16-letter words containing l, a, f, o, e
- council of state — a council that deliberates on high-level policies of a government.
- counterfactually — a conditional statement the first clause of which expresses something contrary to fact, as “If I had known.”.
- court of appeals — A Court of Appeals is a court which deals with appeals against legal judgments.
- criminal offence — an action which is punishable under the law
- croydon facelift — the tightening effect on the skin of a woman's face caused by securing the hair at the back of the head in a tight ponytail
- dead-man's float — a prone floating position, used especially by beginning swimmers, with face downward, legs extended backward, and arms stretched forward.
- dead-smooth file — the smoothest grade of file commonly used
- decimal fraction — a fraction whose denominator is some power of 10, usually indicated by a dot (decimal point or point) written before the numerator: as 0.4 = 4/10; 0.126 = 126/1000.
- declassification — to remove the classification from (information, a document, etc.) that restricts access in terms of secrecy, confidentiality, etc. Compare classification (def 5).
- deflationary gap — a situation in which total spending in an economy is insufficient to buy all the output that can be produced with full employment
- dictionary flame — [Usenet] An attempt to sidetrack a debate away from issues by insisting on meanings for key terms that presuppose a desired conclusion or smuggle in an implicit premise. A common tactic of people who prefer argument over definitions to disputes about reality. Compare spelling flame.
- distrito federal — Federal District. Abbreviation: D.F.
- documentary film — factual, informative film
- dolce far niente — pleasing inactivity.
- dorothy canfield — Dorothy, Fisher, Dorothy Canfield.
- duchess of malfi — a tragedy (1614?) by John Webster.
- economy of scale — a fall in average costs resulting from an increase in the scale of production
- edsel ford range — a mountain range in Antarctica, E of the Ross Sea.
- elected official — person voted into office
- electronic flash — Photography
- exemplifications — Plural form of exemplification.
- exhaust manifold — An exhaust manifold is a heat-resistant tube that connects an engine to an exhaust pipe.
- eyjafjallajökull — a cone-shaped ice cap in south Iceland that covers an active volcano. The volcano’s eruption in 2010 resulted in large high-altitude clouds of volcanic ash that caused major disruption to European passenger air traffic. Height: 1666 m (5466 ft)
- false beechdrops — either of two parasitic or saprophytic plants of the genus Monotropa, especially the tawny or reddish M. hypopithys (false beechdrops) of eastern North America.
- false dragonhead — a North American plant, Physostegia virginiana, of the mint family, having a spike of tubular, two-lipped, pink or white flowers.
- family allowance — a regular government payment to the parents of children up to a certain age
- family of curves — a collection of curves whose equations differ only by values assigned a parameter or parameters.
- farewell to arms — a novel (1929) by Ernest Hemingway.
- fast of gedaliah — Tzom Gedaliah.
- 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.
- fellow passenger — a person travelling on the same vehicle, plane, ship etc as you
- fellow traveller — a companion on a journey
- feme-sole trader — a married woman who is entitled to carry on business on her own account and responsibility, independently of her husband.
- ferrous sulphate — an iron salt with a saline taste, usually obtained as greenish crystals of the heptahydrate, which are converted to the white monohydrate above 100°C: used in inks, tanning, water purification, and in the treatment of anaemia. Formula: FeSO4
- 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
- fire regulations — rules intended to make sure that people and property stay safe in the event of a fire
- firework display — a public event at which fireworks are set alight
- fit like a glove — fit perfectly
- flabbergastation — (colloquial) Bewildered shock or surprise; the state or condition of being flabbergasted.
- flamborough head — a chalk promontory in NE England, on the coast of the East Riding of Yorkshire
- flame cultivator — an implement that kills weeds by scorching them with a directed flow of flaming gas.
- flash eliminator — a device fitted to the muzzle of a firearm to reduce the flash made by the ignited propellant gases
- flashbulb memory — the clear recollections that a person may have of the circumstances associated with a dramatic event
- flat-bed plotter — a mechanized drafting device, usually computer driven, incorporating a moving pen whose horizontal and vertical range in two dimensions is limited only by the size of the bed of the device.
- flatheaded borer — the larva of a metallic wood-boring beetle, having an expanded and flattened anterior end.
- florencio varela — a city in E Argentina, near Buenos Aires.
- floridean starch — the storage polysaccharide of red algae.