17-letter words containing s, f, e
- credit facilities — a type of loan made by a bank
- cross of lorraine — a cross with two horizontal bars above and below the midpoint of the vertical bar, the lower longer than the upper
- culture diffusion — the spreading out of culture, culture traits, or a cultural pattern from a central point.
- culture-fair test — a test, usually for intelligence, that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, esp regarding material or cultural background
- culture-free test — a test (usually for intelligence) that does not put anyone taking it at a disadvantage, for instance, as regards material or cultural background
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- 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.
- deep-frozen foods — foodstuffs that have been frozen for storage
- defamiliarisation — (arts) The representation of objects anew, in a way that we do not recognize, or that changes our reading of them.
- defence mechanism — A defence mechanism is a way of behaving or thinking which is not conscious or deliberate and is an automatic reaction to unpleasant experiences or feelings such as anxiety and fear.
- defence secretary — the member of a government who is responsible for the country's armed forces
- defending counsel — a barrister who defends a client in a trial
- defense mechanism — A defense mechanism is a way of behaving or thinking which is not conscious or deliberate and is an automatic reaction to unpleasant experiences or feelings such as anxiety and fear.
- deferred sentence — a sentence that is postponed for a specific period to allow a court to examine the conduct of the offender during the deferment
- definite sentence — (logic) A collection of definite clauses.
- denial of service — a deliberate interruption in access to a computer system or network, esp by using multiple computers to generate an unmanageable volume of traffic (distributed denial of service)
- denial-of-service — pertaining to or being an incident in which a computer or computer network is disabled, disrupting access or service: a website hit by a denial-of-service attack; unintentional denial-of-service problems.
- deprofessionalise — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deprofessionalize — to remove from professional control, influence, manipulation, etc.
- deucalion's flood — a flood sent by Zeus that wiped out the entire population of the earth, except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
- devil's food cake — a rich chocolate cake
- diffused junction — a semiconductor junction formed by diffusing acceptor or donor impurity atoms into semiconductor material to form regions of p-type or n-type conductivity
- dimethylsulfoxide — DMSO.
- director of music — a person in charge of musical training and performance at an institution such as a college, especially the head bandmaster of a military band
- disidentification — The act of disidentifying, or rejecting a personal or group identity.
- disrespectfulness — The state or quality of being disrespectful; disrespect; disregard.
- distributed force — A distributed force is a force that acts on a large part of a surface, not just on one place.
- dress-down friday — In some companies employees are allowed to wear clothes that are less smart than usual on a Friday. This day is known as a dress-down Friday.
- drink like a fish — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- due course of law — the regular administration of the law, according to which no citizen may be denied his or her legal rights and all laws must conform to fundamental, accepted legal principles, as the right of the accused to confront his or her accusers.
- 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)
- egg on one's face — embarrassment due to an obvious blunder
- employee benefits — benefits, such as health insurance, pension payments, or childcare, given to employees in addition to their usual salary or wage
- 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.
- enrolment figures — the numbers of people enrolling at an institution, on a course, etc
- equation of state — any equation that expresses the relationship between the temperature, pressure, and volume of a substance
- eudoxus of cnidus — ?406–?355 bc, Greek astronomer and mathematician; believed to have calculated the length of the solar year
- explosive forming — a rapid method of forming a metal object in which components are made by subjecting the metal to very high pressures generated by a controlled explosion
- facsimile catalog — a catalog that includes small reproductions of the items listed, as paintings, slides, designs, or the like.
- facsimile machine — a machine which transmits and receives documents in facsimile transmission
- 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.
- falkland islander — a person from the Falkland Islands
- fall on deaf ears — the organ of hearing and equilibrium in vertebrates, in humans consisting of an external ear that gathers sound vibrations, a middle ear in which the vibrations resonate against the tympanic membrane, and a fluid-filled internal ear that maintains balance and that conducts the tympanic vibrations to the auditory nerve, which transmits them as impulses to the brain.