17-letter words containing a, c, o, s
- counteraccusation — An accusation made in reply to another accusation.
- counterchallenges — Plural form of counterchallenge.
- counterparty risk — the risk that a person who is a party to a contract will default on their obligations under that contract
- countersignatures — Plural form of countersignature.
- course protractor — a navigational instrument for measuring the bearing of a course as given on a chart, having a disk calibrated in degrees and an arm pivoted about the center of the disk.
- courtship display — behaviour that is aimed at attracting a mate
- cover your tracks — If someone covers their tracks, they hide or destroy evidence of their identity or their actions, because they want to keep them secret.
- cream one's jeans — the fatty part of milk, which rises to the surface when the liquid is allowed to stand unless homogenized.
- creature comforts — Creature comforts are the things that you need to feel comfortable in a place, for example good food and modern equipment.
- critical constant — any of three constants associated with the critical point of a pure element or compound.
- cross of lorraine — a cross with two horizontal bars above and below the midpoint of the vertical bar, the lower longer than the upper
- cross one's heart — to promise or pledge, esp by making the sign of a cross over one's heart
- cross-correlation — the correlation between two sequences of random variables in a time series
- cross-examination — to examine by questions intended to check a previous examination; examine closely or minutely.
- cross-lot bracing — bracing extending from one side of an excavation to the opposite to retain the earth on both sides.
- cross-pollination — the transfer of pollen from the anthers of one flower to the stigma of another flower by the action of wind, insects, etc
- cross-utilization — to make use of in an additional or different way.
- cryopreservations — the storage of blood or living tissues at extremely cold temperatures, often -196 degrees Celsius.
- cryptocrystalline — (of rocks) composed of crystals that can be distinguished individually only by the use of a polarizing microscope
- customs brokerage — the work of a customs broker
- customs clearance — the permission to take goods into or out of a country once customs requirements have been satisfied
- cut a person dead — to ignore a person completely
- cutaneous quittor — a purulent infection of horses and other hoofed animals, characterized by an acute inflammation of soft tissue above the hoof and resulting in suppuration and sloughing of the skin and usually lameness.
- cypriot syllabary — a syllabic script in use on Cyprus in the first millennium b.c., used for the writing of Greek and of an unknown language.
- cytomegaloviruses — Plural form of cytomegalovirus.
- cytotrophoblastic — Relating to, or containing, cytotrophoblasts.
- d&o insurance — D&O insurance is a personal liability insurance that provides cover to the directors and senior executives of a company.
- damp-proof course — A damp-proof course is the same as a damp course.
- daphnis and chloe — two lovers in pastoral literature, esp in a prose idyll attributed to the Greek writer Longus
- de facto standard — A widespread consensus on a particular product or protocol which has not been ratified by any official standards body, such as ISO, but which nevertheless has a large market share. The archetypal example of a de facto standard is the IBM PC which, despite is many glaring technical deficiencies, has gained such a large share of the personal computer market that it is now popular simply because it is popular and therefore enjoys fierce competition in pricing and software development.
- 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.
- decriminalisation — (chiefly, British) Alternative form of decriminalization.
- dehistoricization — The process or result of dehistoricizing.
- dehydrochlorinase — an enzyme that catalyzes the removal of hydrogen and chlorine atoms or ions from chlorinated hydrocarbons.
- delay instruction — delayed control-transfer
- denial of service — a deliberate interruption in access to a computer system or network, esp by using multiple computers to generate an unmanageable volume of traffic (distributed denial of service)
- denial-of-service — pertaining to or being an incident in which a computer or computer network is disabled, disrupting access or service: a website hit by a denial-of-service attack; unintentional denial-of-service problems.
- deoxyribonuclease — DNase.
- dephlogisticating — Present participle of dephlogisticate.
- despotic monarchy — absolute monarchy.
- dessert chocolate — cooking chocolate
- desynchronisation — (British spelling) Alternative form of desynchronization.
- desynchronization — to cause to indicate the same time, as one timepiece with another: Synchronize your watches.
- deucalion's flood — a flood sent by Zeus that wiped out the entire population of the earth, except for Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha
- devil's food cake — a rich chocolate cake
- 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.
- 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
- 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.
- discomgoogolation — a feeling of anxiety felt by someone who is unable to access the internet