18-letter words containing f, l, i, e
- isidore of seville — Saint (Isidorus Hispalensis) a.d. c570–636, Spanish archbishop, historian, and encyclopedist.
- joint life annuity — an annuity, the payments of which cease at the death of the first of two or more specified persons.
- king of the castle — most powerful figure
- king-of-the-salmon — a ribbonfish, Trachypterus altivelis, of northern parts of the Pacific Ocean.
- law of segregation — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that during the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.
- lawrence of arabia — D(avid) H(erbert) 1885–1930, English novelist.
- lean manufacturing — efficiency in the production of goods
- learned profession — any of the three vocations of theology, law, and medicine, commonly held to require highly advanced learning. Compare profession (def 1).
- let oneself in for — If you say that you did not know what you were letting yourself in for when you decided to do something, you mean you did not realize how difficult, unpleasant, or expensive it was going to be.
- lifecycle analysis — Lifecycle analysis is the consideration of all the energy and materials that are needed to make a product and to dispose of it.
- lifesaving service — a private organization or government agency for general marine rescue operations.
- lifestyle business — a small business in which the owner is more anxious to pursue interests that reflect his or her lifestyle than to make more than a comfortable living
- like a house afire — a building in which people live; residence for human beings.
- lily of the valley — a plant, Convallaria majalis, having an elongated cluster of small, drooping, bell-shaped, fragrant white flowers.
- lives of the poets — a collection (1779–81), by Samuel Johnson, of biographical and critical essays on 52 English poets.
- locally finite set — a collection of sets in a topological space in which each point of the space has a neighborhood that intersects a finite number of sets of the collection.
- logical shift left — logical shift
- lone-parent family — a family in which there is only one parent
- looking-glass self — the self-image an individual forms by imagining what others think of his or her behavior and appearance.
- loosestrife family — the plant family Lythraceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, shrubs, and trees having usually opposite or whorled, simple leaves, clusters of flowers, and fruit in the form of a capsule, and including the crape myrtle, loosestrifes of the genus Lythrum, and the henna shrub.
- lord chief justice — the presiding judge of Britain's High Court of Justice, the superior court of record for both criminal and civil cases.
- magnetic amplifier — an amplifier that applies the input signal to a primary winding and feeds an alternating current to a secondary winding where this current is modulated by the variations in the primary winding.
- make a beeline for — head directly towards
- malicious mischief — willful destruction of personal property motivated by ill will or resentment toward its owner or possessor.
- margaret of valois — ("Queen Margot") 1533–1615, 1st wife of Henry IV of France: queen of Navarre; patron of science and literature (daughter of Henry II of France and Catherine de' Medici).
- medical profession — the body of people who work as doctors of medicine
- mendel's first law — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that during the production of gametes the two copies of each hereditary factor segregate so that offspring acquire one factor from each parent.
- mexican fire-plant — a showy plant, Euphorbia heterophylla, of the spurge family, growing in the central U.S. to central South America, having red or mottled red and white bracts.
- middle-of-the-road — favoring, following, or characterized by an intermediate position between two extremes, especially in politics; moderate.
- milkweed butterfly — monarch butterfly.
- minister of health — a person appointed to head the government department of health
- misplaced modifier — Grammar. a word, phrase, or clause that seems to refer to or modify an unintended word because of its placement in a sentence, as when young in When young, circuses appeal to all of us.
- mixed-flow turbine — a water turbine in which water flows radially and axially through the rotating vanes
- mop the floor with — that part of a room, hallway, or the like, that forms its lower enclosing surface and upon which one walks.
- morning-after pill — a contraceptive pill containing only an estrogen and used by women within a few hours after sexual intercourse.
- multiflow computer — (company) A now-defunct computer company, best known for its work in Very Long Instruction Word processors. Address: New Haven, Conn. USA.
- myeloproliferative — (medicine) of or pertaining to the presence of an abnormal proliferation of myelopoietic cells (from bone marrow).
- negative cash flow — the situation when income is less than payments
- no-fault insurance — Also called no-fault insurance. a form of automobile insurance designed to enable the policyholder in case of an accident to collect a certain basic compensation promptly for economic loss from his or her own insurance company without determination of liability.
- non-fundamentalist — (sometimes initial capital letter) a religious movement characterized by a strict belief in the literal interpretation of religious texts, especially within American Protestantism and Islam.
- non-inertial 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.
- non-self-governing — governed by itself or having self-government, as a state or community; independent.
- nonpreferentialism — of, relating to, or of the nature of preference: preferential policies.
- notifiable disease — any one of a number of infectious diseases of humans and animals, that must be reported to the public health authorities
- nursery facilities — places where young children are looked after
- oath of allegiance — pledge to one's nation
- oblique-slip fault — a fault on which the movement is along both the strike and the dip of the fault
- offensive material — any published or broadcast content (such as articles, photographs, films, or websites) that is likely to be upsetting, insulting, or objectionable to some or most people
- offset lithography — offset (def 6).
- oil of catechumens — holy oil used in baptism, the ordination of a cleric, the coronation of a sovereign, or in the consecration of a church.