15-letter words containing o, a, f
- towers of hanoi — (games) A classic computer science problem, invented by Edouard Lucas in 1883, often used as an example of recursion. "In the great temple at Benares, says he, beneath the dome which marks the centre of the world, rests a brass plate in which are fixed three diamond needles, each a cubit high and as thick as the body of a bee. On one of these needles, at the creation, God placed sixty-four discs of pure gold, the largest disc resting on the brass plate, and the others getting smaller and smaller up to the top one. This is the Tower of Bramah. Day and night unceasingly the priests transfer the discs from one diamond needle to another according to the fixed and immutable laws of Bramah, which require that the priest on duty must not move more than one disc at a time and that he must place this disc on a needle so that there is no smaller disc below it. When the sixty-four discs shall have been thus transferred from the needle on which at the creation God placed them to one of the other needles, tower, temple, and Brahmins alike will crumble into dust, and with a thunderclap the world will vanish." The recursive solution is: Solve for n-1 discs recursively, then move the remaining largest disc to the free needle. Note that there is also a non-recursive solution: On odd-numbered moves, move the smallest sized disk clockwise. On even-numbered moves, make the single other move which is possible.
- tractive effort — the force exerted by a locomotive or other powered vehicle on its driving wheels.
- trading profits — profits made from the buying and selling of goods and services
- traffic control — management of road use
- traffic offence — a violation of traffic regulations, such as breaking the speed limit
- transfer factor — a lymphocyte product that, when extracted from T cells of an individual with immunity to a particular antigen, can confer that immunity when administered to another individual of the same species.
- transfer lounge — the place in an airport where you wait for a transfer from one flight to another
- transfer season — the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other teams into their own
- transfer window — the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other teams into their own
- transfiguration — the act of transfiguring.
- transform fault — a strike-slip fault that offsets a mid-ocean ridge in opposing directions on either side of an axis of seafloor spreading.
- treaty of paris — a treaty of 1763 signed by Britain, France, and Spain that ended their involvement in the Seven Years' War
- tree of sadness — night jasmine (def 1).
- tree-form frame — a rigid frame having a pair of inclined girders branching from each column, as to form principals of a roof.
- trifluoperazine — a compound, C 21 H 24 F 3 N 3 S, used as an antipsychotic.
- trout fisherman — a fisherman who catches trout
- turf accountant — bookmaker (def 1).
- ultrafastidious — extremely fastidious
- ultrafiltration — Physical Chemistry. a filter for purifying sols, having a membrane with pores sufficiently small to prevent the passage of the suspended particles.
- ultramicrofiche — ultrafiche.
- unaccounted for — If people or things are unaccounted for, you do not know where they are or what has happened to them.
- unaccounted-for — not accounted for; not understood; unexplained: an explosion resulting from some unaccounted-for mechanical failure.
- unaffordability — that can be afforded; believed to be within one's financial means: attractive new cars at affordable prices.
- uninformatively — in an uninformative manner
- unit of account — the function of money that enables the user to keep accounts, value transactions, etc
- usman dan fodio — 1754–1817, African mystic and revolutionary leader, who created a Muslim state in Nigeria
- velcro fastener — a fastener made of Velcro
- vicar of christ — the pope, with reference to his claim to stand in the place of Jesus Christ and possess His authority in the church.
- viral infection — disease caused by a virus
- vulgar fraction — common fraction.
- wager of battle — (in medieval Britain) a pledge to do battle for a cause, esp to decide guilt or innocence by single combat
- warrant officer — (in the U.S. Armed Forces) an officer of one of four grades ranking above enlisted personnel and below commissioned officers.
- waterfall model — (programming) A software life-cycle or product life-cycle model, described by W. W. Royce in 1970, in which development is supposed to proceed linearly through the phases of requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing (validation), integration and maintenance. The Waterfall Model is considered old-fashioned or simplistic by proponents of object-oriented design which often uses the spiral model instead. Earlier phases are sometimes called "upstream" and later ones "downstream". Compare: iterative model.
- waterford glass — fine cut or gilded glass made in Waterford, Ireland, having a slight blue cast due to the presence of cobalt.
- weatherproofing — Present participle of weatherproof.
- welfare officer — a person who gives people help and advice
- well-formulated — to express in precise form; state definitely or systematically: He finds it extremely difficult to formulate his new theory.
- windfall profit — a profit that arises thanks to an external event over which the person profiting had no control
- witch of agnesi — a plane curve symmetrical about the y- axis and asymptotic to the x- axis, given by the equation x 2 y =4 a 2 (2 a − y).
- wolf-rayet star — a very hot (35,000–100,000 K) and luminous star in the early stages of evolution, with broad emission lines in its spectrum.
- wrongful arrest — the act of arresting someone without proper reason
- yeast infection — candida: genital inflammation
- yellow goatfish — a schooling goatfish, Mulloidichthys martinicus, inhabiting the Atlantic Ocean from Florida to Panama.