18-letter words containing f, o, s, a
- out of one's hands — no longer one's responsibility
- overdraft interest — interest charged on money withdrawn in excess of the credit balance of a bank or building society account
- pair of spectacles — a score of 0 in each innings of a match
- par for the course — an equality in value or standing; a level of equality: The gains and the losses are on a par.
- patron of the arts — someone who acts as a patron to or supports charities, organizations, and individuals that work in or concern the arts
- pellitory of spain — a small Mediterranean plant, Anacyclus pyrethrum, the root of which contains an oil formerly used to relieve toothache: family Asteraceae (composites)
- percussion flaking — a method of forming a flint tool by striking flakes from a stone core with another stone or a piece of bone or wood.
- performance artist — an artist that is involved in a theatrical presentation that incorporates various art forms, such as dance, sculpture, music, etc
- pilotless aircraft — an aircraft equipped for operation by radio or by robot control, without a human pilot aboard; drone.
- play second fiddle — be considered less important
- play someone false — to deceive, cheat, hoodwink, or betray someone
- population figures — population totals; statistics relating to the size of populations
- potassium fluoride — a white, crystalline, hygroscopic, toxic powder, KF, used chiefly as an insecticide, a disinfectant, and in etching glass.
- prayer of manasses — a book of the Apocrypha.
- presumption of law — a presumption based upon a policy of law or a general rule and not upon the facts or evidence in an individual case.
- prince of darkness — Satan.
- programme of study — the prescribed syllabus that pupils must be taught at each key stage in the National Curriculum
- purchasing officer — the member of staff in an organization who is responsible for buying goods or products
- quality of service — (communications, networking) (QoS) The performance properties of a network service, possibly including throughput, transit delay, priority. Some protocols allow packets or streams to include QoS requirements.
- rabbit's-foot fern — hare's-foot fern.
- radius of gyration — the distance from an axis at which the mass of a body may be assumed to be concentrated and at which the moment of inertia will be equal to the moment of inertia of the actual mass about the axis, equal to the square root of the quotient of the moment of inertia and the mass.
- range of stability — the angle to the perpendicular through which a vessel may be heeled without losing the ability to right itself.
- real-estate office — the place where a real-estate agent works
- reinforced plastic — plastic with fibrous matter, such as carbon fibre, embedded in it to confer additional strength
- restraint of trade — action tending to interrupt the free flow of goods and services, as by price fixing and other practices that have the effect of reducing competition.
- russian federation — a republic extending from E Europe to N and W Asia. 6,593,000 sq. mi. (17,076,000 sq. km). Capital: Moscow.
- safety regulations — regulations or rules that are put in place to ensure a product, event, etc, is safe and not dangerous
- safety-deposit box — a lockable metal box or drawer, especially in a bank vault, used for safely storing valuable papers, jewelry, etc.
- salt of phosphorus — a colorless, odorless, crystalline, water-soluble solid, NaNH 4 HPO 4 ⋅4H 2 O, originally obtained from human urine: used as a blowpipe flux in testing metallic oxides.
- schofield barracks — a town on central Oahu, in central Hawaii.
- school certificate — (in England and Wales between 1917 and 1951 and currently in New Zealand) a certificate awarded to school pupils who pass a public examination: the equivalent of GCSE
- school for scandal — a comedy of manners (1777) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
- scottish blackface — a common breed of hardy mountain sheep having horns and a black face, kept chiefly on the mainland of Scotland
- seafloor spreading — a process in which new ocean floor is created as molten material from the earth's mantle rises in margins between plates or ridges and spreads out.
- secondary offering — the sale of a large block of outstanding stock off the floor of an exchange, usually by a major stockholder.
- secretary of state — the head and chief administrator of the U.S. Department of State. Compare foreign minister.
- see the last of sb — not encounter sb anymore
- self-actualization — the achievement of one's full potential through creativity, independence, spontaneity, and a grasp of the real world.
- self-certification — statement of sick leave
- self-contemplation — the act or process of thinking about oneself or one's values, beliefs, behavior, etc.
- self-contradiction — an act or instance of contradicting oneself or itself.
- self-contradictory — an act or instance of contradicting oneself or itself.
- self-determination — determination by oneself or itself, without outside influence.
- self-fertilization — Botany. fertilization of an ovum of a plant by a male gamete from the same flower (opposed to cross-fertilization).
- self-glorification — a glorified or more splendid form of something.
- self-gratification — the act of pleasing or satisfying oneself, especially the gratifying of one's own impulses, needs, or desires.
- self-incrimination — the act of incriminating oneself or exposing oneself to prosecution, especially by giving evidence or testimony.
- self-instructional — pertaining to or constituting learning materials and conditions arranged so that students can proceed to learn on their own with little or no supervision.
- self-interrogation — the act of interrogating; questioning.
- self-justification — the act or fact of justifying oneself, especially of offering excessive reasons, explanations, excuses, etc., for an act, thought, or the like.