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20-letter words containing f, o, n

  • polymorphic function — a function in a computer program that can deal with a number of different types of data
  • portfolio employment — the practice of working for several employers simultaneously rather than working full-time for a single employer
  • potential difference — voltage
  • power of appointment — the authority granted by a donor to a donee to select the person or persons who are to enjoy property rights or income upon the death of the donor or of the donee or after the termination of existing rights or interests.
  • powhatan confederacy — a network of Algonquian-speaking Indian settlements in Virginia that was ruled by Powhatan.
  • pride of the morning — light mist or precipitation observed at sea in the morning and regarded as indicating a fine day.
  • probability function — the function the values of which are probabilities of the distinct outcomes of a discrete random variable
  • proof of the pudding — the true value or quality of something, as seen when it is experienced, tried, or put to use: The proof of the pudding for a business is what customers say about it.
  • put one's foot in it — (in vertebrates) the terminal part of the leg, below the ankle joint, on which the body stands and moves.
  • quantum field theory — any theory in which fields are treated by the methods of quantum mechanics; each field can then be regarded as consisting of particles of a particular kind, which may be created and annihilated.
  • queen of the prairie — a tall plant, Filipendula rubra, of the rose family, having branching clusters of pink flowers, growing in meadows and prairies.
  • radio interferometer — any of several different types of instrumentation designed to observe interference patterns of electromagnetic radiation at radio wavelengths: used in the discovery and measurement of radio sources in the atmosphere.
  • rapid reaction force — a force that can be deployed swiftly to a site of conflict or potential conflict
  • recursive definition — a definition consisting of a set of rules such that by repeated application of the rules the meaning of the definiendum is uniquely determined in terms of ideas that are already familiar.
  • reflecting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.
  • refracting telescope — an optical instrument for making distant objects appear larger and therefore nearer. One of the two principal forms (refracting telescope) consists essentially of an objective lens set into one end of a tube and an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses set into the other end of a tube that slides into the first and through which the enlarged object is viewed directly; the other form (reflecting telescope) has a concave mirror that gathers light from the object and focuses it into an adjustable eyepiece or combination of lenses through which the reflection of the object is enlarged and viewed. Compare radio telescope.
  • refuse disposal unit — a unit or part of a sink that disposes of waste food, etc, by grinding
  • request for comments — (standard)   (RFC) One of a series, begun in 1969, of numbered Internet informational documents and standards widely followed by commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. Few RFCs are standards but all Internet standards are recorded in RFCs. Perhaps the single most influential RFC has been RFC 822, the Internet electronic mail format standard. The RFCs are unusual in that they are floated by technical experts acting on their own initiative and reviewed by the Internet at large, rather than formally promulgated through an institution such as ANSI. For this reason, they remain known as RFCs even once adopted as standards. The RFC tradition of pragmatic, experience-driven, after-the-fact standard writing done by individuals or small working groups has important advantages over the more formal, committee-driven process typical of ANSI or ISO. Emblematic of some of these advantages is the existence of a flourishing tradition of "joke" RFCs; usually at least one a year is published, usually on April 1st. Well-known joke RFCs have included 527 ("ARPAWOCKY", R. Merryman, UCSD; 22 June 1973), 748 ("Telnet Randomly-Lose Option", Mark R. Crispin; 1 April 1978), and 1149 ("A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers", D. Waitzman, BBN STC; 1 April 1990). The first was a Lewis Carroll pastiche; the second a parody of the TCP/IP documentation style, and the third a deadpan skewering of standards-document legalese, describing protocols for transmitting Internet data packets by carrier pigeon. The RFCs are most remarkable for how well they work - they manage to have neither the ambiguities that are usually rife in informal specifications, nor the committee-perpetrated misfeatures that often haunt formal standards, and they define a network that has grown to truly worldwide proportions. See also For Your Information, STD.
  • respecter of persons — one whose behavior toward people is influenced by their social status, prestige, etc.
  • restriction fragment — a length of DNA cut from the strand by a restriction enzyme.
  • return from the dead — (jargon)   To regain access to the net after a long absence. Compare person of no account.
  • return of the native — a novel (1878) by Thomas Hardy.
  • ring of the nibelung — Richard Wagner's tetralogy of music dramas: Das Rheingold (completed 1869), Die Walküre (completed 1870), Siegfried (completed 1876), and Götterdämmerung (completed 1876): the cycle was first performed at Bayreuth, 1876.
  • ring wall foundation — A ring wall foundation is a base made of concrete, used to put large tanks on.
  • ringing off the hook — If your phone is ringing off the hook, so many people are trying to telephone you that it is ringing constantly.
  • roof over one's head — If you have a roof over your head, you have somewhere to live.
  • rotary-wing aircraft — an aircraft, esp a helicopter, that is lifted or propelled by rotating airfoils
  • run off at the mouth — Anatomy, Zoology. the opening through which an animal or human takes in food. the cavity containing the structures used in mastication. the structures enclosing or being within this cavity, considered as a whole.
  • saint anthony's fire — any of certain skin conditions that are of an inflammatory or gangrenous nature, as erysipelas, hospital gangrene, or ergotism.
  • scientific socialism — Marxist socialism
  • second earl of essex — 2nd Earl of, Devereux, Robert.
  • second law of motion — any of three laws of classical mechanics, either the law that a body remains at rest or in motion with a constant velocity unless an external force acts on the body (first law of motion) the law that the sum of the forces acting on a body is equal to the product of the mass of the body and the acceleration produced by the forces, with motion in the direction of the resultant of the forces (second law of motion) or the law that for every force acting on a body, the body exerts a force having equal magnitude and the opposite direction along the same line of action as the original force (third law of motion or law of action and reaction)
  • senior aircraftwoman — a rank in the Royal Air Force comparable to that of a private in the army, though not the lowest rank in the Royal Air Force
  • separation of powers — the principle or system of vesting in separate branches the executive, legislative, and judicial powers of a government.
  • shank of the evening — the latter part of the afternoon
  • shear transformation — a map of a coordinate space in which one coordinate is held fixed and the other coordinate or coordinates are shifted.
  • shifting cultivation — a land-use system, esp in tropical Africa, in which a tract of land is cultivated until its fertility diminishes, when it is abandoned until this is restored naturally
  • sinfonia concertante — a type of concerto for two or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra
  • sing for your supper — If someone has to sing for their supper, they have to do a job before they are allowed to do something they want to do.
  • snowflake generation — the generation of people who became adults in the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations
  • snows of kilimanjaro — a short story (1936) by Ernest Hemingway.
  • soft gelatin capsule — A soft gelatin capsule is a type of capsule that is usually used to contain medicine in the form of liquid or powder, and which dissolves more quickly than a hard gelatin capsule.
  • software engineering — the process of writing computer programs
  • solitary confinement — the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place in which he or she is completely isolated from others.
  • span of apprehension — the maximum number of objects that can be correctly assessed after a brief presentation
  • specific conductance — conductivity (def 2).
  • specific performance — (especially in the sale of land) literal compliance with one's contractual promises pursuant to a judicial mandate.
  • specific-conductance — conductivity (def 2).
  • spirit of enterprise — the motivation to set up and succeed in business or commerce
  • spirits of hartshorn — a colorless, pungent, suffocating, aqueous solution of about 28.5 percent ammonia gas: used chiefly as a detergent, for removing stains and extracting certain vegetable coloring agents, and in the manufacture of ammonium salts.
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