18-letter words containing f, u, r
- rufous hummingbird — a reddish-brown hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, of western North America.
- rule of engagement — a directive issued by a military authority controlling the use and degree of force, especially specifying circumstances and limitations for engaging in combat.
- run in sb's family — If a characteristic runs in someone's family, it often occurs in members of that family, in different generations.
- 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
- 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.
- sampling frequency — sample rate
- scruff of the neck — If someone takes you by the scruff of the neck, they take hold of the back of your neck or collar suddenly and roughly.
- security of tenure — (in Britain) the right of a tenant to continue to occupy a dwelling or site unless the landlord obtains a court order for possession of the property or termination of the tenancy agreement
- selenium rectifier — a rectifier consisting of laminated plates of metal, usually iron, that have been coated with selenium on one side, with rectification taking place because the flow of electrons from the conductive metal to the selenium occurs more readily than the flow in the opposite direction.
- 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-preoccupation — the state of being preoccupied.
- self-raising flour — flour with baking powder
- self-understanding — mental process of a person who comprehends; comprehension; personal interpretation: My understanding of the word does not agree with yours.
- shift one's ground — to change one's argument or defense
- shrubby cinquefoil — a small shrub, Potentilla fruticosa, of the rose family, native to the Northern temperate region, having pinnate leaves and numerous, showy, bright-yellow flowers.
- silvery cinquefoil — any of several plants belonging to the genus Potentilla, of the rose family, having yellow, red, or white five-petaled flowers, as P. reptans (creeping cinquefoil) of the Old World, or P. argentea (silvery cinquefoil) of North America.
- six-finger country — an isolated area considered as being inhabited by people who practise inbreeding
- soldier of fortune — a person who independently seeks pleasure, wealth, etc., through adventurous exploits.
- sound and the fury — a novel (1929) by William Faulkner.
- speak for yourself — If you say 'Speak for yourself' when someone has said something, you mean that what they have said is only their opinion or applies only to them.
- spectrofluorimeter — an instrument in which the spectrum of secondarily emitted fluorescent light is used to identify chemical compounds.
- spectrofluorometer — an instrument in which the spectrum of secondarily emitted fluorescent light is used to identify chemical compounds.
- spur-of-the-moment — occurring or done without advance preparation or deliberation; extemporaneous; unplanned: a spur-of-the-moment decision.
- squinting modifier — a word or phrase that can modify either the words that precede it or those that follow, as frequently in the sentence Studying frequently is tedious.
- standoff insulator — a type of insulator that supports an electrical conductor at a distance from other elements or surfaces.
- stirling's formula — a relation that approximates the value of n factorial (n!), expressed as .
- structural formula — a chemical formula showing the linkage of the atoms in a molecule diagrammatically, as H–O–H.
- sub-saharan africa — the region of Africa to the south of the Sahara desert
- subsistence farmer — a farmer who consumes most of the produce he grows, leaving little or nothing to be marketed
- sugarloaf mountain — a mountain in SE Brazil in Rio de Janeiro, at the entrance to Guanabara Bay. 1280 feet (390 meters).
- sulfuric anhydride — sulfur trioxide.
- sunflower seed oil — the oil extracted from sunflower seeds, used as a salad oil, in the manufacture of margarine, etc
- surface-to-surface — (of a missile, message, etc.) capable of traveling from a base on the surface of the earth to a target also on the surface.
- symmetric function — a polynomial in several indeterminates that stays the same under any permutation of the indeterminates.
- territory of papua — a former territory of Australia, consisting of SE New Guinea and adjacent islands: now part of Papua New Guinea
- the fourth of july — a holiday in the United States, traditionally celebrated with fireworks: the day of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776
- the full treatment — If you say that someone is given the full treatment, you mean either that they are treated extremely well or that they are treated extremely severely.
- the mosque of omar — the mosque in Jerusalem, Israel, built in 691 ad by caliph 'Abd al-Malik: the third most holy place of Islam; stands on the Temple Mount alongside the al-Aqsa mosque
- theater of cruelty — a form of surrealist theater originated by Antonin Artaud and emphasizing the cruelty of human existence by portraying sadistic acts and intense suffering.
- theatre of cruelty — a type of theatre advocated by Antonin Artaud in Le Théâtre et son double that seeks to communicate to its audience a sense of pain, suffering, and evil, using gesture, movement, sound, and symbolism rather than language
- thrift-institution — economical management; economy; frugality.
- to feast your eyes — If you feast your eyes on something, you look at it for a long time with great attention because you find it very attractive.
- to play favourites — to display favouritism
- to plough a furrow — If you say that someone ploughs a particular furrow or ploughs their own furrow, you mean that their activities or interests are different or isolated from those of other people.
- torsion-free group — a group in which every element other than the identity has infinite order.
- transfinite number — an infinite cardinal or ordinal number.
- treasury of merits — the superabundant store of merits and satisfactions, comprising those of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints.
- tufted loosestrife — a primulaceous plant Naumburgia thyrsiflora
- tune someone grief — to annoy or harass someone