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17-letter words containing f, s, m

  • master of science — a master's degree given usually in a specific branch of the natural sciences, mathematics, or technology.
  • maurice of nassau — Prince of Orange 1567-1625; Du. statesman & military leader
  • memoised function — memo function
  • mend one's fences — a barrier enclosing or bordering a field, yard, etc., usually made of posts and wire or wood, used to prevent entrance, to confine, or to mark a boundary.
  • metallofullerenes — Plural form of metallofullerene.
  • methyltransferase — any of a class of enzymes that catalyze the transfer of methyl groups from one molecule to another.
  • mexican stand-off — A Mexican stand-off is a situation in which neither of the people or groups in a conflict or dispute can win and neither wants to give in first.
  • microsoft network — The Microsoft Network
  • microsoft project — (product)   A Microsoft Windows program offering various project management tools.
  • microsoft windows — (operating system)   Microsoft's proprietary window system and user interface software released in 1985 to run on top of MS-DOS. Widely criticised for being too slow (hence "Windoze", "Microsloth Windows") on the machines available then. The 1996 market share of operating systems was: DOS/Windows 70% Windows 95 15% Windows NT 2% Other 13% Versions include 1985 Windows 1, 1987 Windows 2, 1987 Windows/386, 1990 Windows 3.0, 1992 Windows 3.1, 1992 Windows for Workgroups 3.1, 1993 Windows 3.11, 1993 Windows for Workgroups 3.11, 1993 Windows NT 3.1, 1994 Windows NT 3.5, 1995 Windows 95, 199? Windows NT 4, 1998 Windows 98, Windows NT 5, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.
  • mill on the floss — a novel (1860) by George Eliot.
  • minister of state — (in the British Parliament) a minister, usually below cabinet rank, appointed to assist a senior minister with heavy responsibilities
  • misidentification — to identify incorrectly.
  • mode of transport — means of travel
  • motion of censure — a motion by opposition parties criticizing the government
  • munitions factory — a factory where munitions are made
  • neurofibromatosis — a dominantly inherited genetic disorder characterized by flat brown patches on the skin, neurofibromas of the skin and internal organs, and in some cases skeletal deformity.
  • nightshade family — the plant family Solanaceae, characterized by herbaceous plants, trees, shrubs, and vines having alternate, simple or pinnate leaves, conspicuous flowers, and fruit in the form of a berry or capsule, and including belladonna, eggplant, nightshade, peppers of the genus Capsicum, petunia, potato, tobacco, and tomato.
  • out of commission — the act of committing or entrusting a person, group, etc., with supervisory power or authority.
  • out of harm's way — If someone or something is out of harm's way, they are in a safe place away from danger or from the possibility of being damaged.
  • out of one's mind — (in a human or other conscious being) the element, part, substance, or process that reasons, thinks, feels, wills, perceives, judges, etc.: the processes of the human mind.
  • overhead camshaft — a camshaft in an automotive engine that is located in the cylinder head over the engine block rather than in the block. Abbreviation: OHC.
  • pair of compasses — compass (def 7)
  • performance bonus — a monetary bonus paid to staff who have performed well in their job
  • performance drugs — the drugs that are taken illegally by athletes to enhance their sporting performance
  • phase of the moon — Used humorously as a random parameter on which something is said to depend. Sometimes implies unreliability of whatever is dependent, or that reliability seems to be dependent on conditions nobody has been able to determine. "This feature depends on having the channel open in mumble mode, having the foo switch set, and on the phase of the moon." See also heisenbug. True story: Once upon a time there was a bug that really did depend on the phase of the moon. There was a little subroutine that had traditionally been used in various programs at MIT to calculate an approximation to the moon's true phase. GLS incorporated this routine into a Lisp program that, when it wrote out a file, would print a timestamp line almost 80 characters long. Very occasionally the first line of the message would be too long and would overflow onto the next line, and when the file was later read back in the program would barf. The length of the first line depended on both the precise date and time and the length of the phase specification when the timestamp was printed, and so the bug literally depended on the phase of the moon! The first paper edition of the Jargon File (Steele-1983) included an example of one of the timestamp lines that exhibited this bug, but the typesetter "corrected" it. This has since been described as the phase-of-the-moon-bug bug.
  • phlebotomus fever — sandfly fever.
  • plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
  • plumbing fixtures — things such as pipes, sinks, toilets that are fixed in position in a building
  • potassium sulfate — a crystalline, water-soluble solid, K 2 SO 4 , used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers, alums, and mineral water, and as a reagent in analytical chemistry.
  • pre-manifestation — an act of manifesting.
  • pre-modifications — an act or instance of modifying.
  • professional army — an army of trained soldiers
  • recursion formula — a formula for determining the next term of a sequence from one or more of the preceding terms.
  • reformed spelling — a revised orthography intended to simplify the spelling of English words, especially to eliminate unpronounced letters, as by substituting thru for through, tho for though, slo for slow, etc.
  • safety in numbers — If you say that there is safety in numbers, you mean that you are safer doing something if there are a lot of people doing it rather than doing it alone.
  • saint elmo's fire — corona discharge.
  • scientific method — a method of research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested.
  • self-administered — to manage (affairs, a government, etc.); have executive charge of: to administer the law.
  • self-commendation — the act of commending; recommendation; praise: commendation for a job well done.
  • self-condemnation — the act of condemning.
  • self-confirmation — the act of confirming.
  • self-emancipation — the act of emancipating.
  • self-estrangement — to turn away in feeling or affection; make unfriendly or hostile; alienate the affections of: Their quarrel estranged the two friends.
  • self-impregnating — to make pregnant; get with child or young.
  • self-incompatible — not capable of self-pollination.
  • self-priming pump — A self-priming pump is a pump that will clear its passages of air and start pumping.
  • semi-manufactured — the making of goods or wares by manual labor or by machinery, especially on a large scale: the manufacture of television sets.
  • semi-professional — actively engaged in some field or sport for pay but on a part-time basis: semiprofessional baseball players.
  • sentence fragment — a phrase or clause written as a sentence but lacking an element, as a subject or verb, that would enable it to function as an independent sentence in normative written English.
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