20-letter words containing a, d, e, s
- distress merchandise — goods sold below the prevailing price in order to raise cash quickly or to meet some other financial emergency.
- distributed database — A collection of several different databases that looks like a single database to the user. An example is the Internet Domain Name System (DNS).
- distributed practice — learning with reasonably long intervals between separate occasions of learning
- distribution channel — trade: retailer
- distributive lattice — (theory) A lattice for which the least upper bound (lub) and greatest lower bound (glb) operators distribute over one another so that a lub (b glb c) == (a lub c) glb (a lub b) and vice versa. ("lub" and "glb" are written in LateX as \sqcup and \sqcap).
- diverticular disease — any disease of the colon involving the presence of diverticula
- do someone a service — If you do someone a service, you do something that helps or benefits them.
- docosahexaenoic acid — DHA.
- domestic heating oil — a liquid petroleum product used to fuel residential building furnaces or boilers
- double-aspect theory — a monistic theory that holds that mind and body are not distinct substances but merely different aspects of a single substance
- draw close/draw near — If an event or period of time is drawing closer or is drawing nearer, it is approaching.
- draw the short straw — to be the person (as in drawing lots) to whom an unwelcome task or fate falls
- drum and bugle corps — a marching band of drum players and buglers.
- drunk and disorderly — If someone is charged with being drunk and disorderly, they are charged with being drunk and behaving in a noisy, offensive, or violent way in public.
- duck-billed dinosaur — hadrosaur.
- duck-billed platypus — platypus.
- due process (of law) — the course of legal proceedings established by the legal system of a nation or state to protect individual rights
- dun & bradstreet — an agency furnishing subscribers with information as to the financial standing and credit rating of businesses
- early modern english — the English language represented in printed documents of the period starting with Caxton (1476) and ending with Dryden (1700).
- early sunday morning — a painting (1930) by Edward Hopper.
- eat out of sb's hand — If you have someone eating out of your hand, they are completely under your control.
- edward the confessor — Saint, 1002?–66, English king 1042–66: founder of Westminster Abbey.
- electoral boundaries — the way that a country or area is divided for the purposes of voting in an election
- electrohydrodynamics — (physics) the study of the dynamics of electrically conducting fluid.
- endorsement in blank — an endorsement on a bill of exchange, cheque, etc, naming no payee and thus making the endorsed sum payable to the bearer
- epidural anaesthesia — numbing injection in the spine
- equivalent air speed — the speed at sea level that would produce the same Pitot-static tube reading as that measured at altitude
- essential amino acid — an amino acid that cannot be synthesized in the body and is thus an essential component of the diet
- essential fatty acid — any fatty acid required by the body in manufacturing prostaglandins, found in such foods as oily fish and nuts
- estrela mountain dog — a sturdy well-built dog of a Portuguese breed with a long thick coat and a thick tuft of hair round the neck, often used as a guard dog
- european social fund — one of the four Structural Funds of the European Union which aims to support employment and the economic and social well-being of EU member countries
- every bit as good as — You say that one thing is every bit as good, interesting, or important as another to emphasize that the first thing is just as good, interesting, or important as the second.
- faculty of advocates — the college or society of advocates in Scotland
- fast-breeder reactor — a breeder reactor in which there is no moderator and fission is caused by high-energy neutrons.
- federal constitution — Constitution of the United States.
- federal reserve bank — a U.S. federal banking system that is under the control of a central board of governors (Federal Reserve Board) with a central bank (Federal Reserve Bank) in each of 12 districts and that has wide powers in controlling credit and the flow of money as well as in performing other functions, as regulating and supervising its member banks.
- federal reserve note — a form of paper money issued by a Federal Reserve Bank.
- file descriptor leak — (programming) (Or "fd leak" /F D leek/) A kind of programming bug analogous to a core leak, in which a program fails to close file descriptors ("fd"s) after file operations are completed, and thus eventually runs out of them. See leak.
- five-a-side football — a version of soccer with five players in each team
- fold-and-thrust belt — a linear or arcuate region of the earth's surface that has been subjected to severe folding and thrust faulting
- for sb's delectation — If you do something for someone's delectation, you do it to give them enjoyment or pleasure.
- forbidden transition — an electronic transition in an atom, molecule, etc, that is not permitted by electric dipole selection rules
- force someone's hand — to force someone to act
- force-field analysis — a decision-making technique, often presented graphically, that identifies all the positive and negative forces impinging on a problem
- fore-and-aft topsail — gaff topsail (def 1).
- frederick barbarossa — ("Frederick Barbarossa") 1123?–90, king of Germany 1152–90; king of Italy 1152–90: emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 1152–90.
- fridtjof nansen land — Franz Josef Land.
- friends of the earth — an organization of environmentalists and conservationists whose aim is to promote the sustainable use of the earth's resources
- fundamental constant — a physical constant, such as the gravitational constant or speed of light, that plays a fundamental role in physics and chemistry and usually has an accurately known value
- fundamental research — research carried out to deepen understanding of the fundamental or basic principles of something