15-letter words containing o, t, f
- fight-or-flight — denoting instinctive response
- fighter command — a former unit of the Royal Air Force dedicated to the use of fighter aircraft, esp against enemy bombers and their escorts during WWII
- figure of eight — figure eight.
- figure of merit — a measure of the efficiency of a helicopter in hover
- file descriptor — (programming, operating system) An integer that identifies an open file within a process. This number is obtained as a result of opening a file. Operations which read, write, or close a file would take the file descriptor as an input parameter. In many operating system implementations, file descriptors are small integers which index a table of open files. In Unix, file descriptors 0, 1 and 2 correspond to the standard input, standard output and standard error files respectively. See file descriptor leak.
- filling station — service station (def 1).
- find one's feet — to become capable or confident, as in a new job
- fine-tooth comb — a comb having narrow, closely set teeth.
- finger-pointing — the imputation of blame or responsibility.
- finishing touch — a final additional or detail that completes and perfects something
- finite automata — Finite State Machine
- fire prevention — safety measures to decrease fire risk
- fire water pond — A fire water pond is an area of water which is kept so it can be used if there is a fire.
- fire-and-forget — used to describe a type of missile that, once fired, is able to guide itself to its target
- first intention — See under intention (def 5a).
- first responder — a person who is certified to provide medical care in emergencies before more highly trained medical personnel arrive on the scene: a firefighter trained as a first responder.
- first world war — World War I.
- first-day cover — a cover marked so as to indicate that it was mailed on the first day of issue of the stamp it bears and from one of the cities at which the stamp was issued on that day.
- first-intention — an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result.
- fishhook cactus — a large cactus, Ferocactus wislizenii, of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, having hooked spines and red or yellow flowers.
- fission product — a nuclide produced either directly by nuclear fission or by the radioactive decay of such a nuclide
- fission reactor — a nuclear reactor in which a fission reaction takes place
- five-star hotel — a top-quality hotel offering exceptional luxury
- fixed-do system — a system of solmization in which the syllable do is always C, regardless of the key.
- flannel-mouthed — speaking thickly, as if one's mouth were full of flannel
- flapping router — (networking) A router that transmits routing updates alternately advertising a destination network first via one route, then via a different route. Flapping routers are identified on more advanced protocol analysers such as the Network General (TM) Sniffer.
- flatter oneself — to hold the self-satisfying or self-deluding belief (that)
- flight of fancy — An idea or statement that is very imaginative but complicated, silly, or impractical can be referred to as a flight of fancy.
- flight of ideas — a rapid flow of thought, manifested by accelerated speech with abrupt changes from topic to topic: a symptom of some mental illnesses, especially manic disorder.
- flight recorder — an electronic device aboard an aircraft that automatically records some aspects of the aircraft's performance in flight.
- flight shooting — competitive shooting for distance only.
- flirtatiousness — The quality of being flirtatious.
- floating charge — an unsecured charge on the assets of an enterprise that allows such assets to be used commercially until the enterprise ceases to operate or the creditor intervenes to demand collateral
- floating island — a dessert consisting of boiled custard with portions of meringue, whipped cream, or whipped egg whites and sometimes jelly floating upon it or around it.
- floating policy — (in marine insurance) a policy that provides protection of a broad nature for shipments of merchandise and that is valid continuously until canceled.
- floating screed — Building Trades. screed (def 3).
- floating supply — the aggregate supply of ready-to-market goods or securities.
- floods of tears — If you say that someone was in floods of tears or in a flood of tears, you are emphasizing that they were crying with great intensity because they were very upset.
- floral tributes — bunches or arrangements of flowers left as a memorial at the site of a fatal incident
- florida current — the part of the Gulf Stream which extends from the Florida Strait to Cape Hatteras.
- flow of control — control flow
- flow of spirits — natural happiness
- flowering plant — a plant that produces flowers, fruit, and seeds; angiosperm.
- fluoridationist — One who supports the addition of fluoride to the public water supply.
- fluorine dating — a method of determining the relative age of fossil bones found in the same excavation by comparing their fluorine content.
- fluorophosphate — a salt or ester of a fluorophosphoric acid.
- fly-on-the-wall — A fly-on-the-wall documentary is made by filming people as they do the things they normally do, rather than by interviewing them or asking them to talk directly to the camera.
- flying fortress — a heavy bomber, the B-17, with four radial piston engines, widely used over Europe and the Mediterranean by the U.S. Air Force in World War II.
- fob destination — FOB destination is a shipping term indicating that ownership of goods passes at delivery to their destination, and the seller has total responsibility until then.
- focal infection — an infection in which bacteria are localized in some region, as the tonsils or the tissue around a tooth, from which they may spread to some other organ or structure of the body.