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17-letter words containing r, a, s, t, f

  • contraflow system — a system of traffic lanes whose normal direction is reversed to allow traffic to move during repairs or an accident
  • creature comforts — Creature comforts are the things that you need to feel comfortable in a place, for example good food and modern equipment.
  • credit facilities — a type of loan made by a bank
  • culture-fair test — a test, usually for intelligence, that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, esp regarding material or cultural background
  • darwinian fitness — fitness (def 3).
  • darwinian-fitness — health.
  • de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
  • defamiliarisation — (arts) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.
  • defence secretary — the member of a government who is responsible for the country's armed forces
  • east pacific rise — a long north-south elevation of the sea floor in the E Pacific Ocean extending southward from SW Mexico to the Antarctic Ocean.
  • east renfrewshire — a council area of W central Scotland, comprising part of the historical county of Renfrewshire; part of Strathclyde region from 1975 to 1996: chiefly agricultural and residential. Administrative centre: Giffnock. Pop: 89 680 (2003 est). Area: 173 sq km (67 sq miles)
  • ends of the earth — remote regions
  • english breakfast — An English breakfast is a breakfast consisting of cooked food such as bacon, eggs, sausages, and tomatoes. It also includes toast and tea or coffee.
  • factory inspector — a person who inspects factories
  • facts and figures — details; precise information
  • faint-heartedness — lack of courage
  • fairness doctrine — a policy mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, requiring radio and television stations to grant equal time to a political candidate, group, etc., to present an opposing viewpoint to one already aired.
  • false bread-fruit — ceriman.
  • fancy dress party — a party at which the guests wear fancy dress
  • father substitute — a male who replaces an absent father and becomes an object of attachment.
  • feathered friends — Birds are sometimes referred to as our feathered friends.
  • financial futures — futures in a stock-exchange index, currency exchange rate, or interest rate enabling banks, building societies, brokers, and speculators to hedge their involvement in these markets
  • first call on sth — If you have first call on something, you will be asked before anyone else whether you want to buy or use it.
  • first commandment — “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”: first of the Ten Commandments.
  • first normal form — database normalisation
  • first performance — the first time that a play or concert is performed
  • first triumvirate — the political alliance of Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey, formed in 60 bc
  • first-aid classes — classes which teach people how to give immediate medical help in an emergency
  • fish out of water — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
  • fitness programme — a plan to help someone improve their health and physical condition
  • flash photography — photography using a momentary flash of artificial light as a source of illumination.
  • flickertail state — North Dakota (used as a nickname).
  • fluvioterrestrial — (of animals) able to live in rivers and on land
  • footmen's gallery — the rearmost section of seats in the balcony of an English theater, especially in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
  • for the most part — a portion or division of a whole that is separate or distinct; piece, fragment, fraction, or section; constituent: the rear part of the house; to glue the two parts together.
  • 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.
  • foreign secretary — foreign minister.
  • forward contracts — Forward contracts are agreements to buy something in the future for a price that has been agreed today.
  • foundation course — A foundation course is a course that you do at some colleges and universities in order to prepare yourself for a longer or more advanced course.
  • four-star general — high-ranking military officer
  • fourier transform — a mapping of a function, as a signal, that is defined in one domain, as space or time, into another domain, as wavelength or frequency, where the function is represented in terms of sines and cosines.
  • 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].
  • frankenstein food — any foodstuff that has been genetically modified
  • fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
  • freight insurance — insurance paid on goods in transport
  • freund's adjuvant — a water-in-oil emulsion injected with immunogen (Freund's incomplete adjuvant) or with immunogen and killed mycobacteria (Freund's complete adjuvant) to enhance the immune response to the immunogen.
  • frostbite sailing — the sport of sailing in temperate latitudes during the winter despite cold weather.
  • 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.
  • fuss and feathers — an excessively elaborate or pretentious display; ostentation.
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