17-letter words containing f, i, r, l
- instrument flying — the control and navigation of an aircraft by reference to its gauges, with no or only limited visual reference outside the cockpit.
- integral function — an entire function.
- interconfessional — common to or occurring between churches having different confessions.
- internal conflict — psychological struggle within the mind of a literary or dramatic character, the resolution of which creates the plot's suspense: Hamlet's inaction is caused by internal conflict.
- interprofessional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- intraspecifically — Between individuals of the same species.
- it's your funeral — If someone says to you 'It's your funeral', they think your decision or your actions will have bad consequences for you, but they are unwilling to interfere.
- john of salisbury — c1115–80, English prelate and scholar.
- julian of norwich — ?1342–?1413, English mystic and anchoress: best known for the Revelations of Divine Love describing her visions
- juvenile offender — a child or young person who has been found guilty of some offence, act of vandalism, or antisocial behaviour before a juvenile court
- kolar gold fields — a city in S India, in SE Karnataka: a major gold-mining centre since 1881. Pop: 176 000 (2005 est)
- last-in first-out — stack
- law of reflection — the principle that when a ray of light, radar pulse, or the like, is reflected from a smooth surface the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of incidence, and the incident ray, the reflected ray, and the normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- law of refraction — the principle that for a ray, radar pulse, or the like, that is incident on the interface of two media, the ratio of the sine of the angle of incidence to the sine of the angle of refraction is equal to the ratio of the velocity of the ray in the first medium to the velocity in the second medium and the incident ray, refracted ray, and normal to the surface at the point of incidence all lie in the same plane.
- law of trichotomy — the property that for natural numbers a and b , either a is less than b , a equals b , or a is greater than b .
- leg before wicket — a manner of dismissal on the grounds that a batsman has been struck on the leg by a bowled ball that otherwise would have hit the wicket
- liberty of speech — freedom of speech.
- lie in wait (for) — to wait so as to catch after planning an ambush or trap (for)
- life and/or death — If you say that something is a matter of life and death, you are emphasizing that it is extremely important, often because someone may die or suffer great harm if people do not act immediately.
- life imprisonment — long-term prison sentence
- life of the party — most lively, outgoing person
- lifelong learning — the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people's lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfilment
- line of scrimmage — an imaginary line parallel to the goal lines that passes from one sideline to the other through the point of the football closest to the goal line of each team.
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- little fork river — a river in N Minnesota, flowing N to the Rainy River on the Canadian border. 132 miles (212 km) long.
- live free or die! — 1. The state motto of New Hampshire, which appears on that state's automobile licence plates. 2. A slogan associated with Unix in the romantic days when Unix aficionados saw themselves as a tiny, beleaguered underground tilting against the windmills of industry. The "free" referred specifically to freedom from the fascist design philosophies and crufty misfeatures common on commercial operating systems. Armando Stettner, one of the early Unix developers, used to give out fake licence plates bearing this motto under a large Unix, all in New Hampshire colours of green and white. These are now valued collector's items.
- loose-leaf binder — a hard cover with metal rings inside which is used to hold loose pieces of paper
- lord of the flies — a novel (1954) by William Golding.
- low-hanging fruit — the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
- lower forty-eight — the forty-eight conterminous states of the United States
- lyon king of arms — the chief herald of Scotland
- manufacturability — The condition of being manufacturable.
- microfilm plotter — a type of incremental plotter that has a film rather than a paper output
- middle of nowhere — a completely isolated, featureless, or insignificant place
- minimal free form — the smallest unit of language that can make sense on its own
- multiplier effect — the effect of government spending on national income
- non-proliferation — Non-proliferation is the limiting of the production and spread of something such as nuclear or chemical weapons.
- noninertial frame — a frame of reference that moves with the object, so that the moving object appears to violate Newton's laws of motion since it accelerates despite having no horizontal forces on it.
- not lift a finger — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
- off-year election — (in the US) an election held in a year when a presidential election does not take place
- official receiver — an officer appointed by the Insolvency Service to receive the income and manage the estate of a bankrupt pending the appointment of a trustee in bankruptcy
- oil of turpentine — a colorless, flammable, volatile essential oil having a penetrating odor and a pungent, bitter taste, obtained from turpentine oleoresin by distillation: used in paints and varnishes, and in medicine as a carminative, vermifuge, expectorant, rubefacient, and, formerly, as a diuretic.
- one-parent family — A one-parent family is a family that consists of one parent and his or her children living together.
- orange flower oil — neroli oil.
- out of this world — the earth or globe, considered as a planet.
- past life therapy — a form of hypnosis or meditation based on the belief that an individual's present problems are rooted in events that occurred before birth in this life
- peridot of ceylon — a honey-colored tourmaline, used as a gem: not a true peridot.
- personnel officer — a worker responsible for recruiting employees and dealing with matters relating to them
- petrol filler cap — a small cover that goes over the hole in a vehicle into which you put petrol
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.