19-letter words containing f, i, r, n
- most favored nation — a nation to which privileges of trade are extended under a government policy of giving the same privileges to all nations that are given to any one of them, sometimes depending on whether certain conditions, as of reciprocity, are met
- most-favored-nation — of or relating to the status, treatment, terms, etc., that are embodied in or conferred by a most-favored-nation clause.
- moving spirit/force — The moving spirit or moving force behind something is the person or thing that caused it to start and to keep going, or that influenced people to take part in it.
- nasty piece of work — malicious person
- neats vs. scruffies — (artificial intelligence, jargon) The label used to refer to one of the continuing holy wars in artificial intelligence research. This conflict tangles together two separate issues. One is the relationship between human reasoning and AI; "neats" tend to try to build systems that "reason" in some way identifiably similar to the way humans report themselves as doing, while "scruffies" profess not to care whether an algorithm resembles human reasoning in the least as long as it works. More importantly, neats tend to believe that logic is king, while scruffies favour looser, more ad-hoc methods driven by empirical knowledge. To a neat, scruffy methods appear promiscuous, successful only by accident and not productive of insights about how intelligence actually works; to a scruffy, neat methods appear to be hung up on formalism and irrelevant to the hard-to-capture "common sense" of living intelligences.
- negation by failure — An extralogical feature of Prolog and other logic programming languages in which failure of unification is treated as establishing the negation of a relation. For example, if Ronald Reagan is not in our database and we asked if he was an American, Prolog would answer "no".
- network file system — (networking, operating system) (NFS) A protocol developed by Sun Microsystems, and defined in RFC 1094, which allows a computer to access files over a network as if they were on its local disks. This protocol has been incorporated in products by more than two hundred companies, and is now a de facto standard. NFS is implemented using a connectionless protocol (UDP) in order to make it stateless. See Nightmare File System, WebNFS.
- non-confrontational — tending toward or ready for confrontation: They came to the meeting with a confrontational attitude.
- non-transferability — to convey or remove from one place, person, etc., to another: He transferred the package from one hand to the other.
- nonforfeiture value — any benefit, as cash or other form of insurance, available to a life-insurance policyholder who discontinues premium payments on the policy.
- nordrhein-westfalen — German name of North Rhine-Westphalia.
- norfolk island pine — a coniferous evergreen tree, Araucaria heterophylla (or A. excelsa), having whorled branches and needlelike foliage, widely cultivated as a houseplant.
- north pacific ocean — the northern part of the Pacific Ocean, extending from the equator to the Arctic Ocean.
- north-west frontier — the area roughly equivalent to the present North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, which is the days of the British Raj was regarded as one of the most remote and dangerous outposts of the British Empire
- not care/give a fig — If you say that someone doesn't care a fig or doesn't give a fig about something, you are emphasizing that they think it is unimportant or that they are not interested in it.
- nothing of the sort — not at all as described
- on first name terms — If two people are on first-name terms, they know each other well enough to call each other by their first names, rather than having to use a more formal title.
- oriental fruit moth — a moth, Grapholitha molesta, introduced into the U.S. from Asia, the larvae of which infest and feed on the twigs and fruits of peach, plum, and related trees.
- out of the ordinary — of no special quality or interest; commonplace; unexceptional: One novel is brilliant, the other is decidedly ordinary; an ordinary person.
- pancreatic fibrosis — cystic fibrosis.
- parainfluenza virus — any of a group of viruses that cause respiratory infections with influenza-like symptoms, esp in children
- parting of the ways — When there is a parting of the ways, two or more people or groups of people stop working together or travelling together.
- patent infringement — breach of copyright
- perfect competition — when neither producer nor consumer controls price
- performance anxiety — the stage fright that a person feels when they are about to perform (a play, piece of music etc) in front of an audience
- performance figures — the statistics that indicate how well or badly a company or organization has performed
- persian gulf states — group of Arab sheikdoms along the Persian Gulf: Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, & United Arab Emirates
- persistent offender — a person who repeatedly breaks the law
- pirates of penzance — an operetta (1879) by Sir William S. Gilbert and Sir Arthur Sullivan.
- plastic deformation — In plastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it and does not go back to its original state when the stress is removed.
- pocket-handkerchief — handkerchief (def 1).
- point the finger at — to accuse or blame
- post-and-rail fence — a fence constructed of upright wooden posts with horizontal timber slotted through it
- preferential voting — a system of voting designed to permit the voter to indicate an order of preference for the candidates on the ballot.
- presumption of fact — a presumption based on experience or knowledge of the relationship between a known fact and a fact inferred from it.
- pride-of-california — a shrubby plant, Lathyrus splendens, of the legume family, native to southern California, having showy clusters of pale rose-pink, violet, or magenta flowers and large, smooth, beaked pods.
- production platform — offshore power station
- professional advice — advice given by someone trained in a particular and relevant profession or job
- professional school — a postgraduate school or college which trains students for a particular profession
- professionalization — to give a professional character or status to; make into or establish as a profession.
- pseudo-professional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- put a figure on sth — When you put a figure on an amount, you say exactly how much it is.
- put one's finger on — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
- put your foot in it — If someone puts their foot in it or puts their foot in their mouth, they accidentally do or say something which embarrasses or offends people.
- rate of penetration — The rate of penetration is the speed with which a drill bit can break the rock under it.
- reinforced concrete — concrete containing steel bars, strands, mesh, etc., to absorb tensile and shearing stresses.
- relief organization — humanitarian group
- republic of ireland — John, 1838–1918, U.S. Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer, born in Ireland: archbishop of St. Paul, Minn., 1888–1918.
- republic of vietnam — the name (from 1955–75) for South Vietnam, as an independent republic, following the division of the country in 1954 into North Vietnam and South Vietnam
- resign oneself (to) — to submit or become reconciled (to); accept (something) passively