Words whose third letter is F

Affirmative(n.) A word or phrase expressing affirmation or assent; as, yes, that is so, etc.

Affix(v. t.) To fix or fasten in any way; to attach physically.

Affodill(n.) Asphodel.

Biforine(n.) An oval sac or cell, found in the leaves of certain plants of the order Araceae. It has an opening at each end through which raphides, generated inside, are discharged.

Buff(n.) A buffet; a blow; -- obsolete except in the phrase "Blindman's buff."

Bufo(n.) A genus of Amphibia including various species of toads.

Daffodil(n.) A plant of the genus Asphodelus.

Defect(n.) Failing; fault; imperfection, whether physical or moral; blemish; as, a defect in the ear or eye; a defect in timber or iron; a defect of memory or judgment.

Defend(v. t.) To repel danger or harm from; to protect; to secure against; attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies.

Deferent(n.) An imaginary circle surrounding the earth, in whose periphery either the heavenly body or the center of the heavenly body's epicycle was supposed to be carried round.

Defibrinate(v. t.) To deprive of fibrin, as fresh blood or lymph by stirring with twigs.

Defilement(n.) The act of defiling, or state of being defiled, whether physically or morally; pollution; foulness; dirtiness; uncleanness.

Define(v. t.) To determine the precise signification of; to fix the meaning of; to describe accurately; to explain; to expound or interpret; as, to define a word, a phrase, or a scientific term.

Deflector(n.) That which deflects, as a diaphragm in a furnace, or a cone in a lamp (to deflect and mingle air and gases and help combustion).

Dufrenite(n.) A mineral of a blackish green color, commonly massive or in nodules. It is a hydrous phosphate of iron.

Efferent(a.) Conveying outward, or discharging; -- applied to certain blood vessels, lymphatics, nerves, etc.

Effloresce(v. i.) To become covered with a whitish crust or light crystallization, from a slow chemical change between some of the ingredients of the matter covered and an acid proceeding commonly from an external source; as, the walls of limestone caverns sometimes effloresce with nitrate of calcium in consequence of the action in consequence of nitric acid formed in the atmosphere.

Effort(n.) An exertion of strength or power, whether physical or mental, in performing an act or aiming at an object; more or less strenuous endeavor; struggle directed to the accomplishment of an object; as, an effort to scale a wall.

Influence(n.) Hence, in general, the bringing about of an effect, phusical or moral, by a gradual process; controlling power quietly exerted; agency, force, or tendency of any kind which the sun exerts on animal and vegetable life; the influence of education on the mind; the influence, according to astrologers,of the stars over affairs.

Influence(v. t.) To control or move by power, physical or moral; to affect by gentle action; to exert an influence upon; to modify, bias, or sway; to move; to persuade; to induce.

Infundibulum(n.) A central cavity in the Ctenophora, into which the gastric sac leads.

Infundibulum(n.) The siphon of Cephalopoda. See Cephalopoda.

Jeffersonia(n.) An American herb with a pretty, white, solitary blossom, and deeply two-cleft leaves (Jeffersonia diphylla); twinleaf.

Life(n.) The potential principle, or force, by which the organs of animals and plants are started and continued in the performance of their several and cooperative functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual.

Life(n.) A history of the acts and events of a life; a biography; as, Johnson wrote the life of Milton.

Lift(n.) The sky; the atmosphere; the firmament.

Lift(v. t.) To move in a direction opposite to that of gravitation; to raise; to elevate; to bring up from a lower place to a higher; to upheave; sometimes implying a continued support or holding in the higher place; -- said of material things; as, to lift the foot or the hand; to lift a chair or a burden.

Aufklarung(n.) A philosophic movement of the 18th century characterized by a lively questioning of authority, keen interest in matters of politics and general culture, and an emphasis on empirical method in science. It received its impetus from the unsystematic but vigorous skepticism of Pierre Bayle, the physical doctrines of Newton, and the epistemological theories of Locke, in the preceding century. Its chief center was in France, where it gave rise to the skepticism of Voltaire

Defective(n.) One who is lacking physically or mentally.

Infantile paralysis() An acute disease, almost exclusively infantile, characterized by inflammation of the anterior horns of the gray substance of the spinal cord. It is attended with febrile symptoms, motor paralysis, and muscular atrophy, often producing permanent deformities. Called also acute anterior poliomyelitis.

Raffia palm() A pinnate-leaved palm (Raphia ruffia) native of Madagascar, and of considerable economic importance on account of the strong fiber (raffia) obtained from its leafstalks.

Official(n.) Approved by authority; sanctioned by the pharmacopoeia; appointed to be used in medicine; as, an official drug or preparation. Cf. Officinal.

Olfaction(n.) The sense by which the impressions made on the olfactory organs by the odorous particles in the atmosphere are perceived.

Orfrays(n.) See Orphrey. [Obs.] Rom. of R.

Raffaelesque(a.) Raphaelesque.

Raffia(n.) A fibrous material used for tying plants, said to come from the leaves of a palm tree of the genus Raphia.

Refel(v. t.) To refute; to disprove; as, to refel the tricks of a sophister.

Refer(v. t.) To place in or under by a mental or rational process; to assign to, as a class, a cause, source, a motive, reason, or ground of explanation; as, he referred the phenomena to electrical disturbances.

Reflect(v. i.) To throw or turn back the thoughts upon anything; to contemplate. Specifically: To attend earnestly to what passes within the mind; to attend to the facts or phenomena of consciousness; to use attention or earnest thought; to meditate; especially, to think in relation to moral truth or rules.

Refraction(n.) The change in the direction of a ray of light, and, consequently, in the apparent position of a heavenly body from which it emanates, arising from its passage through the earth's atmosphere; -- hence distinguished as atmospheric refraction, or astronomical refraction.

Refraction(n.) The correction which is to be deducted from the apparent altitude of a heavenly body on account of atmospheric refraction, in order to obtain the true altitude.

Refrain(v.) The burden of a song; a phrase or verse which recurs at the end of each of the separate stanzas or divisions of a poetic composition.

Riflebird(n.) Any one of several species of beautiful birds of Australia and New Guinea, of the genera Ptiloris and Craspidophora, allied to the paradise birds.

Rufol(n.) A phenol derivative of anthracene obtained as a white crystal.

Taffy(n.) Flattery; soft phrases.

Tofus(n.) Tophus.

Tofus(n.) Tufa. See under Tufa, and Toph.

Tuffoon(n.) See Typhoon.

Tyfoon(n.) See Typhoon.

Unformed(a.) Not formed; not arranged into regular shape, order, or relations; shapeless; amorphous.

Wife(n.) A woman; an adult female; -- now used in literature only in certain compounds and phrases, as alewife, fishwife, goodwife, and the like.

About the author

Mark McCracken Author: Mark McCracken is a corporate trainer and author living in Higashi Osaka, Japan. He is the author of thousands of online articles as well as the Business English textbook, "25 Business Skills in English".

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