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17-letter words containing r, e, s, i, l, n

  • flea in one's ear — a sharp rebuke
  • flexible response — a military strategy that enables the response to an attack to be adapted to the nature and strength of the attack
  • flight instrument — any instrument used to indicate the altitude, attitude, airspeed, drift, or direction of an aircraft.
  • florentine stitch — a straight stitch worked in a high and low relief pattern to form a variety of zigzag or oblique designs.
  • fluorescent light — a fluorescent lamp in domestic or commercial use; a fluorescent strip
  • fluorescent strip — a fluorescent light in the form of a long strip
  • 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.
  • 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].
  • fraternal society — a club or other association, usually of men, having a limited membership and devoted to professional, religious, charitable, or social activities.
  • french somaliland — a former name of Djibouti (def 1).
  • 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.
  • garlic mayonnaise — mayonnaise flavoured with garlic
  • gause's principle — the principle that similar species cannot coexist for long in the same ecological niche
  • general admission — an admission charge for unreserved seats at a theatrical performance, sports event, etc.
  • general discharge — a discharge from military service of a person who has served honorably but who has not met all the conditions of an honorable discharge.
  • general insurance — insurance (such as house insurance and car insurance) that does not insure someone's life
  • general paralysis — a syphilitic brain disorder characterized by chronic inflammation and degeneration of cerebral tissue resulting in mental and physical deterioration.
  • general sarmiento — a city in E Argentina, a suburb of Buenos Aires.
  • general semantics — a philosophical approach to language, developed by Alfred Korzybski, exploring the relationship between the form of language and its use and attempting to improve the capacity to express ideas.
  • goldbeater's skin — the prepared outside membrane of the large intestine of the ox, used by goldbeaters to lay between the leaves of the metal while they beat it into gold leaf.
  • haematocrystallin — Alternative form of hematocrystallin.
  • half-round chisel — a cold chisel with a semicircular cutting edge used for making narrow channels
  • hall of residence — Halls of residence are buildings with rooms or flats, usually built by universities or colleges, in which students live during the term.
  • hammer and sickle — the emblem of the Soviet Union, adopted in 1923 and consisting of an insignia of a hammer with its handle across the blade of a sickle and a star above.
  • have feelings for — to be emotionally or sexually attracted to
  • high-carbon steel — steel containing between 0.5 and 1.5 per cent carbon
  • high-tensile wire — wire which can withstand great strain without breaking or becoming deformed
  • histamine blocker — any of various substances that act at a specific receptor site to block certain actions of histamine.
  • homeland security — national defence
  • homo floresiensis — a possible species of very small, primitive human: its fossils were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003.
  • hornblende schist — a variety of schist containing needles of hornblende that lie in parallel planes.
  • hospital gangrene — Pathology. a contagious, often fatal gangrene, especially involving amputation stumps and war wounds, occurring usually in crowded, ill-kept hospitals, and caused by putrefactive bacteria.
  • huygens principle — the principle that all points on a wave front of light are sources of secondary waves and that surfaces tangential to these waves define the position of the wave front at any point in time.
  • hydrogen sulphide — Chemistry
  • hyperbolic cosine — one of a group of functions of an angle expressed as a relationship between the distances of a point on a hyperbola to the origin and to the coordinate axes; cosh
  • hyperbolic secant — a hyperbolic function that is the reciprocal of cosh; sech
  • hyperpolarisation — Alternative spelling of hyperpolarization.
  • iberian peninsula — Also called Iberian Peninsula. a peninsula in SW Europe, comprising Spain and Portugal.
  • illinois waterway — a waterway system in N Illinois made up of canals and rivers connecting Lake Michigan in Chicago with the Mississippi River. 336 miles (541 km) long.
  • immunofluorescent — Of, pertaining to, or using immunofluorescence.
  • impersonalization — to make impersonal: The dial system impersonalized the telephone.
  • implosion therapy — a form of behavior therapy involving intensive recollection and review of anxiety-producing situations or events in a patient's life in an attempt to develop more appropriate responses to similar situations in the future.
  • impracticableness — The state of being impracticable; impracticability.
  • impressionability — easily impressed or influenced; susceptible: an impressionable youngster.
  • in double figures — An amount or number that is in single figures is between zero and nine. An amount or number that is in double figures is between ten and ninety-nine. You can also say, for example, that an amount or number is in three figures when it is between one hundred and nine hundred and ninety-nine.
  • in double harness — in a harness for two animals pulling the same carriage, plow, etc.
  • in the wilderness — If politicians or other well-known people spend time in the wilderness, they are not in an influential position or very active in their profession for that time.
  • incline one's ear — to listen favourably (to)
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