17-letter words containing f, o, s
- 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 a short fuse — a tube, cord, or the like, filled or saturated with combustible matter, for igniting an explosive.
- have feelings for — to be emotionally or sexually attracted to
- have it in for sb — If someone has it in for you, they dislike you and try to cause problems for you.
- have no words for — to be incapable of describing
- have sth to offer — If you have something to offer, you have a quality or ability that makes you important, attractive, or useful.
- heart of darkness — a short novel (1902) by Joseph Conrad.
- 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
- horror of horrors — Horror of horrors is used to refer to something that you consider to be the worst part of a situation.
- hot off the press — newspaper: freshly printed
- 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
- how's-your-father — sexual intercourse
- hydrogasification — a high-temperature, high-pressure process for producing liquid or gaseous fuels from fine particles of coal and hydrogen gas
- immunofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or using immunofluorescence.
- impersonification — (archaic) the act of impersonating; impersonation.
- 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 forma pauperis — as a poor person; i.e. without paying court costs
- in one fell swoop — to sweep through the air, as a bird or a bat, especially down upon prey.
- in someone's face — the front part of the head, from the forehead to the chin.
- in the process of — If you are in the process of doing something, you have started to do it and are still doing it.
- in/out of fashion — If something is in fashion, it is popular and approved of at a particular time. If it is out of fashion, it is not popular or approved of.
- inefficaciousness — Lack of efficacy.
- infantry division — a military division composed of infantry
- interconfessional — common to or occurring between churches having different confessions.
- interfenestration — a space between two windows.
- interprofessional — following an occupation as a means of livelihood or for gain: a professional builder.
- irons in the fire — If someone has a lot of irons in the fire, they are involved in several different activities or have several different plans.
- isherwood framing — a system for framing steel vessels in which light, closely spaced, longitudinal frames are connected by heavy, widely spaced transverse frames with deep webs.
- island of the sun — Sicily: the island where Helius kept his oxen.
- isthmus of panama — an isthmus linking North and South America, between the Pacific and the Caribbean. Length: 676 km (420 miles). Width (at its narrowest point): 50 km (31 miles)
- it's your funeral — If someone says to you 'It's your funeral', they think your decision or your actions will have bad consequences for you, but they are unwilling to interfere.
- job specification — a detailed description of the qualifications, skills, and experience required for a particular post of employment
- jobs for the boys — If you refer to work as jobs for the boys, you mean that the work is unfairly given to someone's friends, supporters, or relations, even though they may not be the best qualified people to do it.
- john of lancaster — Duke of Bedford, 1389–1435, Bedford, John of Lancaster, Duke of.
- john of salisbury — c1115–80, English prelate and scholar.
- john of the cross — Saint (Juan de Yepis y Álvarez) 1542–91, Spanish mystic, writer, and theologian: cofounder with Saint Theresa of the order of Discalced Carmelites.
- judgment of paris — the decision by Paris to award Aphrodite the golden apple of discord competed for by Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera.
- knock oneself out — to make great efforts; exhaust oneself
- kolar gold fields — a city in S India, in SE Karnataka: a major gold-mining centre since 1881. Pop: 176 000 (2005 est)
- lady of the house — the female head of a household (usually preceded by the).
- lake of the woods — Eldrick [el-drik] /ˈɛl drɪk/ (Show IPA), ("Tiger") born 1975, U.S. professional golfer.
- lance of courtesy — a lance having a blunt head to prevent serious injury by a jouster to an opponent.
- laplace transform — a map of a function, as a signal, defined especially for positive real values, as time greater than zero, into another domain where the function is represented as a sum of exponentials.
- last-in first-out — stack