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17-letter words containing a, c, e, t, i, d

  • data service unit — (communications)   (DSU or "data service unit") A device used in digital transmission for connecting a CSU (Channel Service Unit) to Data Terminal Equipment (a terminal or computer), in the same way that a modem is used for connection to an analogue medium. A DSU provides a standard interface to a user's terminal which is compatible with modems and handles such functions as signal translation, regeneration, reformatting, and timing. The transmitting portion of the DSU processeses the customers' signal into bipolar pulses suitable for transmission over the digital facility. The receiving portion of the DSU is used both to extract timing information and to regenerate mark and space information from the received bipolar signal.
  • de-baathification — the process of removing the members and influence of the Ba'ath Party from public office in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003
  • de-specialization — the act of specializing, or pursuing a particular line of study or work: Medical students with high student loans often feel driven into specialization.
  • death certificate — A death certificate is an official certificate signed by a doctor which states the cause of a person's death.
  • decellularization — (biology, medicine) The loss of cells from tissue.
  • deceptive cadence — a cadence consisting of a dominant harmony followed by a resolution to a harmony other than the tonic.
  • decontextualizing — to remove (a linguistic element, an action, etc.) from a context: decontextualized works of art displayed in museums.
  • decriminalisation — (chiefly, British) Alternative form of decriminalization.
  • decriminalization — to eliminate criminal penalties for or remove legal restrictions against: to decriminalize marijuana.
  • deductible clause — a clause in an insurance policy stipulating that the insured will be liable for a specified initial amount of each loss, injury, etc., and that the insurance company will be liable for any additional costs up to the insured amount.
  • deductive tableau — (tool)   A theorem proof system consisting of a table whose rows contain assertions or goals. Variables in assertions are implicitly universally quantified and variables in goals are implicitly existentially quantified. The declarative meaning of a tableau is that if every instance of every assertion is true then some instance of at least one of the goals is true.
  • deficit financing — Deficit financing is the financing of government spending through borrowing rather than revenue.
  • dehistoricization — The process or result of dehistoricizing.
  • dehydrochlorinate — to remove hydrogen chloride or chlorine and hydrogen from (a substance).
  • delay instruction — delayed control-transfer
  • dendroclimatology — The science that uses dendrochronology to reconstruct historical climate conditions.
  • dental technician — a person who constructs and repairs artificial teeth
  • dephlogisticating — Present participle of dephlogisticate.
  • despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
  • desynchronisation — (British spelling) Alternative form of desynchronization.
  • desynchronization — to cause to indicate the same time, as one timepiece with another: Synchronize your watches.
  • deterministically — the doctrine that all facts and events exemplify natural laws.
  • diacetone alcohol — a colorless, flammable liquid with a pleasant odor, C 6 H 12 O 2 : used as a solvent for lacquers, dyes, cellulose nitrate, and resins.
  • dialect geography — linguistic geography
  • dialectologically — In terms of dialectology.
  • diatonic semitone — the pitch difference between certain adjacent degrees of the diatonic scale
  • diaz del castillo — Bernal [ber-nahl] /bɛrˈnɑl/ (Show IPA), 1492–1581, Spanish soldier-historian of the conquest of Mexico.
  • dictating machine — a device that records spoken words, as on audiocassettes, for playing back later to prepare a transcript
  • digital recording — a method of sound recording in which an input audio waveform is sampled at regular intervals, usually between 40,000 and 50,000 times per second, and each sample is assigned a numerical value, usually expressed in binary notation.
  • diocletian window — a window in the form of a round-headed archway with a narrower compartment on either side, the side compartments usually being capped with entablatures on which the arch of the central compartment rests.
  • diphenylacetylene — tolan.
  • dipterocarpaceous — of, relating to, or belonging to the Dipterocarpaceae, a family of trees chiefly native to tropical SE Asia, having two-winged fruits. Many species yield useful timber and resins
  • disability clause — a clause in a life-insurance policy providing for waiver of premium and sometimes payment of monthly income if the policyholder becomes totally and permanently disabled.
  • disaster recovery — (business)   (DR) Planning and implementation of procedures and facilities for use when essential systems are not available for a period long enough to have a significant impact on the business, e.g. when the head office is blown up. Disasters include natural: fire, flood, lightning, hurricane; hardware: power failure, component failure, head crash; software failure: bugs, resources; vandalism: arson, bombing, cracking, theft; data corruption or loss: human error, media failure; communications: computer network equipment, network storm, telephones; security: passwords compromised, computer virus; legal: change in legislation; personnel: unavailability of essential staff, industrial action. Companies need to plan for disaster: before: risk analysis, preventive measures, training; during: how should staff and systems respond; after: recovery measures, post mortem analysis. Hardware can usually be replaced and is usually insured. Software and data needs to be backed up off site. Alternative communication systems should be arranged in case of network failure or inaccessible premises, e.g. emergency telephone number, home working, alternative data center.
  • discreditableness — Quality of being discreditable.
  • discrete variable — a variable that may assume only a countable, and usually finite, number of values.
  • disidentification — The act of disidentifying, or rejecting a personal or group identity.
  • displacement hull — a hull that displaces a significant volume of water when under way.
  • disrespectability — Lack of respectability.
  • disruptive action — action performed by protestors, workers, etc that causes the disruption of a service
  • dissociated press — [Play on "Associated Press"; perhaps inspired by a reference in the 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Up, Doc?"] An algorithm for transforming any text into potentially humorous garbage even more efficiently than by passing it through a marketroid. The algorithm starts by printing any N consecutive words (or letters) in the text. Then at every step it searches for any random occurrence in the original text of the last N words (or letters) already printed and then prints the next word or letter. Emacs has a handy command for this. Here is a short example of word-based Dissociated Press applied to an earlier version of the Jargon File: wart: A small, crocky feature that sticks out of an array (C has no checks for this). This is relatively benign and easy to spot if the phrase is bent so as to be not worth paying attention to the medium in question. Here is a short example of letter-based Dissociated Press applied to the same source: window sysIWYG: A bit was named aften /bee't*/ prefer to use the other guy's re, especially in every cast a chuckle on neithout getting into useful informash speech makes removing a featuring a move or usage actual abstractionsidered interj. Indeed spectace logic or problem! A hackish idle pastime is to apply letter-based Dissociated Press to a random body of text and vgrep the output in hopes of finding an interesting new word. (In the preceding example, "window sysIWYG" and "informash" show some promise.) Iterated applications of Dissociated Press usually yield better results. Similar techniques called "travesty generators" have been employed with considerable satirical effect to the utterances of Usenet flamers; see pseudo.
  • distance learning — education in which students receive instruction over the Internet, from a video, etc., instead of going to school.
  • distance teaching — teaching via correspondence or the internet, where students are not physically present in a classroom
  • district attorney — an officer who acts as attorney for the people or government within a specified district.
  • document examiner — (hypertext, tool)   A high-performance hypertext system by Symbolics that provides on-line access to their user documentation.
  • double refraction — the separation of a ray of light into two unequally refracted, plane-polarized rays of orthogonal polarizations, occurring in crystals in which the velocity of light rays is not the same in all directions.
  • double track line — a railway line with double track
  • duality principle — the principle that a mathematical duality exists under certain conditions.
  • ductus arteriosis — a fetal blood vessel that connects the left pulmonary artery directly to the descending aorta, normally closing after birth.
  • dutch east indies — a former name of the Republic of Indonesia.
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