Words that start with F

You have four fingers on your hand and one thumb. You use your hands to hold things, and your fingers to make things.

If you look closely at the ends of your fingers you will be able to see lots of small lines in your skin. Whenever you touch something, the oil on your skin means you leave a mark of these lines, called a fingerprint. Everyone has different fingerprints, and at a crime scene the police will be looking for fingerprints so they can try and find out who was there.

A Finn is someone from Finland. See also Finnish.
Not to be confused with fin.

When something is burning, it is said to be on fire. Flames can be different colours depending on what is burning and how hot it is. Fire is very hot and bright, and people light fires in their houses to keep warm.
When a fire is out of control it can be extremely dangerous, such as a forest fire.
When something burns it gives off gas and particles as smoke. It gives off heat because burning is an exothermic reaction, which means it creates heat as it happens. Some things like boiling water are the opposite, and need heat to happen.

Fire hydrants are seen by the roadside in many cities. They connect to the mains water of that city and allow firefighters to tap into large amounts of high pressure water to put out fires. In some cities the fire hydrants are under the ground, with a small lid that needs to be opened before they can be used.

A firefly is a small beetle that glows in the dark. Many live in warm, grassy or wooded areas near the ground, especially where it's damp. The glowing light is made by the insect to communicate, usually to help find mates.

Firewood is wood that has been collected just to be burnt as fuel. Firewood is usually cut into small pieces so it can fit inside a fireplace.

Something is firm if it is quite solid and doesn't move easily. Something is firmly attached if it doesn't wobble around or come loose. A sofa is firm if it is neither completely hard or soft. The sofa in the picture seems very firm.

Fish live underwater, in either salt or fresh water. They can only breathe underwater, but they use gills to breathe, not lungs like we do. Fish are covered in scales. Some people keep very small fish in their houses as pets. The biggest kind of fish is a whale shark, which is just a really big kind of shark. Whales grow a lot bigger than sharks but they are not fish, as they don't have gills and have to come to the surface of the water to breathe, just like we do.

A fishing rod, or fishing pole, is a tool used to catch fish. It uses a weighted line with a baited hook. When fish eat the bait they get caught by the hook, and the fisher reels them in using the handle you can see in the picture.
Fishing rods are usually used by people who fish for sport or as a hobby, commercial fishing is done using nets.