noun
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the sixth letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
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any spoken sound represented by the letter F or f, as in fat, differ, or huff.
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something having the shape of an F .
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a written or printed representation of the letter F or f.
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a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter F or f.
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the sixth in order or in a series.
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(sometimes lowercase) (in some grading systems) a grade or mark that indicates academic work of the lowest quality; failure.
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Music.
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the fourth tone in the scale of C major or the sixth tone in the relative minor scale, A minor.
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a string, key, or pipe tuned to this tone.
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a written or printed note representing this tone.
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(in the fixed system of solmization) the fourth tone of the scale of C major, called fa.
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the tonality having F as the tonic note.
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(sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 40.
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Mathematics.
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(sometimes lowercase) farad.
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Chemistry. fluorine.
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(sometimes lowercase)
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Biochemistry. phenylalanine.
abbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
abbreviation
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farad.
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farthing.
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father.
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fathom.
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feet.
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female.
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feminine.
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filly.
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fine.
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fluid (ounce).
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folio.
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following.
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foot.
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form.
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formed of.
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franc.
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from.
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Mathematics. function (of ).
abbreviation
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Fahrenheit.
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February.
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Fellow.
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forint.
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franc; francs.
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France.
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French.
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Friday.
symbol
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music
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a note having a frequency of 349.23 hertz ( F above middle C ) or this value multiplied or divided by any power of 2; the fourth note of the scale of C major
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a key, string, or pipe producing this note
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the major or minor key having this note as its tonic
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Fahrenheit
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Fellow
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chem fluorine
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Helmholtz function
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physics force
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franc(s)
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farad(s)
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genetics a generation of filial offspring, F 1 being the first generation of offspring, F 2 being the second generation, etc
abbreviation
symbol
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music forte: an instruction to play loudly
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physics frequency
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(formerly in the Netherlands) guilder
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maths function (of)
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physics femto-
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chess See algebraic notation
abbreviation
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fathom(s)
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female
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grammar feminine
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folio
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following (page)
noun
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the sixth letter and fourth consonant of the modern English alphabet
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a speech sound represented by this letter, usually a voiceless labio-dental fricative, as in fat
abbreviation
symbol
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of f.8
From the Latin word fac
Origin of f.9
From the Latin word f īant
Origin of f.10
From the Latin word fiat
Origin of f.11
From the Dutch word florin
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The most recent game in the franchise, a spin-off called Silent Hill f, sold a million copies the day it was released in September 2025.
From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2026
The cybersecurity company’s earnings and revenue forecast met analysts’ expectations but f ailed to impress investors.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
Thompson has instituted a curfew around the facility, allowing protests to occur only between f 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025
In Welsh a single f is pronounced as a v — it takes two fs to make the noise in “fight” — and the emphasis is always on the penultimate syllable.
From Salon ● May 27, 2024
It was there, between the two trees, that the village sometimes gathered to sing and talk around a big f ire.
From "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park
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Ford Motor F -0.39%decrease; red down pointing triangle is recalling more than 740,000 vehicles due to a transmission and parking system issue, federal regulators said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
"The team is united and that feeling is getting even stronger now," said Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu, whose side finished second in Group F behind the Netherlands.
From Barron's ● Jun. 29, 2026
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a nonpartisan, free-speech advocacy group, gave the university an F in its free-speech ranking this year, placing it 217th out of 252 schools.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Japan has received goals from five players in an unbeaten run through Group F, where it finished second to the Netherlands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2026
E sharp and F natural sound the same.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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The cybersecurity company’s earnings and revenue forecast met analysts’ expectations but f ailed to impress investors.
From Barron's ● Nov. 20, 2025
Thompson has instituted a curfew around the facility, allowing protests to occur only between f 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2025
In Welsh a single f is pronounced as a v — it takes two fs to make the noise in “fight” — and the emphasis is always on the penultimate syllable.
From Salon ● May 27, 2024
An early stage that involved cyanobacteria innovating a new pigment, chlorophyll f, enabling the photosystem to harvest far-red light for the first time.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 28, 2023
They were gathered in front of Carl Heine’s gill-netter, which was moored between the Erik f and the Tordenskold—the former a bow-picker owned by Marty Johansson, the latter an Anacortes purse seiner.
