17-letter words containing o, i, l, f, a
- life and/or death — If you say that something is a matter of life and death, you are emphasizing that it is extremely important, often because someone may die or suffer great harm if people do not act immediately.
- life of the party — most lively, outgoing person
- lifelong learning — the provision or use of both formal and informal learning opportunities throughout people's lives in order to foster the continuous development and improvement of the knowledge and skills needed for employment and personal fulfilment
- line of scrimmage — an imaginary line parallel to the goal lines that passes from one sideline to the other through the point of the football closest to the goal line of each team.
- litigation friend — a person acting on behalf of an infant or other person under legal disability
- loose-leaf binder — a hard cover with metal rings inside which is used to hold loose pieces of paper
- low-hanging fruit — the fruit that grows low on a tree and is therefore easy to reach
- luminous efficacy — the quotient of the luminous flux of a radiation and its corresponding radiant flux
- lyon king of arms — the chief herald of Scotland
- make light of sth — If you make light of something, you treat it as though it is not serious or important, when in fact it is.
- minimal free form — the smallest unit of language that can make sense on its own
- minion of the law — a policeman.
- new lease on life — a contract renting land, buildings, etc., to another; a contract or instrument conveying property to another for a specified period or for a period determinable at the will of either lessor or lessee in consideration of rent or other compensation.
- newfoundland time — a form of civil time observed on the island of Newfoundland, one and one-half hours later than Eastern time and a half hour later than Atlantic time.
- non-proliferation — Non-proliferation is the limiting of the production and spread of something such as nuclear or chemical weapons.
- noninertial frame — a frame of reference that moves with the object, so that the moving object appears to violate Newton's laws of motion since it accelerates despite having no horizontal forces on it.
- not lift a finger — any of the terminal members of the hand, especially one other than the thumb.
- off-site facility — An off-site facility is a facility which is not at the main industrial or commercial site.
- off-year election — (in the US) an election held in a year when a presidential election does not take place
- office by example — (language) (OBE) A sequel to QBE, described in publications by Moshe Zloof of IBM in the early 1980s but apparently never implemented.
- official receiver — an officer appointed by the Insolvency Service to receive the income and manage the estate of a bankrupt pending the appointment of a trustee in bankruptcy
- one size fits all — (of clothing) designed to fit people of a wide range of sizes.
- one-parent family — A one-parent family is a family that consists of one parent and his or her children living together.
- one-size-fits-all — (of clothing) designed to fit people of a wide range of sizes.
- orange flower oil — neroli oil.
- petrol filler cap — a small cover that goes over the hole in a vehicle into which you put petrol
- phenylformic acid — benzoic acid.
- plains of abraham — a high plain adjoining the city of Quebec, Canada: battlefield where the English under Wolfe defeated the French under Montcalm in 1759.
- play with oneself — a dramatic composition or piece; drama.
- polarizing filter — a camera lens filter used to control the plane of polarization of light entering the lens.
- political refugee — a person who has fled from a homeland because of political persecution.
- portfolio manager — a person employed by others to make investments for them
- potassium sulfate — a crystalline, water-soluble solid, K 2 SO 4 , used chiefly in the manufacture of fertilizers, alums, and mineral water, and as a reagent in analytical chemistry.
- pre-qualification — a quality, accomplishment, etc., that fits a person for some function, office, or the like.
- prefect apostolic — the administrator, usually below the rank of bishop, in charge of a prefecture apostolic.
- preferential shop — a shop in which union members are preferred, usually by agreement of an employer with a union.
- procurator fiscal — In the Scottish legal system, the procurator fiscal is a public official who puts people on trial.
- professional army — an army of trained soldiers
- professional foul — In football, if a player commits a professional foul, they deliberately do something which is against the rules in order to prevent another player from scoring a goal.
- programming fluid — (jargon) (Or "wirewater") Coffee, unleaded coffee (decaffeinated), Cola, or any caffeinacious stimulant. Many hackers consider these essential for those all-night hacking runs.
- proportional font — a font type in which the width of letters and symbols varies depending on the letter or symbol
- purple of cassius — a purple pigment precipitated as a sol by the interaction of gold chloride and a solution of stannic acid and stannous chloride: used chiefly in the manufacture of ruby glass, ceramic glazes, and enamels.
- pyrosulfuric acid — a strong, crystalline acid, H2S2O7, prepared commercially as a heavy, oily, fuming liquid: used in making explosives and dyes, as a sulfating agent, etc.
- quadratic formula — the formula for determining theroots of a quadratic equation from its coefficients: .
- rational function — a function that can be written as the quotient of two polynomials with integral coefficients.
- recursion formula — a formula for determining the next term of a sequence from one or more of the preceding terms.
- reduction formula — a formula, such as sin (90° ± A) = cos A, expressing the values of a trigonometric function of any angle greater than 90° in terms of a function of an acute angle
- reflection nebula — a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that reflects the light of neighboring stars.
- republic of china — People's Republic of, a country in E Asia. 3,691,502 sq. mi. (9,560,990 sq. km). Capital: Beijing.
- republic of korea — a former country in E Asia, on a peninsula SE of Manchuria and between the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea: a kingdom prior to 1910; under Japanese rule 1910–45; now divided at 38° N into North Korea and South Korea. Compare Korean War.