17-letter words containing f, o, c, u
- safety precaution — a precaution that is taken in order to ensure that something is safe and not dangerous
- self-constituting — to compose; form: mortar constituted of lime and sand.
- self-introduction — the act of introducing or the state of being introduced.
- self-purification — a natural process of purifying, as the ability of a body of water to rid itself of pollutants.
- self-renunciation — renunciation of one's own will, interests, etc.
- self-reproduction — the act or process of reproducing.
- shoot one's cuffs — to expose one's shirt cuffs beyond the coat sleeves
- sound effects man — a man who produces sounds artificially or reproduces them from a recording, etc, to create a theatrical effect, such as the bringing together of two halves of a hollow coconut shell to simulate a horse's gallop. Such sound effects are used in plays, films, etc
- south west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- south-west africa — a former name of Namibia.
- standard function — a subprogram provided by a translator that carries out a task, for example the computation of a mathematical function, such as sine, square root, etc
- stay of execution — If you are given a stay of execution, you are legally allowed to delay obeying an order of a court of law.
- suffice it to say — Suffice it to say or suffice to say is used at the beginning of a statement to indicate that what you are saying is obvious, or that you will only give a short explanation.
- sufficient reason — the principle that nothing happens by pure chance, but that an explanation must always be available
- sulfonyl chloride — a colorless liquid, SO 2 Cl 2 , having a very pungent odor and corrosive to the skin and mucous membranes: used as a chlorinating or sulfonating agent.
- surface condenser — a device condensing steam or vapor by passing it over a cool surface.
- the carboniferous — the Carboniferous period or rock system
- the rann of kutch — an extensive salt waste in W central India, and S Pakistan: consists of the Great Rann in the north and the Little Rann in the southeast; seasonal alternation between marsh and desert; some saltworks. In 1968 an international tribunal awarded about 10 per cent of the border area to Pakistan. Area: 23 000 sq km (9000 sq miles)
- the south pacific — the part of the Pacific Ocean to the south of the equator
- thiosulfuric acid — an acid, H 2 S 2 O 3 , that may be regarded as sulfuric acid with one oxygen atom replaced by sulfur.
- to show your face — If you show your face somewhere, you go there and see people, although you are not welcome, are rather unwilling to go, or have not been there for some time.
- transfer function — The transfer function of a circuit is the ratio of the response to the input.
- trapdoor function — a function defined from data by means of a mathematical procedure in such a way that it is easy to obtain the function when the data are known, but when the procedure and data are not known it becomes very difficult to determine the original data: used in cryptography, where the data are the characters of the plain text, or message, and the trapdoor function is the cryptogram.
- turn of the screw — a short novel (1898) by Henry James.
- unclassified road — a road that has not been given a grade because it is of a basic standard
- uncomfortableness — causing discomfort or distress; painful; irritating.
- unconformity trap — An unconformity trap is a hydrocarbon trap where the closure is made by an unconformity (= a formation of rock layers which represents a gap in the geological record).
- unify corporation — (company) Developers of the Unify relational database. At one time, before Sybase, they were a competitor of Oracle, et al.
- unofficial strike — a strike that is not approved by the strikers' trade union
- unselfconsciously — in an unselfconscious manner
- wave-cut platform — a flat surface at the base of a cliff formed by erosion by waves
- writ of execution — a writ ordering that a judgment be enforced
- year of confusion — (in ancient Rome) the year of 445 days preceding the introduction, in 46 b.c., of the Julian calendar: lengthened to compensate for the cumulative errors of the Roman calendar.