16-letter words containing l, f, r, i, c
- sliding friction — frictional resistance to relative movement of surfaces on loaded contact
- smelting furnace — an industrial oven used to heat ore in order to extract metal
- sole beneficiary — the only beneficiary
- stonecrop family — the plant family Crassulaceae, characterized by succulent herbaceous plants and shrubs with simple, fleshy leaves, clusters of small flowers, and dry, dehiscent fruit, and including hen-and-chickens, houseleek, kalanchoe, live-forever, orpine, sedum, and stonecrop.
- sulfocarbanilide — thiocarbanilide.
- superficialities — being at, on, or near the surface: a superficial wound.
- surface integral — the limit, as the norm of the partition of a given surface into sections of area approaches zero, of the sum of the product of the areas times the value of a given function of three variables at some point on each section.
- teleconferencing — a business meeting, educational session, etc., conducted among participants in different locations via telecommunications equipment. Compare videoconference.
- the first couple — the US president and their spouse
- tower of silence — a circular stone platform, typically 30 feet (9.1 meter) in height, on which the Parsees of India leave their dead to be devoured by vultures.
- trailing fuchsia — a shrub, Fuchsia procumbens, of the evening primrose family, native to New Zealand, having long-stalked leaves and drooping, orange-and-purple flowers, used in hanging baskets.
- unconfirmability — to establish the truth, accuracy, validity, or genuineness of; corroborate; verify: This report confirms my suspicions.
- unenforceability — to put or keep in force; compel obedience to: to enforce a rule; Traffic laws will be strictly enforced.
- velcro fastening — a fastening made of Velcro
- vertical farming — a proposed system of growing crops in urban areas using specially designed skyscrapers
- visual interface — (tool, text) (vi) /V-I/, /vi:/, *never* /siks/ A screen editor crufted together by Bill Joy for an early BSD release. vi became the de facto standard Unix editor and a nearly undisputed hacker favourite outside of MIT until the rise of Emacs after about 1984. It tends to frustrate new users no end, as it will neither take commands while expecting input text nor vice versa, and the default setup provides no indication of which mode the editor is in (one correspondent accordingly reports that he has often heard the editor's name pronounced /vi:l/). Nevertheless it is still widely used (about half the respondents in a 1991 Usenet poll preferred it), and even some Emacs fans resort to it as a mail editor and for small editing jobs (mainly because it starts up faster than the bulkier versions of Emacs). See holy wars.
- vulcanized fiber — a leatherlike substance made by compression of layers of paper or cloth that have been treated with acids or zinc chloride, used chiefly for electric insulation.
- welfare services — services that provide help with people's living conditions and financial problems
- winchester rifle — a type of magazine rifle, first made in about 1866.
- windchill factor — an estimated measurement of the cooling effect of air and wind, esp. when applied to the loss of body heat from exposed skin; chill factor
- writ of election — a writ by an executive authority requiring the holding of an election, especially one issued by a governor to require a special election for filling a vacancy in the representation from a state.