16-letter words containing t, r, o, c
- factor of safety — the ratio of the maximum stress that a structural part or other piece of material can withstand to the maximum stress estimated for it in the use for which it is designed.
- father confessor — confessor (def 2).
- feedback control — (electronics) A control system which monitors its effect on the system it is controlling and modifies its output accordingly. For example, a thermostat has two inputs: the desired temperature and the current temperature (the latter is the feedback). The output of the thermostat changes so as to try to equalise the two inputs. Computer disk drives use feedback control to position the read/write heads accurately on a recording track. Complex systems such as the human body contain many feedback systems that interact with each other; the homeostasis mechanisms that control body temperature and acidity are good examples.
- feel constrained — If you feel constrained to do something, you feel that you must do it, even though you would prefer not to.
- feel-good factor — When journalists refer to the feel-good factor, they mean that people are feeling hopeful and optimistic about the future.
- ferroelectricity — (physics) The electric polarization of a substance (spontaneous presence of a dipole moment) that is analagous to ferromagnetism.
- fertility factor — a sex-determining chromosome or gene.
- feulgen reaction — a reaction in which an aldehyde combines with a modified Schiff's reagent to produce a purplish compound: used especially to test for the presence of DNA
- fictitious force — any force that is postulated to account for apparent deviations from Newton's laws of motion appearing in an accelerated reference system.
- finance director — financial manager
- finished product — the product that emerges at the end of a manufacturing process
- fish or cut bait — any of various cold-blooded, aquatic vertebrates, having gills, commonly fins, and typically an elongated body covered with scales.
- flame cultivator — an implement that kills weeds by scorching them with a directed flow of flaming gas.
- flettner control — servocontrol (def 3).
- flight indicator — artificial horizon (def 3).
- floridean starch — the storage polysaccharide of red algae.
- flotation collar — an inflatable device worn around the neck to keep the wearer afloat when in danger of drowning
- fluorescent lamp — a tubular electric discharge lamp in which light is produced by the fluorescence of phosphors coating the inside of the tube.
- focused strategy — a business strategy in which an organization divests itself of all but its core activities, using the funds raised to enhance the distinctive abilities that give it an advantage over its rivals
- follow the crowd — copy what others are doing
- food intolerance — an intolerance of a specific type of food, causing an adverse reaction
- forced vibration — Forced vibration is a type of vibration in which a force is repeatedly applied to a mechanical system.
- formation packer — A formation packer is a substance that is used as a seal between the casing and the borehole so that part of the hole can be tested.
- forward contract — a contract to buy or sell an asset at a point in the future at a previously agreed price
- francis townsend — Francis Everett, 1867–1960, U.S. physician and proposer of the Townsend plan.
- frankfurt school — a school of thought, founded at the University of Frankfurt in 1923 by Theodor Adorno, Herbert Marcuse and others, derived from Marxist, Freudian, and Hegelian theory
- free association — the uncensored expression of the ideas, impressions, etc., passing through the mind of the analysand, a technique used to facilitate access to the unconscious.
- french community — a cultural and economic association of France, its overseas departments and territories, and former French territories that chose to maintain association after becoming independent republics: formed 1958.
- french directory — the body of five directors in power in France from 1795 until their overthrow by Napoleon in 1799
- french telephone — handset (def 1).
- friction gearing — wheels or disks transmitting power by means of frictional contact.
- friction welding — a method of welding thermoplastics or metals by the heat generated by rubbing the members to be joined against each other under pressure.
- friendly society — law: mutual group providing benefits
- front and center — If a topic or question is front and center, a lot of attention is being paid to it or a lot of people are talking about it.
- front projection — a display system that projects an enlarged television picture on the front surface of a reflective screen.
- full court press — Basketball. a tactic of harassing, close-guarding defense in which the team without the ball pressures the opponent man-to-man the entire length of the court in order to disrupt dribbling or passing and force a turnover: Suddenly behind by eighteen points, they went to a full-court press.
- full-court press — Basketball. a tactic of harassing, close-guarding defense in which the team without the ball pressures the opponent man-to-man the entire length of the court in order to disrupt dribbling or passing and force a turnover: Suddenly behind by eighteen points, they went to a full-court press.
- functional group — a group of atoms responsible for the characteristic behavior of the class of compounds in which the group occurs, as the hydroxyl group in alcohols.
- functional water — water containing additives that provide extra nutritional value
- funeral director — a person, usually a licensed embalmer, who supervises or conducts the preparation of the dead for burial and directs or arranges funerals.
- galactic equator — the great circle on the celestial sphere that is equidistant from the galactic poles, being inclined approximately 62° to the celestial equator and lying about one degree north of the center line of the Milky Way.
- gamma correction — (hardware) Adjustments applied during the display of a digital representation of colour on a screen in order to compensate for the fact that the Cathode Ray Tubes used in computer monitors (and televisions) produce a light intensity which is not proportional to the input voltage. The light intensity is actually proportional to the input voltage raised to the inverse power of some constant, called gamma. Its value varies from one display to another, but is usually around 2.5. Because it is more intuitive for the colour components (red, green and blue) to be varied linearly in the computer, the actual voltages sent to the monitor by the display hardware must be adjusted in order to make the colour component intensity on the screen proportional to the value stored in the computer's display memory. This process is most easily achieved by a dedicated module in the display hardware which simply scales the outputs of the display memory before sending them to the digital-to-analogue converters. More expensive graphics cards and workstations (particularly those used for CAD applications) will have a gamma correction facility. In combination with the "white-point" gamma correction is used to achieve precise colour matching.
- gaudí (i cornet) — An‧to‧nio (ɑnˈtɔnjɔ ) ; änt^ōˈny^ō) 1852-1926; Sp. architect
- gazetted officer — (in India) a senior official whose appointment is published in the government gazette
- gender selection — choosing the sex of a baby
- general election — U.S. Politics. a regularly scheduled local, state, or national election in which voters elect officeholders. Compare primary (def 15). a state or national election, as opposed to a local election.
- general factotum — a person who does all sorts of jobs; general assistant
- genetic disorder — disease caused by abnormal DNA
- geochronologists — Plural form of geochronologist.
- geometric isomer — each of two or more chemical compounds having the same molecular formula but a different geometric arrangement; an unsaturated compound or ring compound in which rotation around a carbon bond is restricted, as in cis- and trans- configurations.