20-letter words containing r, u, n, o, f

fractionating column — a long vertical cylinder used in fractional distillation, in which internal reflux enables separation of high and low boiling fractions to take place
frankfurt horizontal — Craniometry. the plane established when right and left poria and left orbitale are in the same horizontal plane.
frequency modulation — FM.
friar minor capuchin — capuchin (def 4).
frontenac et palluau — Comte de (Louis de Buade) 1620?–98, French governor of New France 1672–82, 1689–98.
fulminate of mercury — a gray, crystalline solid, Hg(CNO) 2 , used chiefly in the manufacture of commercial and military detonators.
gentleman of fortune — an adventurer.
geoffrey of monmouth — 1100?–1154, English chronicler.
get one's finger out — to begin or speed up activity, esp after initial delay or slackness
godefroy de bouillon — c1060–1100, French crusader.
grand unified theory — a possible future quantum field theory that would encompass both the electroweak theory and quantum chromodynamics. Abbreviation: GUT.
gregory of nazianzus — Saint. ?329–89 ad, Cappadocian theologian: bishop of Caesarea (370–79). Feast days: Jan 2, 25, and 30
group life insurance — a form of life insurance available to members of a group, typically employees of a company, under a master policy.
group of twenty-four — a group of twenty-four rich and industrialized countries of the world, whose heads of government meet regularly to coordinate the position of developing countries on monetary and development issues
hexafluoroantimonate — (inorganic chemistry) The anion SbF6- or any salt containing this anion; it is used as an acidic catalyst in epoxide opening reactions.
houses of parliament — In Britain, the Houses of Parliament are the British parliament, which consists of two parts, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The buildings where the British parliament does its work are also called the Houses of Parliament.
hurricane-force wind — a wind, not necessarily a hurricane, having a speed of more than 72 miles per hour (32 m/sec): the strongest of the winds.
hydrodesulfurization — desulfurization by catalytic agents of the sulfur-rich hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum or the like during cracking or hydrocracking.
ideal of pure reason — God, seen as an idea of pure reason unifying the personal soul with the cosmos.
in (or out of) gear — (not) connected to the motor
in (or out of) play — in (or not in) the condition for continuing play
in a state of nature — completely naked
in the lap of luxury — If you say that someone lives in the lap of luxury, you mean that they live in conditions of great comfort and wealth.
in the nature of sth — If you say that one thing is in the nature of another, you mean that it is like the other thing.
inferior conjunction — the alignment of an inferior planet between the sun and the earth.
information builders — Distributors of LEVEL5 OBJECT. Telephone +1 800 969 INFO.
information industry — businesses that involve collecting and using information
instruction prefetch — (architecture) A technique which attempts to minimise the time a processor spends waiting for instructions to be fetched from memory. Instructions following the one currently being executed are loaded into a prefetch queue when the processor's external bus is otherwise idle. If the processor executes a branch instruction or receives an interrupt then the queue must be flushed and reloaded from the new address. Instruction prefetch is often combined with pipelining in an attempt to keep the pipeline busy. By 1995 most processors used prefetching, e.g. Motorola 680x0, Intel 80x86.
intestinal fortitude — courage; resoluteness; endurance; guts: to have intestinal fortitude.
isochronous transfer — isochronous
joint life insurance — life insurance covering two or more persons, the benefits of which are paid after the first person dies.
junior featherweight — a boxer weighing up to 122 pounds (54.9 kg), between bantamweight and featherweight.
kentucky coffee tree — a tall North American tree, Gymnocladus dioica, of the legume family, the seeds of which (Kentucky coffee beans) were formerly used as a substitute for coffee beans.
knock the tar out of — any of various dark-colored viscid products obtained by the destructive distillation of certain organic substances, as coal or wood.
law of large numbers — the theorem in probability theory that the number of successes increases as the number of experiments increases and approximates the probability times the number of experiments for a large number of experiments.
law of superposition — Geology. a basic law of geochronology, stating that in any undisturbed sequence of rocks deposited in layers, the youngest layer is on top and the oldest on bottom, each layer being younger than the one beneath it and older than the one above it.
life-support machine — A life-support machine is the equipment that is used to keep a person alive when they are very ill and cannot breathe without help.
like a house on fire — If two people get on like a house on fire, they quickly become close friends, for example because they have many interests in common.
logarithmic function — a function defined by y = log bx, especially when the base, b, is equal to e, the base of natural logarithms.
longitudinal framing — a system for framing steel vessels in which light, closely spaced, longitudinal frames are connected by heavy, widely spaced transverse frames with deep webs.
mary, queen of scots — family name Stuart. 1542–87, queen of Scotland (1542–67); daughter of James V of Scotland and Mary of Guise. She was married to Francis II of France (1558–60), her cousin Lord Darnley (1565–67), and the Earl of Bothwell (1567–71), who was commonly regarded as Darnley's murderer. She was forced to abdicate in favour of her son (later James VI of Scotland) and fled to England. Imprisoned by Elizabeth I until 1587, she was beheaded for plotting against the English crown
most general unifier — (logic) If U is the most general unifier of a set of expressions then any other unifier, V, can be expressed as V = UW, where W is another substitution. See also unification.
not put a foot wrong — If you never put a foot wrong, you never make any mistakes.
occupation franchise — the right of a tenant to vote in national and local elections
on course/off course — If a ship or aircraft is on course, it is travelling along the correct route. If it is off course, it is no longer travelling along the correct route.
paper qualifications — qualifications gained through official examinations, etc, rather than through experience
pappus of alexandria — 3rd century bc, Greek mathematician, whose eight-volume Synagoge is a valuable source of information about Greek mathematics
period of revolution — a rather large interval of time that is meaningful in the life of a person, in history, etc., because of its particular characteristics: a period of illness; a period of great profitability for a company; a period of social unrest in Germany.
permonosulfuric acid — persulfuric acid (def 1).
person of no account — (University of California at Santa Cruz) Used when referring to a person with no network address, frequently to forestall confusion. Most often as part of an introduction: "This is Bill, a person of no account, but he used to be [email protected]". Compare return from the dead.

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