20-letter words containing r, s, f
- chief superintendent — an officer of senior rank in a British police force or other similarly organized force
- clothes manufacturer — a business concern that manufactures clothes
- college of cardinals — the collective body of cardinals having the function of electing and advising the pope
- commissioned officer — a military officer holding a commission, such as Second Lieutenant in the British Army, Acting Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, Pilot Officer in the Royal Air Force, and officers of all ranks senior to these
- confectioners' sugar — Confectioners' sugar is very fine white sugar that is used for making icing and candy.
- conflict of interest — a conflict between one's obligation to the public good and one's self-interest, as in the case of a public officeholder who owns stock in a company seeking government contracts
- conservation of mass — the principle that the total mass of any isolated system is constant and is independent of any chemical and physical changes taking place within the system
- contempt of congress — contempt of a U.S. Congressional body, as of an investigating committee, shown by a witness summoned or appearing before it.
- corruption of minors — the criminal offence of inducing people below the age of consent to engage in sexual activity
- council of ministers — the EU's most important decision-making body
- court of last resort — (in the US) a supreme court
- court of st. james's — the British royal court: so called from St. James's Palace, London, the former scene of royal receptions.
- craft apprenticeship — a period of training for a skilled trade in industry, such as for a plumber or electrician
- cream of tomato soup — a creamy soup made from tomatoes
- crisis of confidence — a serious loss of confidence
- curry favour with sb — If one person tries to curry favour with another, they do things in order to try to gain their support or co-operation.
- darkfield microscope — kind of microscope
- de facto segregation — racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
- defense data network — (DDN) A global communications network serving the US Department of Defense. Composed of MILNET, other portions of the Internet, and classified networks which are not part of the Internet. The DDN is used to connect military installations and is managed by the Defense Information Systems Agency.
- definite description — a description that is modified by the definite article or a possessive, such as the woman in white or Rosemary's baby
- difference threshold — the minimum difference between two stimuli that is just detectable by a person
- differential housing — the casing that houses the differential of a motor vehicle
- district of columbia — a federal area in the E United States, on the Potomac, coextensive with the federal capital, Washington. 69 sq. mi. (179 sq. km). Abbreviation: DC (for use with zip code), D.C.
- doctor of philosophy — Also called doctorate. the highest degree awarded by a graduate school, usually to a person who has completed at least three years of graduate study and a dissertation approved by a board of professors.
- drink with the flies — to drink alone
- due process (of law) — the course of legal proceedings established by the legal system of a nation or state to protect individual rights
- edward the confessor — Saint, 1002?–66, English king 1042–66: founder of Westminster Abbey.
- effective resistance — the resistance to an alternating current, expressed as the ratio of the power dissipated to the square of the effective current.
- entry qualifications — the qualifications people wishing to enter an organization, university, etc, have to have
- erythema infectiosum — a mild infectious disease of childhood, caused by a virus, characterized by fever and a red rash spreading from the cheeks to the limbs and trunk
- european social fund — one of the four Structural Funds of the European Union which aims to support employment and the economic and social well-being of EU member countries
- exercise, left as an — Used to complete a proof in technical books when one doesn't mind a handwave, or to avoid one entirely. The complete phrase is: "The proof [or "the rest"] is left as an exercise for the reader." This comment *has* occasionally been attached to unsolved research problems by authors possessed of either an evil sense of humour or a vast faith in the capabilities of their audiences.
- fast-breeder reactor — a breeder reactor in which there is no moderator and fission is caused by high-energy neutrons.
- feast of tabernacles — Sukkoth.
- feather in one's cap — one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of birds, consisting typically of a hard, tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner, stemlike portion bearing a series of slender, barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on each side.
- federal constitution — Constitution of the United States.
- federal reserve bank — a U.S. federal banking system that is under the control of a central board of governors (Federal Reserve Board) with a central bank (Federal Reserve Bank) in each of 12 districts and that has wide powers in controlling credit and the flow of money as well as in performing other functions, as regulating and supervising its member banks.
- federal reserve note — a form of paper money issued by a Federal Reserve Bank.
- field ion microscope — a device in which the atomic structure of the surface of a conductor is made visible by introducing helium gas into the device and applying a high voltage to ionize and accelerate the gas toward a fluorescent screen.
- field-ion microscope — a device in which the atomic structure of the surface of a conductor is made visible by introducing helium gas into the device and applying a high voltage to ionize and accelerate the gas toward a fluorescent screen.
- fight for one's life — Someone who is fighting for their life is making a great effort to stay alive, either when they are being physically attacked or when they are very ill.
- file descriptor leak — (programming) (Or "fd leak" /F D leek/) A kind of programming bug analogous to a core leak, in which a program fails to close file descriptors ("fd"s) after file operations are completed, and thus eventually runs out of them. See leak.
- financial instrument — A financial instrument is a document or contract that can be traded in a market, that represents an asset to one party and a liability or equity to the other.
- finite state grammar — a simplified form of transformational grammar devised by Noam Chomsky
- firearms certificate — a certificate that entitles the holder to own and keep a firearm
- first earl of cromer — 1st Earl of, Evelyn Baring.
- first point of aries — the vernal equinox.
- first world problems — If you say that someone has First World problems, you mean that their problems are not really very important.
- first-cause argument — an argument for the existence of God, asserting the necessity of an uncaused cause of all subsequent series of causes, on the assumption that an infinite regress is impossible.
- first-person shooter — a type of video game in which the player assumes the field of vision of the protagonist, so that the game camera includes the character's weapon, but the rest of the character model is not seen. Abbreviation: FPS.