16-letter words containing i, l, a
- experience table — an actuarial table, esp a mortality table based on past statistics
- expert appraisal — a valuation of property or goods by an expert
- exploration well — An exploration well is a borehole which is drilled to find out if there is any oil or gas in a place.
- exponential horn — a horn for the radiation of acoustic or high-frequency electromagnetic waves, of which the cross-sectional area increases exponentially with the length
- exponential-time — (complexity) The set or property of problems which can be solved by an exponential-time algorithm but for which no polynomial-time algorithm is known.
- extension ladder — a ladder that can be made longer by pulling out an extra section
- external affairs — (formerly) the Canadian federal Foreign Affairs department
- external auditor — sb brought in to check financial records
- exterritoriality — Extraterritoriality.
- extradimensional — (jargon, science fiction) Originating outside the known physical reality of the universe.
- extraterrestrial — Of or from outside the earth or its atmosphere.
- extraterritorial — (of a law or decree) valid outside a country's territory.
- facial neuralgia — paroxysmal darting pain and muscular twitching in the face, evoked by rubbing certain points of the face.
- fahrenheit scale — Gabriel Daniel [German gah-bree-el dah-nee-el] /German ˈgɑ briˌɛl ˈdɑ niˌɛl/ (Show IPA), 1686–1736, German physicist: devised a temperature scale and introduced the use of mercury in thermometers.
- fair to middling — free from bias, dishonesty, or injustice: a fair decision; a fair judge.
- falkland islands — disputed islands in Atlantic Ocean
- falling sickness — epilepsy.
- falsificationism — (epistemology) A scientific philosophy based on the requirement that hypotheses must be falsifiable in order to be scientific; if a claim is not able to be refuted it is not a scientific claim.
- family allowance — a regular government payment to the parents of children up to a certain age
- family balancing — the choosing of the sex of a future child on the basis of how many children of each sex a family already has
- family of curves — a collection of curves whose equations differ only by values assigned a parameter or parameters.
- family physician — a general practitioner.
- fantail goldfish — an artificially bred, hardy variety of goldfish, usually oval-shaped and deep orange or calico, with a deeply cleft, four-lobed tail held in line with the body.
- farmington hills — a city in SE Michigan.
- farquhar islands — an island group in the Indian Ocean: administratively part of the Seychelles
- fast of gedaliah — Tzom Gedaliah.
- fat-tailed sheep — one of a class of sheep with much fat along the sides of the tail bones, raised for their meat and widely distributed in southeast Europe, northern Africa, and Asia.
- federal district — a district in which the national government of a country is located, especially one in Latin America.
- federal register — a bulletin, published daily by the U.S. federal government, containing the schedule of hearings before Congressional and federal agency committees, together with orders, proclamations, etc., released by the executive branch of the government.
- federalist party — a political group that favored the adoption by the states of the Constitution.
- feel constrained — If you feel constrained to do something, you feel that you must do it, even though you would prefer not to.
- fertile material — material which can be converted into a fissile material by a neutron-induced nuclear reaction, as uranium-238 or thorium-232
- fertility factor — a sex-determining chromosome or gene.
- feulgen reaction — a reaction in which an aldehyde combines with a modified Schiff's reagent to produce a purplish compound: used especially to test for the presence of DNA
- fictionalisation — Alternative spelling of fictionalization.
- fictionalization — to make into fiction; give a somewhat imaginative or fictional version of: to fictionalize a biography.
- fielding average — a measure of the fielding ability of a player, obtained by dividing the number of put-outs and assists by the number of put-outs, assists, and errors and carrying out the result to three decimal places. A player with ten errors in 600 chances has a fielding average of .984.
- filter cigarette — a cigarette with a filter tip
- filterable virus — a virus particle small enough to pass through a filter of diatomaceous earth or porcelain, which will not pass bacteria: chiefly historical or an informal indicator of size, as synthetic membrane filters now permit passage of the smallest virus.
- financial doping — the situation in which a sports franchise borrows heavily in order to contract and pay high-performing players, jeopardizing their long-term financial future
- financialization — (economics) Conversion of intangible value into financial instruments.
- fire regulations — rules intended to make sure that people and property stay safe in the event of a fire
- firewall machine — (networking, security) A dedicated gateway server with special security precautions on it, used to service external connections (typically from the public Internet). The firewall machine protects servers and networks hidden behind it from crackers. The typical firewall is an inexpensive microprocessor-based Unix machine with no critical data, with public network ports on it, but just one carefully watched connection back to the rest of the cluster. The special precautions may include threat monitoring, call-back, and even a complete iron box keyable to particular incoming IDs or activity patterns. The type of network and security environment of a firewall machine is often called a De-Militarised Zone (DMZ). It may contain other servers such as e-mail servers or proxy gateways - machines that need to be publicly accessible but also need some access to internal systems. Also known as a (Venus) flytrap after the insect-eating plant.
- firework display — a public event at which fireworks are set alight
- first balkan war — Balkan War (def 1).
- first lieutenant — an officer ranking next above second lieutenant and next below a captain.
- fit like a glove — fit perfectly
- flabbergastation — (colloquial) Bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted.
- flabbergastingly — Surprisingly, astonishingly or amazingly.
- flame cultivator — an implement that kills weeds by scorching them with a directed flow of flaming gas.