional illiterate — a person with some basic education who still falls short of a minimum standard of literacy or whose reading and writing skills are inadequate to everyday needs.
- functional imperative — a requirement for the survival of any social system, as communication, control of conflict, or socialization.
- general of the armies — a special rank held by John J. Pershing, equivalent to general of the army.
- genetic amplification — an increase in the frequency of replication of a DNA segment.
- glen of imaal terrier — a strongly-built medium-sized variety of terrier with a medium-length coat and short forelegs
- grammatical inference — Deducing a grammar from given examples. Also known as "inductive inference" and recently as "computational learning".
- hildegard (of bingen) — Saint(1098-1179); Ger. nun, composer, & mystic: her day is Sept. 17
- host command facility — (operating system) (HCF) Used to access IBM S/36 and AS/400 computers from a mainframe.
- hubble classification — a method of classifying galaxies depending on whether they are elliptical, spiral, barred spiral, or irregular
- in (or out of) place — in (or out of) the customary, proper, or assigned place
- in a class of its own — unequalled; unparalleled
- infant mortality rate — number of babies dying
- infant welfare clinic — a medical facility that specializes in the health and well-being of young babies
- infectious ectromelia — ectromelia (def 2).
- infertility treatment — treatment aimed at helping a couple conceive
- infiltration capacity — the maximum rate at which a soil in a given condition will absorb water.
- inflationary universe — a version of the big bang theory in which the universe underwent very rapid growth during the first fraction of a second before it settled down to its current rate of expansion.
- information appliance — (hardware) (IA) A consumer device that performs only a few targeted tasks and is controlled by a simple touch-screen interface or push buttons on the device's enclosure.
- information retrieval — the systematic storage and recovery of data, as from a file, card catalog, or the memory bank of a computer. Abbreviation: IR.
- isolation transformer — An isolation transformer is a transformer with physically separate primary and secondary windings, that prevent it from transferring unwanted noise from the input circuit to the output windings.
- jewish defense league — an organization of militant Jewish activists, founded in 1968 in the U.S. to combat anti-Semitism and defend Jewish interests worldwide. Abbr.: JDL.