From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson
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The Cincinnati Bengals ranked 27th and had an F- grade for their nutritional offerings.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 1, 2023
"If I could go lower than F- I would," John, a Floridian visiting the Golden State, told Fox News.
From Fox News ● Aug. 21, 2021
Freekick just outside the D. And the resultant freekick is an F-, as Oscar dabs the ball into the wall.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 16, 2015
Simply by changing the Ph- to an F-, the country star showed just how easily team names could be switched from masculine to feminine.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2014
The time in the F- 86, everything had gone well.
From "Flying to the Moon: An Astronaut's Story" by Michael Collins
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“Syzygy or, the Ceasing of the Sun” by juliany f. taveras is a rumination on what the future might be like.
From New York Times ● Sep. 23, 2021
Adults of C. f. pastinator resemble the juvenile condition typical of C. f. frugilegus.
From Scientific American ● May 12, 2013
In 1924 he profited $25,000,000 by shipping parts to district assembling plants, putting them together there and then charging the f. o. b. selling price.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The price of a complete mammoth is $30,000 f. o. b.
From Time Magazine Archive
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This is the same study which had previously been printed in the Zts. f. vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, 1899, N.F. xiii.
From The Grateful Dead The History of a Folk Story by Gerould, Gordon Hall
Dr. Erica Schwartz said she would uphold science amid lawmaker questions over vaccine policy and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
Vietnam, inner-city riots, and the assassinations of Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had cast a pall over the Day-Glo optimism of the Love Generation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
If John F. Kennedy gets to speak for two minutes, then Richard Nixon gets to speak for two minutes.
From Salon ● Jul. 10, 2026
As a fun experiment, the professor proceeds to hold a mock criminal trial in which F. Scott Fitzgerald’s text is the defendant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Steve handed Liddy a Kansas driver’s license in the name of George F. Leonard.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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In general, we have a school district focused on 100% graduation rates, no F’s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
“We have seen Louisiana students go from all F’s to straight A’s because of this program,” Landry said in a written statement to the Journal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026
The four F's represent the categories of things they’ve identified as those people value most: family, friends, faith and fulfilling work.
From Salon ● May 24, 2025
What was it like being Liga F's top scorer and assist maker last season?
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2024
She was speaking Igbo for the first time, and in her Asaba dialect, the F’s sounded like W’s.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
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Previously an A and B student, Bell started getting Fs at Alemany that spring, according to court filings.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 5, 2025
This exercise is the opposite of a zero Fs situation, though – she very much cares about the final glimpse the public has of Wendy Williams.
From Salon ● Feb. 23, 2024
And I got straight Ds and Fs in school.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2024
When results day came around, Luke got his results - four Fs and an E.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2023
Chris left Reed before the final set of exams, leaving him with a row of Fs on his transcript.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
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The Georgia native painted himself so much as one of Philly’s own, that it’s amazing Collins didn’t confess he was named with two f’s in honor of the Temple Tuff motto.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 14, 2016
Royal looked up and said, ‘I’ve been sitting here for 30 minutes, trying to figure out if professor has one or two f’s in it.’
From New York Times ● Nov. 7, 2012
"The only name I like is Jeff if you spell it with two f's instead of t's," she said.
From Time Magazine Archive
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Gibbous nose aloft and in fine priggish voice, Master Freddie imparts phonetic reality to an age when Britishers wrote s's that looked like f's.
From Time Magazine Archive
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I found the expected f’s for s’s and a few other things that didn’t turn up as often, but I got used to them very quickly.
From "Kindred" by Octavia Butler
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In Welsh a single f is pronounced as a v — it takes two fs to make the noise in “fight” — and the emphasis is always on the penultimate syllable.
From Salon ● May 27, 2024
Emotional truth is sacrificed at the altar of manufactured laffs, with two fs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 17, 2022
Suppose a jet airplane is coming nearly straight at you, emitting a sound of frequency fs .
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
Adding a saturated -CH2-CH2- spacer between the chromophore and the carboxylate anchoring group extended the injection time to 57 fs, confirming the strong distance dependence of the electron transfer rate.
From Nature ● Aug. 15, 2012
And when they have this perfection they are worth the following prices:— If the turquoise is of the said perfection and weighs a carat, it will be worth in the Malabar country xv fs.
From A Description of the Coasts of East Africa and Malabar in the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century by Barbosa, Duarte
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.