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17-letter words containing l, e, s

  • flexible response — a military strategy that enables the response to an attack to be adapted to the nature and strength of the attack
  • flickertail state — North Dakota (used as a nickname).
  • flight instrument — any instrument used to indicate the altitude, attitude, airspeed, drift, or direction of an aircraft.
  • flight supplement — an additional charge payable on the price of an air ticket
  • flog a dead horse — a large, solid-hoofed, herbivorous quadruped, Equus caballus, domesticated since prehistoric times, bred in a number of varieties, and used for carrying or pulling loads, for riding, and for racing.
  • floppy disk drive — disk drive
  • florentine stitch — a straight stitch worked in a high and low relief pattern to form a variety of zigzag or oblique designs.
  • flowers of sulfur — sublimed sulfur in the form of a fine yellow powder, used in medicine chiefly to kill parasites and fungi and to treat certain skin diseases.
  • fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
  • fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
  • fluvioterrestrial — (of animals) able to live in rivers and on land
  • follow one's nose — the part of the face or facial region in humans and certain animals that contains the nostrils and the organs of smell and functions as the usual passageway for air in respiration: in humans it is a prominence in the center of the face formed of bone and cartilage, serving also to modify or modulate the voice.
  • follow the hounds — to hunt a fox, etc. on horseback with hounds
  • foolscap envelope — an envelope of dimensions suitable to hold an unfolded sheet of foolscap paper
  • footmen's gallery — the rearmost section of seats in the balcony of an English theater, especially in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
  • fore-and-aft sail — any of various sails, as jib-headed sails, gaff sails, lugsails, lateen sails, spritsails, staysails, and jibs, that do not set on yards and whose normal position, when not trimmed, is in a fore-and-aft direction amidships.
  • foreign relations — (used with a singular verb) the field of foreign affairs: an expert in foreign relations.
  • four-letter words — any of a number of short words, usually of four letters, considered offensive or vulgar because of their reference to excrement or sex.
  • four-star general — high-ranking military officer
  • four-stroke cycle — A four-stroke cycle is the cycle of engine operation which requires four strokes of the piston: for induction, compression, ignition, and exhaust.
  • fourfold purchase — a tackle that is composed of a rope passed through two fourfold blocks in such a way as to provide mechanical power in the ratio of 1 to 5 or 1 to 4, depending on whether hauling is done on the running or the standing block and without considering friction. Compare tackle (def 2).
  • fractal dimension — (mathematics)   A common type of fractal dimension is the Hausdorff-Besicovich Dimension, but there are several different ways of computing fractal dimension. Fractal dimension can be calculated by taking the limit of the quotient of the log change in object size and the log change in measurement scale, as the measurement scale approaches zero. The differences come in what is exactly meant by "object size" and what is meant by "measurement scale" and how to get an average number out of many different parts of a geometrical object. Fractal dimensions quantify the static *geometry* of an object. For example, consider a straight line. Now blow up the line by a factor of two. The line is now twice as long as before. Log 2 / Log 2 = 1, corresponding to dimension 1. Consider a square. Now blow up the square by a factor of two. The square is now 4 times as large as before (i.e. 4 original squares can be placed on the original square). Log 4 / log 2 = 2, corresponding to dimension 2 for the square. Consider a snowflake curve formed by repeatedly replacing ___ with _/\_, where each of the 4 new lines is 1/3 the length of the old line. Blowing up the snowflake curve by a factor of 3 results in a snowflake curve 4 times as large (one of the old snowflake curves can be placed on each of the 4 segments _/\_). Log 4 / log 3 = 1.261... Since the dimension 1.261 is larger than the dimension 1 of the lines making up the curve, the snowflake curve is a fractal. [sci.fractals FAQ].
  • fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
  • french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
  • frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
  • fulgencio batista — Fulgencio [fool-hen-syaw] /fulˈhɛn syɔ/ (Show IPA), (Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar) 1901–73, Cuban military leader: dictator of Cuba 1934–40; president 1940–44, 1952–59.
  • functional isomer — any of several structural isomers that have the same molecular formula but with the atoms connected in different ways and therefore falling into different functional groups.
  • furbish lousewort — any plant belonging to the genus Pedicularis, of the figwort family, as the wood betony, formerly supposed to cause lice in sheep feeding on it: one species, P. furbishiae (Furbish lousewort) of parts of Maine and New Brunswick, Canada, having finely toothed leaves and a cluster of yellow flowers, is endangered and was thought to be extinct until specimens were discovered in 1946 and again in 1976.
  • gamblers' fallacy — the fallacy that in a series of chance events the probability of one event occurring increases with the number of times another event has occurred in succession
  • game as ned kelly — extremely brave; indomitable
  • garlic mayonnaise — mayonnaise flavoured with garlic
  • gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
  • general admission — an admission charge for unreserved seats at a theatrical performance, sports event, etc.
  • general discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has served honorably but who has not met all the conditions of an honorable discharge.
  • general insurance — insurance (such as house insurance and car insurance) that does not insure someone's life
  • general paralysis — a syphilitic brain disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and degeneration of cerebral tissue resulting in mental and physical deterioration.
  • general sarmiento — a city in E Argentina, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
  • general secretary — the chief administrator of an organization
  • general semantics — a philosophical approach to language, developed by Alfred Korzybski, exploring the relationship between the form of language and its use and attempting to improve the capacity to express ideas.
  • gentleman-at-arms — (in England) one of a guard of 40 gentlemen who attend the sovereign on state occasions.
  • geological survey — U.S. Government. a division of the Department of the Interior, created in 1879, that studies the nation's water and mineral resources, makes topographic surveys, and classifies and leases public lands.
  • gestatorial chair — a ceremonial chair on which the pope is carried
  • get above oneself — If you say that someone is getting above themself, you disapprove of them because they think they are better than everyone else.
  • get one's jollies — to have fun or get pleasure; often, specif., from that which is cheap or disreputable
  • give someone hell — the place or state of punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits; Gehenna or Tartarus.
  • glass box testing — white box testing
  • globus hystericus — the sensation of having a lump in the throat or difficulty in swallowing for which no medical cause can be found.
  • glory-of-the-snow — any of several plants belonging to the genus Chionodoxa, of the lily family, native to the Old World, having showy, blue, white, or pink flowers that bloom early in the spring.
  • glymphatic system — Anatomy. the system or process by which cerebrospinal fluid moves through channels formed by glia, cleansing the mammalian brain of harmful waste.
  • go like hot cakes — to be sold very quickly or in large quantities
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