15-letter words containing a, b, d
- calcium carbide — a grey salt of calcium used in the production of acetylene (by its reaction with water) and calcium cyanamide. Formula: CaC2
- calydonian boar — a savage boar sent by Artemis to destroy Calydon, a city in Aetolia, because its king had neglected to sacrifice to her. It was killed by Meleager, the king's son
- carbazotic acid — picric acid.
- carbon monoxide — Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas that is produced especially by the engines of vehicles.
- carboxylic acid — any of a class of organic acids containing the carboxyl group
- cardinal beetle — any of various large N temperate beetles of the family Pyrochroidae, such as Pyrochroa serraticornis, typically scarlet or partly scarlet in colour
- cardinal number — A cardinal number is a number such as 1, 3, or 10 that tells you how many things there are in a group but not what order they are in. Compare ordinal number.
- cartesian doubt — willful suspension of all interpretations of experience that are not absolutely certain: used as a method of deriving, by elimination of such uncertainties, axioms upon which to base theories.
- cartridge brass — brass composed of about 70 percent copper and 30 percent zinc.
- catchment board — a public body concerned with the conservation and organization of water supply from a catchment area
- cattle breeding — the science or business of breeding and raising cattle
- chandler wobble — a slight, irregular nutation of the earth's rotational axis with a period of c. 428 days
- child abduction — the crime of removing a child from its rightful home
- child battering — child abuse in the form of battering
- child-battering — the physical abuse of a child by a parent or guardian, as by beating.
- chromosome band — any of the transverse bands that appear on a chromosome after staining. The banding pattern is unique to each type of chromosome, allowing characterization
- cinderella book — (publication) "Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation", by John Hopcroft and Jeffrey Ullman, (Addison-Wesley, 1979). So called because the cover depicts a girl (putatively Cinderella) sitting in front of a Rube Goldberg device and holding a rope coming out of it. On the back cover, the device is in shambles after she has (inevitably) pulled on the rope. See also book titles.
- circumambulated — Simple past tense and past participle of circumambulate.
- climb indicator — an instrument that shows the rate of ascent or descent of an aircraft, operating on a differential pressure principle.
- colorado beetle — a black-and-yellow beetle, Leptinotarsa decemlineata, that is a serious pest of potatoes, feeding on the leaves: family Chrysomelidae
- commendableness — The state or quality of being commendable.
- contract bridge — the most common variety of bridge, in which the declarer receives points counting towards game and rubber only for tricks he bids as well as makes, any overtricks receiving bonus points
- coordinate bond — a type of covalent chemical bond in which both the shared electrons are provided by one of the atoms
- corps de ballet — In ballet, the corps de ballet is the group of dancers who dance together, in contrast to the main dancers, who dance by themselves.
- counterbalanced — Simple past tense and past participle of counterbalance.
- counterblockade — a retaliatory blockade
- countermandable — able to be countermanded
- cranberry gourd — a South American vine, Abobra tenuifolia, of the gourd family, having deeply lobed, ovate leaves and bearing a berrylike scarlet fruit.
- credibility gap — A credibility gap is the difference between what a person says or promises and what they actually think or do.
- cuban solenodon — a rare shrewlike nocturnal mammal of the Caribbean, Atopogale cubana, having a long hairless tail and an elongated snout: family Solenodontidae, order Insectivora (insectivores)
- cylinder barrel — the metal casting containing a cylinder of a reciprocating internal-combustion engine
- d. c. power lab — The former site of SAIL. This name was very funny because the obvious connection to electrical engineering was nonexistent - the lab was named after a Donald C. Power. Compare Marginal Hacks.
- darkling beetle — any of a family (Tenebrionidae) of sluggish, dark beetles that feed on plants at night
- dartmouth basic — (language) The original BASIC language, designed by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. Dartmouth BASIC first ran on a GE 235 [date?] and on an IBM 704 on 1964-05-01. It was designed for quick and easy programming by students and beginners using Dartmouth's experimental time-sharing system. Unlike most later BASIC dialects, Dartmouth BASIC was compiled.
- database server — A stand-alone computer in a local area network that holds and manages the database. It implies that database management functions, such as locating the actual record being requested, is performed in the server computer. Contrast with file server, which acts as a remote disk drive and requires that large parts of the database, for example, entire indexes, be transmitted to the user's computer where the real database management tasks are performed. First-generation personal computer database software was not designed for a network; thus, modified versions of the software released by the vendors employed the file server concept. Second-generation products, designed for local area networks, perform the management tasks in the server where they should be done, and consequently are turning the file server into a database server.
- davenport table — a table with drawers, having drop leaves at both ends, often placed in front of or behind a sofa.
- de broglie wave — a hypothetical wave associated with the motion of a particle of atomic or subatomic size that describes effects such as the diffraction of beams of particles by crystals.
- de bruijn graph — (mathematics) A class of graphs with elegant properties. De Bruijn graphs are especially easy to use for routing, with shifting of source and destination addresses.
- dead and buried — If you say that something such as an idea or situation is dead and buried, you are emphasizing that you think that it is completely finished or past, and cannot happen or exist again in the future.
- dead letter box — a place where messages and other material can be left and collected secretly without the sender and the recipient meeting
- dead-cat bounce — a temporary recovery in prices following a substantial fall as a result of speculators buying stocks they have already sold rather than as a result of a genuine reversal of the downward trend
- debathification — The process of removing former members of the ruling Bath party of Iraq from the military and civil office following the ousting of w Saddam Hussein.
- debureaucratize — to divide an administrative agency or office into bureaus.
- decarboxylation — the removal or loss of a carboxyl group from an organic compound
- decarburization — The act, process, or result of decarburizing.
- deception table — a table of the 18th century made so as to conceal its true function, as in serving as a cabinet for a chamber pot.
- decipherability — to make out the meaning of (poor or partially obliterated writing, etc.): to decipher a hastily scribbled note.
- decomposability — (uncountable) The condition of being decomposable.
- decree absolute — A decree absolute is the final order made by a court in a divorce case which ends a marriage completely.
- deerfield beach — a town in S Florida.