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17-letter words containing f, l, s

  • florentine stitch — a straight stitch worked in a high and low relief pattern to form a variety of zigzag or oblique designs.
  • flowers of sulfur — sublimed sulfur in the form of a fine yellow powder, used in medicine chiefly to kill parasites and fungi and to treat certain skin diseases.
  • fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
  • fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
  • fluvioterrestrial — (of animals) able to live in rivers and on land
  • follow one's nose — the part of the face or facial region in humans and certain animals that contains the nostrils and the organs of smell and functions as the usual passageway for air in respiration: in humans it is a prominence in the center of the face formed of bone and cartilage, serving also to modify or modulate the voice.
  • follow the hounds — to hunt a fox, etc. on horseback with hounds
  • foolscap envelope — an envelope of dimensions suitable to hold an unfolded sheet of foolscap paper
  • footmen's gallery — the rearmost section of seats in the balcony of an English theater, especially in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
  • fore-and-aft sail — any of various sails, as jib-headed sails, gaff sails, lugsails, lateen sails, spritsails, staysails, and jibs, that do not set on yards and whose normal position, when not trimmed, is in a fore-and-aft direction amidships.
  • foreign relations — (used with a singular verb) the field of foreign affairs: an expert in foreign relations.
  • four-letter words — any of a number of short words, usually of four letters, considered offensive or vulgar because of their reference to excrement or sex.
  • four-star general — high-ranking military officer
  • four-stroke cycle — A four-stroke cycle is the cycle of engine operation which requires four strokes of the piston: for induction, compression, ignition, and exhaust.
  • fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
  • fractal dimension — (mathematics)   A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
  • fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
  • french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
  • frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
  • fulgencio batista — Fulgencio [fool-hen-syaw] /fulˈhɛn syɔ/ (Show IPA), (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar) 1901–73, Cuban military leader: dictator of Cuba 1934–40; president 1940–44, 1952–59.
  • functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
  • furbish lousewort — any plant belonging to the genus Pedicularis, of the figwort family, as the wood betony, formerly supposed to cause lice in sheep feeding on it: one species, P. furbishiae (Furbish lousewort) of parts of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, having finely toothed leaves and a cluster of yellow flowers, is endangered and was thought to be extinct until specimens were discovered in 1946 and again in 1976.
  • gamblers' fallacy — the fallacy that in a series of chance events the probability of one event occurring increases with the number of times another event has occurred in succession
  • get above oneself — If you say that someone is getting above themself, you disapprove of them because they think they are better than everyone else.
  • gi bill of rights — any of various Congressional bills enacted to provide funds for college educations, home-buying loans, and other benefits for armed-services veterans.
  • glory-of-the-snow — any of several plants belonging to the genus Chionodoxa, of the lily family, native to the Old World, having showy, blue, white, or pink flowers that bloom early in the spring.
  • great vowel shift — a series of changes in the quality of the long vowels between Middle and Modern English as a result of which all were raised, while the high vowels (ē) and (o̅o̅), already at the upper limit, underwent breaking to become the diphthongs (ī) and (ou).
  • gulf war syndrome — a group of symptoms occurring in some Gulf War veterans, most commonly including headache and memory loss, muscle pain, skin disorders, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and gastrointestinal and respiratory ailments, possibly caused by exposure to chemical weapons, vaccines, infectious diseases, or other factors.
  • half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
  • hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
  • have feelings for — to be emotionally or sexually attracted to
  • homo floresiensis — a possible species of very small, primitive human: its fossils were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003.
  • homolytic fission — the dissociation of a molecule into two neutral fragments
  • house of assembly — the legislature or the lower house of the legislature in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations.
  • house of ill fame — a house of prostitution; brothel
  • household effects — domestic belongings
  • if all else fails — You say if all else fails to suggest what could be done in a certain situation if all the other things you have tried are unsuccessful.
  • immunofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or using immunofluorescence.
  • impossible figure — a picture of an object that at first sight looks three-dimensional but cannot be a two-dimensional projection of a real three-dimensional object, for example a picture of a staircase that re-enters itself while appearing to ascend continuously
  • in double figures — An amount or number that is in single figures is between zero and nine. An amount or number that is in double figures is between ten and ninety-nine. You can also say, for example, that an amount or number is in three figures when it is between one hundred and nine hundred and ninety-nine.
  • in one fell swoop — to sweep through the air, as a bird or a bat, especially down upon prey.
  • inclusive fitness — the fitness of an individual organism as measured in terms of the survival and reproductive success of its kin, each relative being valued according to the probability of shared genetic information, an offspring or sibling having a value of 50 percent and a cousin 25 percent.
  • indefatigableness — The state of being indefatigable.
  • infinitive clause — a clause containing an infinitive as its main or only verb form, as to speak clearly in Try to speak clearly.
  • infralapsarianism — the doctrine, held by Augustinians and by many Calvinists, that God planned the Creation, permitted the Fall, elected a chosen number, planned their redemption, and suffered the remainder to be eternally punished (opposed to supralapsarianism).
  • instrument flying — the control and navigation of an aircraft by reference to its gauges, with no or only limited visual reference outside the cockpit.
  • interconfessional — common to or occurring between churches having different confessions.
  • interprofessional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
  • intraspecifically — Between individuals of the same species.
  • island of the sun — Sicily: the island where Helius kept his oxen.
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