19-letter words containing i, f, s, a
- communist manifesto — a political pamphlet written by Marx and Engels in 1848: a fundamental statement of Marxist principles
- confederate jasmine — star jasmine.
- confession of faith — a formal public avowal of religious beliefs
- confocal microscope — a light microscope with an optical system designed to reject background from matter outside the focal plane and therefore allowing images of different sections of a specimen to be obtained
- cost-push inflation — inflation in which prices increase as a result of increased production costs, as labor and parts, even when demand remains the same.
- credit default swap — a contract in which the parties exchange the exposure to loss should a creditor fail to make a payment when it comes due back
- creeping featuritis — (jargon) /kree'ping fee'-chr-i:`t*s/ A variant of creeping featurism, with its own spoonerism: "feeping creaturitis". Some people like to reserve this form for the disease as it actually manifests in software or hardware, as opposed to the lurking general tendency in designers' minds. -ism means "condition" or "pursuit of", whereas -itis usually means "inflammation of".
- cross-fertilization — fertilization by the fusion of male and female gametes from different individuals of the same species
- crystallized fruits — fruits that are covered in sugar which is melted and then allowed to harden
- cult of personality — a cult promoting adulation of a living national leader or public figure, as one encouraged by Stalin to extend his power.
- deaf without speech — (usually of a prelingually deaf person) able to utter sounds but not speak
- deathbed confession — a confession that somebody makes just before he or she dies, usually relating to some long concealed crime or secret
- deflate compression — deflate
- deflationary spiral — Geometry. a plane curve generated by a point moving around a fixed point while constantly receding from or approaching it.
- dictionary of names — a dictionary of given names that indicates whether a name is usually male, female, or unisex and often includes origins as well as meanings; for example, as by indicating that Evangeline, meaning “good news,” comes from Greek. Used primarily as an aid in selecting a name for a baby, dictionaries of names may also include lists of famous people who have shared a name and information about its current popularity ranking.
- disablement benefit — (in Britain) a noncontributory benefit payable to a person disabled through injury or disease caused by their work
- disenfranchisements — Plural form of disenfranchisement.
- distinctive feature — a feature of the sound system of a language that serves as the crucial distinguishing mark between two phonemes, as the distinctive feature of voicing, which distinguishes b from p in English, or nasality, which distinguishes m from b and p.
- diversified farming — the practice of producing a variety of crops or animals, or both, on one farm, as distinguished from specializing in a single commodity.
- draw someone's fire — to attract the criticism or censure of someone
- elastic deformation — In elastic deformation a material changes shape when a stress is applied to it but goes back to its original state when the stress is removed.
- electrostatic field — an electric field associated with static electric charges
- end of transmission — (character) (EOT) The mnemonic for ASCII character 4.
- factitious disorder — any of various syndromes, as Münchausen syndrome, characterized by physical or psychological symptoms intentionally produced by a person and under voluntary control.
- fall by the wayside — to cease or fail to continue doing something
- fallacy of division — the fallacy of inferring that a property of the whole is also a property of parts or members of the whole (opposed to fallacy of composition).
- false consciousness — a Marxist theory that people are unable to see things, especially exploitation, oppression, and social relations, as they really are; the hypothesized inability of the human mind to develop a sophisticated awareness of how it is developed and shaped by circumstances.
- family-sized packet — a large packet
- farmers cooperative — an organization of farmers for marketing their products or buying supplies.
- fashion coordinator — a person in a department store or other establishment who coordinates activities centered upon or related to fashion, as fashion themes, shows, displays, and promotion.
- fault tree analysis — (programming) A form of safety analysis that assesses hardware safety to provide failure statistics and sensitivity analyses that indicate the possible effect of critical failures.
- fault-based testing — (testing) Software testing using test data designed to demonstrate the absence of a set of pre-specified faults; typically, frequently occurring faults. For example, to demonstrate that the software handles or avoids divide by zero correctly, the test data would include zero.
- feast of dedication — Hanukkah.
- female circumcision — clitoridectomy.
- female impersonator — a male performer who dresses as and impersonates women.
- financial ombudsman — any of five British ombudsmen: the Banking Ombudsman, set up in 1986 to investigate complaints from bank customers; the Building Society Ombudsman, set up in 1987 to investigate complaints from building society customers; the Insurance Ombudsman, set up in 1981 to investigate complaints by policyholders (since 1988 this ombudsman has also operated a Unit Trust Ombudsman scheme); the Investment Ombudsman set up in 1989 to investigate complaints by investors (the Personal Investment Authority Ombudsman is responsible for investigating complaints by personal investors); and the Pensions Ombudsman, set up in 1993 to investigate complaints regarding pension schemes
- financial statement — a document that records the financial activities and state of an organization or person
- finds its/their way — If something finds its way somewhere, it comes to that place, especially by chance.
- first international — a socialistic organization (1864–76) formed to unite and promote the interests of workers throughout the world. Compare international (def 6).
- first 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)
- first person plural — a grammatical category of pronouns and verbs used by the speaker to refer to or talk about himself together with others
- first-past-the-post — A first-past-the-post system for choosing members of parliament or other representatives is one in which the candidate who gets most votes wins.
- first-sale doctrine — a legal principle allowing the purchaser of a lawfully made copy of a copyright-protected work to sell or give away that copy without permission but not to reproduce it.
- five o'clock shadow — the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.
- five-o'clock shadow — the rather dark stubble that appears on a man's face some hours after shaving, typically in the late afternoon if he shaved in the morning.
- fix someone's wagon — any of various kinds of four-wheeled vehicles designed to be pulled or having its own motor and ranging from a child's toy to a commercial vehicle for the transport of heavy loads, delivery, etc.
- fixed cost contract — a contract in which the costs do not vary
- floating restaurant — a boat or ship that has been converted for use as a restaurant
- flowering raspberry — a shrub, Rubus ordoratus, of eastern North America, having loose clusters of showy purplish or rose-purple flowers and inedible, dry, red fruit.
- fluophosphoric acid — fluorophosphoric acid.